Saturday, August 02, 2008

Overnight Train To Bulgaria

Before making our way to the train I went to get myself some turkish delight! While having a look around some turkish guy asked me the time and then proceeded to strike up a conversation about a bar his brother owned in town blah blah blah....anyway he asked if I wanted to go for a beer in the town, which I declined because A. I was on my own and had no idea where I would be going and B. because I was due to get the train shortly. So I politely refused and then this guy started to get angry and said I had played him etc etc it got rather annoying! I said I couldn't see what the roblem was as he was going there anyway and It didn't make a difference if I went as well -- he then started asking for taxi and beer money because I wasn't going which was hilarious and I told him to just get lost. Luckily I managed to eacape him but he seemed a bit of a crackpot!

After that little escapade I dived into a nearby sweet shop which sold a whole array of turkish delight. I couldn't decided on one so I went for a bit of each and ended up with a good selection. Iv'e had a few and their awesome!

Once I got back to the hostel, we set off down the the train station and found out the platform our train was waiting on. We had reserved a sleeping cabin so got directed onto that which seemed ok if a little cramped but it was all good. The beds were ok and there were a few other english/australian people on the same carriage so had a few people to chat to which was cool.

It was fairly difficult to get to sleep and it didn help being woken up to "Passports!" being bellowed at us at a ridiculous time in the morning and thats all the info we got. I was thinking that someone would come on the trin to check but oh no, we has to get off the train in pitch blackness, under a tunnel and join a huge line of people at passport control which was being manned by a single person!!! As you can imagine it took forever until we got to the front and could have easily had another half an hour sleep but whatever!

That wasn't the end to our disruptions either as later someone came on the train to check passports again and then a guy checking baggage also came on so we probably didn't get out of the dream phase of our sleep!

We're now in Sofia, Bulgaria after having a clueless taxi driver bring us to the place we are staying and overcharging us but were here and going to check out what this city has to offer!! x

3 comments:

Dad said...

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your message- sounds as if you are having fun, enjoying the local customs and get involved in many adventures.
We are just waiting on the taxi to go to the airport - so catch you in 2 weeks.
Take care - have fun - Dad x

Anonymous said...

Hello Kev,

Hope you're enjoying your travels, I'm reading the blog with Emilie and she says there should be some pictures, so hope there will be!!

Mary Ann

steviebaby said...

Wow - what a coincidence. I was in Douglas and was also accosted by a crackpot. This was a scouser (was yours?). I was pushing Sorcha's little scooter up the road and this guy asked me for money. He really sounded as if I owed him money. I told him I had no money for him and so the amount he wanted went down and down. First £10 the £5 and eventually he asked for 20 pence. I just said to him "Look, I have kids. Do you really thing I have any money?" He then wandered off.

Well, you'll have to let us know how it all goes in Sofia. I reckon you can get a better massage in Bulgaria!