Author: travurple

Monday (26th June) check out of our accommodation, a 10 minute walk back to the rail station, it’s only 9am but it’s getting hot already. The train was the standard 30 mins late, this time we think the delay is because of works on the track between Bar and Podgorica.

Our reserved seats are in an open seated carriage, rather than a six birth compartment. Again our seats were already taken, so this time we decided to just sit somewhere else. Especially as our reserved seat were facing backwards. A nice chap moved seats so we could sit together. A 10 hour journey returning to Beograd all in one go. Our carriage was a little older than the last one, the windows were mucky and steamed up, so it was not as easy to see the stunning views.

We were about 20 minutes late arriving in Beograd, but our AirBnB host had offered an station pick up (for a price) but this was much appreciated!

Tuesday, we walked through the back streets of Belgrade to the waterfront on the River Sava, the old border between the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires, there is now lots of building work happening, mainly new apartment blocks. We then wandered to St Sava church, the largest Orthodox Christian Church in the world, an impressive building and a beautiful gold interior. We ended the day with dinner with one of our fellow travellers, before he flew home the following day.

Wednesday, started off as a wet day, so we had a lazy start, before walking to Belgrade Fortress and the surrounding park. our fellow traveller had recommended a pizza place, so we headed there for dinner, it was indeed a very good pizza! Made with good quality ingredients by a passionate chef, it was a tiny place, we were the only people there, and Rog watched the pizza being made.

Thursday

So we have a flight from Beograd to London Luton with Wizzair, so arranged a transfer to the airport with our AirBnB hosts, not the cheapest option, but definitely the easiest one, he came to the flat to pick us up.

The take off was delayed due to air traffic control congestion over Croatia (no idea what was happening to cause that), but after nearly an hour the pilot informed us that our flight had been rerouted north to avoid Croatian airspace. Despite Wizzair wanting to charge us for seats together, we refused to pay, and on check in got seat 19D and 34D, when everyone had boarded, the rest of row 34 was empty, so we moved together.

The interrail journey in figures:

10,076 Kms (trains)

90 Days

54 Trains (incl. 2 Sleeper trains)

42 Different accommodations (incl 2 sleeper trains)

30 1/2 Books read (Nic x 30, Rog x 1/2 unless we include the European Rail Timetable!)

15 Countries (England, France, Switzerland, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia (twice), North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro (twice) and Bosnia)

11 Buses

5 Boats (incl 2 where the train went on the ferry to/from Sicily)

3 pairs of trainers (Rog x 2, Nic x 1)

2 hair cuts (both Rog)

0 Work! (Sorry)

Friday, started with unpacking and getting some washing done, we also returned to Beverley to take Rog’s new rucksack back to Millets, as one of the main shoulder straps had started to split, Millets replaced it no questions asked.

Saturday, Rog crewed for his brother, who cycled with a mate from Pocklington to Whitby, 65 miles and lots of uphill! Rog was glad to be driving.

Nic went to a matinee performance of ‘Six’ a musical about Henry VIII six wives in York. We met up later for drinks and a curry.

Sunday, recovered from the drinks, Rog and his Brother went to watch our nephew play cricket. Nic started some of the jobs we had agreed to for family whilst we are around

Monday (19th June) checked out of our accommodation, stood outside attempting to call a taxi, using the local app, but not managing it, thankfully our host came out and offered to order us a taxi, which turned up in 5 mins. We needed a taxi, because despite being walking distance from Sarajevo’s main bus station. The bus we need to Belgrade (‘Beograd’) was going from Sarajevo East Bus Station, 7.5 Kms east of the city centre. Sarajevo was updating its transport infrastructure, so no trams were working. We were nice and early for the bus, so managed to pay the ‘bus station tax’ (??) and get a coffee before the mini bus turned up for our 8 hr trip!

The mini bus was a pleasant trip, being used like a local bus, picking up and dropping at what seemed like random places, but the bus was never overcrowded, and stopped at couple of cafes for 20/30 minutes. We arrived in Belgrade about on time, then had a 20min walk to our accommodation. Another AirBnB, it had to be said a slightly old and decrepit one. Rog ran the kitchen tap, at first the sink didn’t drain, then it did in to the cupboard underneath, the pipes were not connected properly!! We informed the host, and just told them we wouldn’t use the kitchen sink, we were only going to be there 2 nights. Turns out the host was on holiday in Greece, so he apologised and sent a nice photo of a Greek sunset!! One to notch up to experience.

Tuesday, Belgrade is another city updating its transport infrastructure, all trains now leave from Beograd Centar train station and neither of the two old stations. As Nic’s foot was still not great, Rog went for walk to the rail station, to get seat reservations for the next part of the trip, doing the scenic train route through Serbia and Montenegro. After 1/2 hr in the international train office Rog managed to get the reservations we needed, with no English spoken and yes, Serbia is the only language you can’t download offline in Google Translate, and there is no mobile signal in the station, but got there eventually, and only time will tell if it worked!

