Bulgaria part 1
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2008
1
12
15
Trip End
Aug 25, 2009
Sofia,
Bulgaria
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Hannah and I went with 3 of our friends to the train station on Friday. This is no simple task when you have fifty pounds of luggage in a hiking pack while taking mass transportation on a Friday evening. We made it to the train station early so we went to a nice restaurant and grabbed dinner. Around 9:30 pm we boarded our train and tried to find our cabins, but the train clerk had written everything so poorly that we had no idea what train car we were supposed to be on, let alone which cabin. We bounced from car to car for about 15 minutes until we found a conductor who could help us. Of course, he could not speak English or Turkish, and he could only read the Cyrillic alphabet, which made it difficult. Peter, thankfully spoke enough Russian to establish that our reservations had been double booked so it looked as though all five of us were going to have to share a cabin for three. Now, I should take a moment to describe what a sleeper cabin on this particular train was like. Image a room four feet wide, six feet long, and about 8 feet high. On one wall every 2 ½ feet there is three beds that pull down and lock in place for sleeping. They are about 5 feet long, and two feet wide. Considering we all had enough luggage to last a week, five of us were looking at a trip that was approaching new levels of ridiculousness.
The first couple of hours went by reasonably well, but soon the fact that we had 16 hours in this little room started to weigh on us. The novelty of the situation wore off, and peter and I went to speak to the conductor to see what could be done. As I spoke no Russian, I was there for moral support, and to get out of the room. The conductor sympathized with us, and seemed exceedingly sad that we had no Vodka to pass the time. He mentioned that fact several times, as if a bottle of Grey Goose would have solved all our problems. He liked Peter for some reason so promised to do his best to make amends. After another couple of hours he came to the cabin and said that right next door their was a woman who was sleeping in a room with 2 empty beds that we could use. This was great news, if not four hours late. Rachel and Barbra left creating a feeling of more space. It was now 2am and Hannah and the girls went to sleep, but Peter and I decided to stay awake until the border, as it was rumored that we would have to get off the train and wait in the cold (apparently something most unusual for eastern European countries). Sure enough, we were taken off the train at 4am and made to walk across the tracks, in the dark, and stand in line with about a hundred other passengers. Naturally, there was only one Border officer working, so the process took well over an hour.
I should take a moment to say that the woman that Rachel and Barbra were staying with was going to Serbia to sell items that she had purchased in Turkey. She had around 25 bags of merchandise which was strewn all over the train carriage floor, packed in her bed, and shoved into any corner possible. Their room looked like the Cat in the Hat had showed up for a few hours, and refused to clean up. Of course, the border officers search the train as well as the cargo, and anything over a certain amount has to be verified with receipts and taxed accordingly. They looked through everything, which took another hour and I had the privilege of seeing a border officer being bribed with cash. Around 6am, we started to move and I fell asleep until around 10am and spent the next four hours looking out the window at the Bulgarian countryside. It is a beautiful but impoverished country with clear indications of communist rule. The cities have massive concrete housing complexes and many of the government buildings share the same depressingly grey hue. 16 hours from the time we left Istanbul, we rolled into Sophia, exchanged some money at the train station (bad idea) and started walking. We got a really bad exchange rate, around 65% of our lira to the Bulgarian Lava. Exchange spots get away with this by not posting their sell rate, which I failed to notice. They post a buy rate of 90% which was what I was looking at. Luckily we only exchanged 200 lira and a majority of our money we were able to get a much fairer rate.
The walk to the apartment was pretty unremarkable. We got turned around a few times, and got there after a few hours. Everyone was in need of a shower and stiff drink. All alcohol in Bulgaria is very cheep, so while the girls showered, Peter and I went in search of a bottle of Sobieski, a great vodka, which we paid ten lava for. Back at the apartment, which was three bedrooms with a full kitchen we reflected on the trip thus far. Looking out the fourth story window, we noticed that there was an enormous mountain range that we had an amazing view of. Everyone showered and refreshed we left in search of food and good times.
