Journey of Biblically Hot Proportions

For our last night in Thessaloniki we went out to find a local restaurant recommended by the hostel we were staying in to try some local dishes. This ended up being a mega meat feast which filled the entire 4 seater table with plates of meats in various forms including chips, salad and bread. We were a bit like Michael Jackson in his Martin Bashir documentary pointing at different items and saying "one of them, two of them etc", because the meats were per piece and super cheap nit could have fed a family of 8 easy! We both made a good effort but I'm sad to report back that we were defeated by our meal monstrosity and waddled back to our hostel totally full.

The following day we didn't do much as it was baking outside and we were due to get the 5pm train to Belgrade. We had a good wash and chilled out in the hostel until it was time to head off. We met up with a girl at the hostel who was also getting the same train so all set off together to get the bus. The gut at the hostel had said that all the buses on the main road go to the bus station, as did the bus we jumped on the previous day so we just lugged our stuff onto the next bus that pulled in. It soon became apparent once we turned off into the wrong direction that this was not the case, which was confirmed by a local on the bus. - we felt a bit silly but now we were running out of time to get our train. Fortunately I spotted a taxi heading our way so waved my hands about to hail him over and we were back on track in no time.

To say the train was roasting hot would be an understatement, I've been in colder saunas! I felt like I was totally burning up and someone had a flame thrower held to my face. It was a god send when at the next station we spotted a tap on the platform and rushed out to soak ourselves and get our temperature down a bit. In fact we mostly stayed outside while other locals were boarding and kept splashing ourselves with water to keep cool.

The heat only lasted a couple of hours and for the rest of the journey we made a refreshing air tunnel through our cabin. At one point we stopped at a station and Woody went to get some air, so sat on the trains steps dangling his feet. I'm gutted I missed this but the train started moving again without any warning with Woody sat precariously dangling his feet over the side of the train - I can imagine he totally crapped himself haha.

When we got to Belgrade we dropped off our bags at a luggage place and went to get a beer just to get something refreshing after that journey, we didn't care that it was actually 9am in the morning we deserved it. We were also in desperate need of a wash as I'm sure we smelt as disgusting as we looked so got a map and wandered over to the nearest park which luckily had some taps so we could have a wash with the local hobo's and make ourselves feel half decent.

Armed with a map of Belgrade we set out to see the sights and made ourselves a little walking tour heading towards the fortress, which was lovely and had amazing views across the capital and river.

We had missed the Everton match due to being on the train (not like it mattered in the end) but Woody is an Arsenal supporter so we went to try and find somewhere showing the game. The best place we managed to find was a bookies across the road from the station, but it wasn't too bad and they had a bar which cost 50p a pint - we'll have some of that!

For dinner we again over ordered and had bruschetta, salad and pizza which I was unable finish and took away in a doggy bag. Although I didn't want it myself I thought I would treat some of the local homeless people in and around the park we had washed in earlier and had no problem locating enough to give away my 5 slices.

It was then another night spent on a train to Zagreb in Croatia, which meant making the most of the baby wipes we bought to have a good clean as we were without the luxury of a shower for a second night. The train got into Zagreb and the stupid hour of 4am so we strapped on our bags and went to find our hostel. We were going to walk there but asked a policeman for directions and told us it would take an hour which then didn't seem so appealing. He pointed us in the direction of the tram and as not wanting to be caught out again asked how we paid for it - to which he responded nahh just get on, it's early so won't matter. After which we rather reluctantly got on the tram hoping that we weren't going to be stopped and demanded to pay some ludicrous fine. I'm glad to report back we didn't and successfully found the hostel.