Went out to dinner at the restaurant on the corner, very close to the apartment. Rog ordered cevapici (sausage shaped meat balls) and got 10 with 5 chips! Big chips but only 5 of them. Nic ordered Pljeskavica (meat patty) which was huge and got slightly more chips!

Wednesday, we had a hot walk to the station for the train to Uzice, about 4hrs (the train not the walk)! , the reservations sort of worked, a lady was sitting in one of our seats, but the two seats opposite were empty, so we sat there until she got off after about 1 1/2hrs. Then moved and spread out a bit! A short walk to our accommodation. The door was open, and there was an honesty box for the cash in the hall, we never saw anybody!

We had no reason to visit Uzice, we’d never heard of it before, but it was on the scenic rail line and we could get some nice/cheap accommodation, so we planned a stop!

Another dinner out where the portion sizes were ridiculous, Nic ordered the local dish Karadjordjeva, and got twice what you would expect, before we ordered we’d laughed at what we now realise was a only half portions being delivered to a table of older ladies, the half portions still looked big.

Thursday, Nic’s foot was doing a lot better, so we planned a walk along an old railway line to the ‘Great Dam’, an enjoyable walk out of the city, thankfully there was plenty of shade, because it was a hot day.

Friday, back on the train from Uzice to Podgorica (Montenegro) the train was coming from Beograd, and was 30mins late arriving, once on board, found that one of our reserved seats was occupied, we were just working out what to do, when the conductor arrived asked if everything was ok, checked out ticket and threw the guy and all his luggage out of our reserved seat. It’s scheduled for 7 hrs so we were pleased to get our seats. The train kept the 30 min delay through Serbia, but because of the 40min scheduled stop at the border, and a quick passport check leaving Serbia, we were back on time. 40 minutes later we had the Montenegro passport control, still all good. Then at the next station everything ground to a halt in an amazing thunder and lightening storm! There was some brief explanation given, which we did not understand, then the conductor got off the train and sat at the station cafe drinking coffee and smoking. From the multi lingual rumours on the train, there was either no electricity in the overhead power line, or a problem with a goods train ahead of us on the tracks or both! Anyway after 1hr 30 mins we were on our way again. About ten minutes before we got moving again, 2 Swedish passengers in our compartment declared they were getting a taxi as we could be stuck there all night! It gave us more room in our compartment, and we chatted a bit more with our remaining travel companions.

The scenery from the train was spectacular, the further south we got, the more spectacular it seemed to get, we are definitely glad we have done the route.

We arrived in Podgorica about an hour and half late, attempting to keep our accommodation host up to date with our progress, which was not easy given the number of tunnels, causing issues with both the mobile phone signal and also the GPS, so we didn’t know exactly where we were.

A 10min walk to the accommodation, then Rog had to run out to the local bank to get some € to pay!

Saturday, we had a walk around the city centre, it’s not very big, we have to keep reminding ourselves that Podgorica is the capital city of Montenegro. We stopped for coffee and cake at a little art gallery in the old town.

For dinner we had pizza, whilst watching attempts to install a new sun canopy on the café opposite, we finished our dinner and left, they were still trying! A couple of hours later a huge thunder storm arrived, which lasted several hours, we did think of the guys potentially still up ladders trying to secure their new sun shade!

Sunday, walked to, and around the local park, nice view over the city and also the surrounding hills. Had coffee, near the cafe with the new sun canopy to see if it had been finished, they were still working on it, but a couple of the men were sitting under the main section, so they obviously had confidence in their work.

W/c 19 June

2 trains

468 Kms

Totals

51 trains

9,726 Kms

Monday (12 June)

An early start for a 6:10 bus from Bar, Montenegro to Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. A 6hr journey, with a few stops, and yes, some people ended up standing for some of the journey. It was a nice surprise to see a couple of people who were on our last bus ride, get on this bus too. It’s a small world! The border crossing was OK, not the fastest, but OK.

Our AirBnB host intended to meet us at the bus station, but we were a little delayed, so we arranged to make our own way to the flat.

On leaving the bus, we made plans to meet up with our fellow travellers from the bus, on Tuesday evening.

The AirBnB was great, the host’s granddaughter was waiting for us outside the house, and acted as a fabulous translator, aged 12!

We went for a wander around Mostar, the AirBnB is only 20mins walk from the old bridge.

Tuesday

We headed for a longer walk around Mostar, calling at the Partisan Memorial Cemetery, St Mary’s Cathedral, Lucki Bridge.

Met our fellow travellers for ice cream, drinks and dinner, a huge plate of grilled meat, bread, salad and sour cream to share.

Wednesday,

Nic had some insect bites on her feet, so did want to walk far today, so had a ‘lazy’ day, Rog went for another stroll around the old town.

