Plan and Schedule

Next destination is Amsterdam. We will meet up with my friends, and then go to Paris to meet up with Sahe's friend. For the first time in three and a half months of traveling, we actually have an itinerary to keep that involves others. We have nine days to travel 2,200km (1,300miles). What a good chance to see if we are still capable of planning and keeping a schedule.　We decided to leave Turkey earlier than originally planned to, and started structuring a route. Serbia, or Romania? How about Czech, or Croatia, or even Poland? We have too little knowledge about Eastern Europe, and so any place appeared appealing. We finally agreed on Beograd in Serbia, Budapest in Hungary, and Vienna in Austria, each for two nights. Train rides included 20 hours to Beograd, and 12 by highspeed trains from Vienna to Amsterdam.

 

Tram in Sofia

The first night train, Balkan Express, rides on the same rail as the famous Orient Express that no longer is in service. We boarded the train and our cabin, the second class sleeper with six beds, was already occupied by three others. However, the entire car was otherwise empty, and so we were luckily given an entire cabin to ourselves. We arrived the Bulgarian border at 3:00 in the morning as per scheduled, and we got off in the cold platform for a quick passport control. The Bulgarian entry procedure was done in the car two hours later. Around noon, we arrived Sofia station and the conductor announced for everyone to get off. Apparently the 20 minute delay made the car miss the connection, and so it had to wait for the next train bound for Beograd. So we spent not-planned seven hours at the capital, and the boarded the same car with our luggage still in its place.

Seven hours later, our car was sitting on the track with no power

Trying to keep in time with already delayed schedule, we decided not to spend any nights at Beograd, and enjoy a half-day visit. Unfortunately, we did not come across any queens of tennis, but were amazed by how developed the city was, despite constant battling for unification and independence until recent years. There were some destroyed building left untouched to remind people about the war, but everything else was as calm as Donau River.

We hopped on another night train that same night, and this time we tried out the eight-seater box seat. We arrive Budapest at six in the morning, and with our luck we successfully found a guestroom with a vacancy. With a couple hours of nap, we were back on track with our schedule.