Beyond Sofıa

*Travel*

Lest I get too carried away with bigging-up Bulgaria, my 1st-class Sofia-Istanbul sleeper is slightly inferior to my 2nd class Belgrade-Sofia sleeper. The middle bunk is chained to the wall at an angle, all of the power sockets work as specified (i.e. There aren't any) and there's no bog paper in the loo.

Fortunately, my appropriately named bum bag has a stash from past festivals, most recently the Brecon Jazz Festival (swiped from Sue and Chris's house and now swiped again)!

Next I remember that sleeper trains don't provide towels, and I forgot to buy one in Sofia. Damn!

Later I discover one can either swelter or open the window, with smells each time the toilet has been used. So, suffocating either way, then.

To recap a little, the hotel didn't make it obvious enough how to access the internet (what do you mean, blokes should ask for directions?) so I haven't booked ahead. I'll be arriving in the morning, so I have all day to find a nice place.

Me and my trouser legs saw the inside of the Alexander Levski church, had sushi for lunch, and walked down to the strip of blue on the city map. It turns out to be a small thing somewhere between a storm drain and an open sewer (charitably, more the former than the latter).

I fail to find a pizzeria to repeat my trick of last time. Instead, I eat at the hotel and they put the remainder of my delicious steak in a doggy-bag (actually two plates cling-filmed together - good for them).

I have to say I'd advise anyone coming to Serbia, Bulgaria or similar to learn the Cyrillic letter sounds. With Bruno's help I can now make out restaurant, beer, Moscow and sometimes internet. I also know that narodny means 'national'.

The train arrives at the time it should leave, i.e. an hour and three quarters late. However, they're pretty slippy at shunting an extra 3 cars on the front including, sadly, mine. We leave only 20 mins late.

Starting to learn, I ask where the border checks happen. Sadly, it's 01:20 to 01:55 in Svilengrad for leaving Bulgaria but 02:20 to 03:30 in Kapikule for entering Turkey. Joy! Another restful night sleeper. This time I think "blow the alarm, let them wake me when they want me."

But of course I'm awake anyway. I think I forgot to say how impressed I was with the Bulgarian Border police on the way in - walking through swiftly with a laptop and saying "passport check" to me but the same in French to the guys next door. They were fine on the way out too.

The Turkish could hardly be more different. We arrived at Kapikule about an hour late, and then nothing happened for an hour. Then all the doors got knocked on and between 4:30 and 5:30am everyone had to get off the train and queue for a single guy behind a window to check our passports, one by one.

When I got to the front of the queue he said I needed a visa, so I had to find a lady behind a window in a separate building. The guys in front there didn't have the necessary 15 Euros and got sent away to find some (how? In the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night??)
I was never so glad to have a single 50 Euro note left over from work in Holland! It made 100% (1000%) difference to my ability to crawl back to bed (not sleep) and forget about it all.

Whilst queuing my tummy, which has stood up so well so far, finally turns "dodgy" (And obviously "the train is standing in a station"). I suspect a glass of water kindly provided by the waiter at the hotel, which I thought it'd be OK to risk as I'd had no problems so far. The price of (tummy) peace is eternal vigilance! :-((

I take an Immodium tablet, but this time it isn't quite the "miracle cure" I've appreciated in the past.

Obviously, about half an hour later another couple of blokes had to come through re-doing the passport check. We leave the standard two hours late.

Finally, I get a couple of hours sleep before it's bright sun outside and I have to concede. All of this laying down doing nothing is killing me. I dream of hiding in a nice quiet hotel (loo).
Once the sun is well up, the temperature of the compartment starts to rise, window or no. Scandinavia next, I think.