Thursday

Despite the fact that it was predicted to rain all day, Our AirBnB host insisted we should go and see the Dervish Monastery, we kindly agreed and took up the offer. However by the time we got in the car and set off, with her granddaughter translating, she was going to take us to:

A bridge older than the old bridge in Mostar and the bird sanctuary

It did indeed rain all day, and after the 4 1/2 hr trip was over, we had also been to a mosque and another church.

All really interesting places, and we would not have managed to see any of them by ourselves. A truly remarkable host! The flat was £25 per night, and we did leave some extra cash, as she wouldn’t even let us pay for any entrance fees or the coffee and Fig cake we stopped for!

In the three days we had been there she had also provided fresh herb tea (she’d been collecting mountain herbs that day), home produced honey, a bottle of wine, and 1/2 litre of raki, for Rog to drink and Nic to put on her insect bites.

We then headed to the train station for the evening train to Sarajevo. Our fellow travellers were also on the train!

The conductors on the train did not like our Interrail Passes, and said that we should have been to the ticket office, after we told them we had been to the ticket office, where we were told we didn’t need a reservation, they shrugged their shoulders, and moved on.

A short walk in the rain to our accommodation, another well equipped flat, including a washing machine to be able to keep on top of the laundry!

Friday

Another rainy day, but went for a walk to Sarajevo old town, due to the weather it was relatively quiet. We passed the Eternal Flame, a World War II memorial. The cathedral, the old bazaar. Stopping at ‘Wine Not’ for a drink then ‘Eat Me’ for a burger. Found out that ‘eat’ in Bosnian is ‘Jedi’ !

Saturday

We had a later start today, walked south of the river, past the university, across the Latin Bridge to the site of the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand. To the city hall, towards the Sarajevo brewery, St Anthony’s church, then back the old bazaar for traditional Bosnian coffee and baklava. Unexpectedly large pieces of baklava in this case!

We then met our fellow travellers again for drinks and dinner at ‘the Singing Nettle’ restaurant, which served traditional Bosnian food, lots of which did indeed include nettles. We ordered dishes to share between the four of us, as they were all so good.

Sunday

Nic’s insect bites still not completely healed, so rested up for the day. Rog went out for a walk to the Yellow and White fortresses, back along the river.

W/E 18 June

Only 1 train and 129 Kms

Total

49 trains

9,258 Kms

Monday (5th June)

We got a boat trip down lake Ohrid to the St Naum Monastery, at the southern tip of the lake.

Past the bay of bones, a reconstruction of an old settlement whose homes were on wooden piles driven into the lake floor. As the museum is closed on Monday, we continued straight to the Monastery landing jetty.

We walked a 2km circuit around the springs of lake Ohrid, past the Holy Mother of God Church.

Had lunch over looking the lake, then visited the Monastery, with peacocks in the grounds. Had an ice cream.

Then got the boat back to Ohrid, a nice ‘holiday’ day out!

Tuesday, we walked up to Samuel’s fortress, through the park, back down on to the Bridge of wishes. We visited the paper museum, hand made paper and printing pictures on a replica of the Gutenberg press.

Wednesday, we had an early start to catch the bus to Tirana in Albania.

We stayed in a lovely family run hotel, more like a cafeteria with rooms, near the local university but was nicely done out. After dropping our bags off, we walked into the city centre, and were really surprised by the modern architecture, we were not expecting that!

We had dinner in the Cafeteria, a beer, homemade red wine, main meal with bread and pasticia (local type of pasta bake!) for the total price of £9!

Thursday, back into the city centre, we walked via the Tanner’s Bridge, the Grand Park of Tirana, And government buildings, which were surrounded by security, as the President of Estonia was in town, we asked one of the security detail.

We had lunch in a restaurant in the old castle, which sounds grander than it is! Had a local set menu, lots of courses, and we ate too much. It was all very good.

Friday another early start to catch a bus to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. A grumpy old driver who shouted at people, and threw bags around, when people queried the 2 Euro charge being levied to put bags into the hold. Nic was holding a 5 Euro note ready to pay for our bags. Other passengers then distracted the driver as he was giving Nic her ticket for our bags, and before we knew it we were on the bus and Nic still had the 5 Euro note in hand! We sat tight and the driver didn’t seem to notice!

The town before before the border, a lot more people got on the bus, standing room only, or actually sitting room in the isle, they were all young western travelers! Aussie, Kiwi, Americans.

The border was the same mix of somebody collecting passports, disappearing with them all, coming back and handing all of them to the first person on the bus! To find their passport and pass them back, thankfully before we got the pile, one of the Americans, did a roll call and handed them out. But we then had to get off the bus with our passports and attend the booth, so we had no idea what the first collection was about. Everybody back on the bus, then drive 100m and everyone off the bus again this time to enter Montenegro.

The bus ride was quite sociable, with lots of chat due to the close proximity of other passengers, one sitting on Nic’s feet and leaning against her legs.

We got off the bus at Podgorica, giving up our seats to those continuing to Kotor.

We had a flat with a lovely sunset view in Podgorica. We were met by our host and did a quick load of washing to go out on the balcony to dry. Then headed into town for a stroll to find a cash point which did not charge to withdraw cash, ( 5 machines later!), and do some grocery shopping at the local mall on the way back.

Saturday, we headed via a few notable buildings to the local park, a very hot day, but a lovely walk followed by lunch in the town. We shared a Tomahawk steak and side dishes with a glass or two of wine. As we were about to pay the thunder and lightning started followed by the rain, so we had a digestif before, risking the walk with our trusty brollies at the ready.

Sunday, back on a train, from Podgorica to Bar, still in Montenegro, a busy train lots of people heading to the beach. In Bar our accommodation was just opposite the rail station and the bus station. Our first job on arrival was to get bus tickets for Monday, but they would only take cash, we had some cash € but not enough, so we had to walk into town to find a cash point. Back to the bus station with more cash to get tickets to Mostar in Bosnia & Herzegovina, but that’s for next week’s blog.

After securing our bus tickets, we could not be bothered to walk back to town again for dinner. Luckily there was a place just round the corner, local barbecue restaurant. As we arrived Novak Djokovic was just winning the French Open, and there were several locals gathered round the TV.

We found a table and ordered a drink. The chef/ waiter spoke very little English, but with the aid of a photo of their menu on Google maps, we managed to order some chicken, cevapici (local meat sausage shaped patties), salad and some bread. There were no frills, but boy was it good, fresh, tasty and tenth of the price of the meal the day before !!

W/E 11June

1 train

56 Kms

Total so far

48 trains

9,129 Kms

Monday (29th May)

We went to the bus station to buy tickets for tomorrow’s trip to Skopje, North Macedonia.

Then we investigated the local market, bought some strawberries, which turned out not to be great, very disappointing.

We visit Nis Fortress, built in the 18th century.

Tuesday, headed back to the bus station for the bus to Skopje in North Macedonia, an interesting journey, through the centre of some towns we would otherwise not have seen. Another easy border crossing, they even put the two passport control booths next to each other, rather than 100m apart.

In Skopje we had a 20 minute walk to our hotel in the old Bazaar area of the city. Went for a walk to find a drink and dinner, ended up in the Brewery tap!

Wednesday, we headed to the south of the river, through Macedonia Square. Skopje had suffered major damage in an earthquake in 1963, after which the city was rebuilt in a predominantly modern style. However in the square and along the river there are buildings, built in the past 10 years, which look very grand, and copied from different architectural styles/eras, together with a lot of very large statues and fountains, giving it a slightly surreal feel.

We walked via St Clement of Ohrid’s church, toward the city park and the national stadium.

We returned to the hotel along the river, via the Fortress, which has not been restored, so it is overgrown with wildflowers. It also has smashing views over the city from the top of the walls.

Headed out for dinner to find a restaurant called “An” on the map. It looked like it was in the middle of a large block, we had to walk around the block before finding an entrance, but still no signs for the restaurant, we finally found it and was worth the hunt. A lovely local restaurant, Nic had courgette moussaka, Rog had veal meatballs in an onion and rice sauce!

Thursday, we walked around the old bazaar, then via a couple of small parks, containing lots more statues, then along the river in the other direction.

Lunch sitting watching the world go by on Macedonia Square.

Friday Skopje to Bitola train, one of our busier trains, there are only three trains a day, and it looked like lots of people were using it to do their shopping. According to the interrail app there should have only been 5 stops, but there were lots more than that. At nearly every stop someone stepped off (or just hung out of the door) to smoke, even for just a few seconds!!

From where we were sitting we could see the on board toilet, before we even left Skopje a teenager had used it, and had to call his friends, because they arrived and prised the door open, as he obviously could get the door open from the inside. For the rest for the journey people (including the conductors) either couldn’t open it from the outside, or couldn’t lock it from the inside. Hours of fun watching families guard the door, and stand poised in case the door suddenly popped open when in use.

It never actually rained whilst we on the train, but we watched a very impressive lightning storm over the Mountains in the distance.

We also saw whole fields of poppies and storks in the fields, another journey with lots to see.

As we were only in Bitola overnight, we booked a private room in a hostel near the rail and bus stations. It had mixed reviews!! It was very old and a bit odd, the chap who ran it was really welcoming, the beds were clean and the shower was hot, we only paid £19 for the night! So can’t really complain.

After grabbing a burger at a roadside cafe, we walked into the town centre. We were surprised by the number of people walking around and the number of bars and restaurants, all doing a brisk trade.

Saturday, to the bus station for a bus to Ohrid, the bus left 10mins late but the driver took up the challenge and arrived 20mins early in Ohrid, it was only supposed to be an 1hr 48m journey anyway!

On the outskirts of Ohrid there were lots of cars packed on both sides for the road, everyone was at the cemetery, but it was not a funeral, it was just lots of people visiting lots of different graves. Maybe a traditional thing for a Saturday, or maybe a special date? We never solved the mystery.

We checked in to our “booking.com” apartment, a grand total of £61 for 4 nights, so £15 per night, our cheapest so far. It is a great little place, a bedroom upstairs, a kitchenette and shower room downstairs.

Did some shopping, at the supermarket and the local market.

And an early night, as Rog had not slept well in the hostel!

Sunday, we were rudely awoken at 7:20 by what we first thought was a Heavy Metal Band practice, we later discovered that today is the Ohrid half marathon, which started at 8am and the Band was the warm up act! The loud music continued until 12:30, supporting the runners. We headed down to see some of the action.

In the afternoon, we walked along “The Bridge of Wishes” a slight dodgy boardwalk along the edge of the lake.

Went to the Church of St John, around the outside of the fortress, passed the ancient theatre, the Church of St Sophia and back to the flat.

This week’s trains, or should we say train!

1 train

178kms

Total

47 Trains

9,073 Kms

Monday (21st May)

Our friend was leaving us today to fly back home, so after depositing them in a taxi, at the local taxi rank, we finalised our packing and got a taxi back to the train station. The taxi driver was asking where we were going by train, when we told him Plovdiv, he offered to drive us there in an hour. We declined and got the slow train, no reservations required, which took 3hrs 43 mins, we are, after all, on an interrail trip.

The train stopped at nearly every station on the way, our stop was number 34! At some of the “stops”, you can’t call them stations, there was absolutely nothing there, not even a platform, let alone a “station”. Rog helped an older gentleman man with a crutch, and a shopping trolley, get off the train at one of these “stops”, the gentleman then headed across a field, heading to who knows where, the 1930’s we suspect.

We had a 20 minute walk to our AirBnB in Plovdiv, a nicely appointed flat, a little bit 1980 retro, lots of primary red detailing, but large and clean. Only one pan, a large frying pan, which gave Nic a pleasing culinary challenge. Good job one pot wonders are a speciality.

Tuesday. Our first mission of the day was to see if we could buy tickets for a couple of music events we had spotted online, for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. We succeeded in finding the ticket office, a small old fashioned ticket booth in the main square, paying a total of BGN100 (£44) for 2 tickets each.

Plovdiv, as one of the oldest inhabited cities in Europe, means you pass, at every turn, Roman ruins, even in the basement of some shops! We also headed towards the “Old Town” which paradoxically was full of 18th Century houses, preserved as museums. Beautiful buildings in peaceful cobbled streets.

Next we visited the Large Basilica, no longer a church, but the mosaic floors of the old church, now preserved by the building of a what looks like a warehouse over the entire site. Discovered when building works were taking place. On entry you had to use a machine which vacuum packed your feet, so you didn’t take any dirt on to the site. Very intricate mosaics from two different eras of the church laid on top of each other. Fantastic mosaics, many of birds, none of which we photographed as we were too mean to pay the fee to do so !

We had an early dinner so we could attend the first of our music events. A choral concert in the small basilica, essentially another mosaic floor in situ under a smaller warehouse. Sneakily photographed by Rog under the glass floor! The choir ‘Gaudeamus’ were very good. The audience was made up of lots of family members, many carrying a couple of long stemmed flowers, it seems to be a tradition in Bulgaria for most occasions.

Wednesday, we headed out and came across a large procession of school children of all ages, with church bells ringing out. Later we found out that today is a public holiday in Bulgaria, St Cyril and Methodius Day, Cyril as in the Cyrillic alphabet! We walked back to the “Old Town” as following more research, we worked out that we’d missed a few of the houses. We also found the Ancient Theatre, the venue for the nights concert. So we would be back there later.

We then walked to see the “singing fountain” set in a park, but not singing today. We sat in a cafe and were fascinated by what we assumed was a bride and groom having photos taken, the “bride’s” dress had an enormous hooped skirt, and was a dramatic dark blue!!

We walked up the local hill to a large statue, with views over the city, partly as it was in the same direction as the supermarket for more supplies.

After dinner we headed back to the Ancient Theatre for a concert of Vivaldi works, the Ancient Theatre is a Roman outdoor amphitheater. The concert was wonderful, despite the musicians struggling to keep hold of their music in the wind, and various cars and motorbikes rallying around the area outside the theatre, blowing their horns and revving engines, which appeared to be a bank holiday tradition!

There was also some fun people watching at the concert, one family decided to keep their child’s not unsubstantial sized bike with them, despite sitting in the very middle of the seating. Also a teenaged guy purposefully marched right across the seating area disturbing everyone, whilst carrying two drinks and a guitar case across his back, but when he arrived at his intended destination, a woman with a very distinctive green coat. It appeared as if he’d got the wrong woman and had to march all the way back again, we never saw him again!

The concert was wonderful as it included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, although it did include an audio visual display in Bulgarian which went mostly over our heads!

Thursday, the original plan had been to head towards Turkey, as we needed to leave the EU, due to complicated rules about the validity of a UK passport, which had been issued for more than 10 years. Anyway given the Turkish election on Sunday, we decided to head towards the rest of the Non-EU Balkans, starting with Serbia. So we got the train back west to Sofia.

In various countries we have seen flocks of animals, goats, sheep and cows in fields, usually with a shepherd and at least a couple of dogs. Out of the train window we spotted the usual flock, but the shepherd was sitting watching his flock from the drivers seat of a large, old Mercedes car in the middle of the field! After a few hours an older lady joined us in our carriage. When she realised our Bulgarian was not up to much she decided to read the station names out for us. And with sign language made it clear what she thought about graffiti on trains! We waved her goodbye as she headed off with her shopping trolley, a few stops before us, towards the local Lidl.

Friday, as there are currently no trains between Sofia and Serbia, due to upgrading of the tracks. This means an early bus for us from Sofia to Nis, Serbia’s second city. Thankfully we’re able to check in to our AirBnB early as we arrived in Nis at 10:30. A nice flat on the banks of the river 5 mins walk from the centre of town for only £29 per night! The only drawback we found is the Greek restaurant next door playing music until 1am!!

Saturday, walked through the city park, visited the Skull Tower, a gruesome relic from the Ottoman Empire, built using the skulls of their fallen enemies.

Visited the Cathedral, but there was a wedding party gathering so we didn’t go inside.

Walked down ‘Tinker’s Alley’, we imagined small local shops selling handmade crafts, nope it was just full of bars and cafes. Apparently it once was the centre of tin working but sadly no more.

Tried the local pastries one called, ‘Burek’ , filo pastry stuffed with cheese and spinach, and a sweet dough roll stuffed with cherry jam, both lovely! This part of the world does have a lot of pastry shops, virtually one on every corner. Up until today we had done well to resist!

Sunday, we set off walking to Bubanj park, to see a famous monument, the park is on the edge of the city, so we had a fair walk to get there. We ended up taking a very small overgrown path through the east side of the park, before arriving at the said monument.

We also visited the old monument in the same park, then plotted a route back to the flat. We ended up down a farm track, with lots of green in the middle, and evidence of horse and cart use. We were slightly unsure but we kept walking, and it did finally turn into a road and lead us back to the city. We only had to shelter from the rain once! It was not supposed to rain today.

Ended the day with a beer at the Irish bar, just on the other side of the river from the flat, we would not usually search out an Irish bar, but this one is the closest bar to the flat, and right on the riverside.

As we have now left the EU, our mobile contracts no longer give us free roaming data (12GB per month) so Rog has set up an eSIM, a separate facility with ‘FlexiRoam’ to provide data cheaper than the roaming charges on our ordinary mobiles, but only because we signed up when they had a 75% off sale! Currently it seems to be working well. We will continue to book accommodation with WiFi.

After promising to include our weekly train numbers and Kms, we only appear to be able to deliver every other week, sorry! so after missing last week again! Here’s the catch up.

W/E 21 May

5 trains

757 Kms

W/E 28 May

2 trains

312 Kms

Total

46 trains and 3 Buses (Kms not included)

8,895 kms

Monday (15 May) we checked out of the AirBnB in Brasov and headed to the station for a train back to Bucharest, for one night only in the NF Palace hotel, housed in “le dome” building on the edge of the old town. Impressive large rooms and chandeliers (a bit of faded grandeur).

Had a last traditional Romanian meal at the “Caru Cu Bere” restaurant, or at least what they serve tourists and tell them it’s local. The sweet dumplings were amazing. The restaurant building is stunning lots of wood panelling and stained glass.

Tuesday, we got our 1hr delayed train to Ruse, in Bulgaria. An interesting border crossing, thankfully an Intrepid group tour and tour leader were also on the train, so the tour leader kept telling her group what the border crossing process was. In short when exiting Romania you stay on the train and the Border officers come on the train and collect everyone’s passports, then disappear back to their office for 15 mins, then bring your stamped passports back!

However when entering Bulgaria, you give your passport to the border officer as you get off the train (with your luggage as we changed trains). They also disappear to the office for 15 mins before coming back to the platform with your stamped passport, with the added difficulty of trying to match up passports with the rightful owner!

The Intrepid leader also told everybody that their next train, also the one we were on, had waited at Ruse! Result.

So we made our connecting train to Gorna Oryahovitsa, a stopping off station on a scenic rail journey. Bulgaria doesn’t do Bolt/Uber, however they do have an app called TaxiMe, but Gorna is a bit local for that, so we had to chat up a nice local taxi driver and explain to him where we needed to go, the Hotel Terra, which was all slightly complicated by the fact that Bulgaria use the Cyrillic alphabet. The second complication was that we did not have any Bulgarian cash and he didn’t accept credit cards. Anyway we managed to get to the right hotel via an ATM.

The Hotel Terra was a very nice hotel, made mainly by the staff, the receptionist/bar women didn’t speak English (and we don’t speak Bulgarian) so via lots of Google Translate we managed to get Beers, a restaurant recommendation and ordered a taxi to the restaurant. She and Rog bonded over a shared birthday!

Wednesday, back to the train station for a train to Stara Zagora, another random town we had never heard of before. Unfortunately, when we arrived it was raining, a lot! The hotel was just close enough to the station for the taxis to not want to take us, but far enough for us to get very wet!

The hotel Merian Palace hotel is a slightly strange hotel, we were upgraded to a VIP two bedroom suite, but the restaurant was not open. So, at the recommendation of the hotel staff, we headed over the road to a restaurant which turned out to be fully booked. Back to the hotel bar we went, and Nic managed to order food delivery via the Glovo app. Another first for us!

Thursday, a train ride to Sofia along a scenic route, according to the European Rail map, it was spectacular journey through the mountains.

Checked into our AirBnB in Sofia

Friday, we wandered around the centre of Sofia, visiting the St Joseph Church, the Banya Bashi Mosque, the Roman ruins, the National Assembly building, St George’s Church (the oldest church in Sofia, now surrounded by offices), finally the Sveta Nedelya Church.

Saturday, more wanderings, via the church of St Nicholas the miracle maker, St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the National Palace of Culture, and a bit of the Berlin Wall.

We finished the day at a local traditional Bulgarian restaurant called The Hadjidragana Tavern. Local food, wine and spirits! Even some live folk music!

Sunday, a slow start!

We walked via the Synagogue to the “women’s” market, which had been established for over 130 years. We then sat in a cafe and watched, what appeared to be most of Sofia, promenade up and down the pedestrian streets.

We managed to forget to put trains and kilometres on last weeks blog, so there is a catch up at the bottom of this one.

Monday, we spend wandering around Oradea again, visiting the Black Eagle arcade, the St Nicholas cathedral, St Laszlo church and a walk along the river.

We have enjoyed our time in Oradea, a nice town, lovely buildings and architecture. You can tell money has been invested in the area, and there is still work ongoing.

Tuesday, we checked out of our AirBnB, had brunch in Victoria’s cafe on the other side of the street, then heading back to the train station. A 2 1/2 hr train journey to Cluj-Napoca, then a short walk to an AirBnB. At check in we actually met a real person, all our previous AirBnB’s have had self check in, with keys in lock boxes or codes provided for electronic locks.

Once checked in we walked into town, about 20mins for dinner and drinks.

Wednesday morning we got a Bolt to the Botanical Gardens, a large area with lots of different sections of garden and green houses. Quite busy with school groups of lots of different age groups wandering round. We strolled back through town via the National Opera House, a couple more churches, Cluj appears to have a church for all denominations.

Thursday, was a day spent mainly on the train to Brasov, in the heart of Transylvania, nearly a 7 hr journey, slowly through lovely countryside.

Friday, we went to Bran Castle, the home of “Vlad the impaler” and his father nicknamed “Dracula”, and it is said to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. The castle is not that big, but the route through the castle is well organised and worth the £10(ish) entrance fee.

We got a Bolt to and from the Castle, not the cheapest option, but with three of us it was not bad. However Bolt obviously has “dynamic” pricing as, initially, it tried to charge us twice the amount for the return journey, but that was because of supply and demand, there was only one car in Bran. As it was a chilly day we went to find some warming soup for lunch, Rog watched the app and waited for other cars to arrive in the area and the return price halved, back to the original price! Quickly Rog pressed the buttons to book our ride, we paid our lunch bill and dashed outside!

Saturday, unbeknownst to us prior to our arrival in Brasov, there are mountain races over the weekend. Today was the Mountain Ultra Marathon (70 Kms), the Marathon (42 Kms) and the half marathon (21 Kms). The course for all of them started up the mountain straight out of the main city square. A tough course, the winner of the marathon finished in 3hrs 51mins.

We walked around the old town via the Black Church and St Catherine’s gate.

For dinner Nic booked a table at “Soul” a very nice restaurant, the food and wine were excellent! Back to the flat in time to watch a few of the Eurovision songs before falling into bed (we are 2 hours ahead!)

Sunday, we walked up the mountain, a zigzagging path, winding its way up and crossing under the cable car. Worth the climb for the view over the city.

Week ended – 7 May

4 Trains

711 Kms

Week ended – 14 May

2 Trains

480 Kms

Total so far

39 Trains

7,826 Kms

Monday (1 May) also a bank holiday in Romania, we walked via Bucharest old town to the Palace of Parliament, the second largest government building in the world, it is huge, and second only to the US Pentagon, a legacy of the Ceausescu years.

The Palace of Parliament looks down a long wide boulevard with fountains down the middle of the road, ending in a large fountain in the middle of a roundabout.

Tuesday, we got a Bolt to the National Village Museum, a collection of houses and buildings, moved from all over the country to be preserved, the museum started in the 1930’s. It shows very different styles of houses, from half buried houses to large wooden thatched cottages. A really interesting museum, we spend a couple of hours wandering around.

We then moved on to Herastra Park, we have no idea why but there is a monument to Micheal Jackson. There is also an Arch de Triomphe, gifted to Romania by France for their support in World War I.

We then returned to the old town to visit the Stravropoleas Monastery.

Wednesday, we walked to the Romanian Athenaeum, which looked like the Pantheon in Rome. We then went to the National Art Gallery, expecting to pay for entry, but were handed free tickets when we entered, as far as we could work out they do one free day a month and today happened to be that day, Result!

A national art gallery with no cafe! So we had to leave to find one, the “Artichoke Social House”, nice coffee. We decided not to return the Gallery and walked back towards the old town again, via the park.

After a little more wandering we stopped for a drink, Rog found honey crust beer, the glass was topped with honey and sugar!!

Thursday, we checked out of the AirBnB and headed to the station, we knew which train we wanted and the fact that we needed to reserve seats, So Rog join a queue in the ticket hall and managed to get seat reservations for all the Romanian trains we needed over the next few weeks. A seat reservation cost £0.90 for each each one, happy days!

We took a 3 hour train to Craiovo, we had never heard of the place, but it was on the train line in the general direction we wanted to travel.

We stayed in the Hotel Meliss, a very strange hotel, at first we thought we were the only guests, as we sat in a large function room, at a table for 8, for dinner with nobody else around. There were a couple more people at breakfast, but that was it.

Friday, a morning train to Caransebes, and a short walk to the Vila Palace hotel, a nice little hotel which is obviously used by the locals as a party/wedding venue, in fact we were informed of a party that night, so a disco until midnight, they put us in the rooms furthest anyway so it was not a problem.

We walked into Caransebes, a non touristy town, had a couple of drinks and dinner, which was £32 for the three of us! Not sure if they missed something off the bill, and we didn’t get one to check we were just told the amount, so we paid what we’re were asked for and got a taxi back to the hotel.

Saturday morning, after breakfast Rog was going to have a shower, but we had no water in the room, So Nic headed down to reception, who were mortified that the workmen had turned the water off and ran to get it put back on!!

Walked back towards the station, stopped for coffee in a local cafe, Nic also ordered Beef soup, which turned out to be one course of a three course lunch which then arrived!! Rog had to eat the dessert of pancakes to help out.

Our train was to Timisoara Nord, with only 14 minutes to transfer on to a second train to Oradea. Given our experience so far is that Romanian train timetables appear to be more of a suggestion rather than a schedule, anything could have happened, however we made the connection, with Rog asking the train driver if we were about to get on the correct train. There were no train or platform numbers to be seen at the station.

We arrived in Oradea, a Bolt into town and checked into another lovely AirBnB.

Had a couple of drinks in a wine bar, close to the AirBnB.

Sunday, we visited the synagogue, walked through a park towards the Fortress, however they were lots of road works, but we persevered, finally got to the fortress and there was a street food festival, so we had lunch!

Walked along the river back into town, and the same wine bar as last night and had more wine! Plus sharing boards and focaccia sandwiches. All local Romanian wines and all good!

Monday (24 April) we checked out of our Ljubljana AirBnB and were able to leave our bags, so we could have another wander around Ljubljana, including a look around the Cathedral. It was a rainy day, so there were brunch, and coffee stops regularly until the time of the train departure. It was due to depart at 14.45hrs, in the end we left 25 minutes later.

We arrived in Zagreb, a short walk to our AirBnB, slightly rough and ready looking on the outside, it was in the middle of a large city block, three locked doors to deal with, however inside it was a lovely apartment.

Tuesday, we walked towards the old town, as you may remember we have been to Zagreb before (the Ryanair refund week!), it was nice to be back in a familiar city and lovely to walk around, slightly less aimlessly, and show our friend some of the sights we remembered.

We headed for the funicular to go up to the old town, but it was not working, and will “start again next week” according to the worker in high vis.

We noticed this time that there is lots of building work going on in Zagreb, tricky to find an outdoor cafe without the sounds of drilling or hammering…. We know…. first world problems! Nice to see them working on improvements though.

We took it easy up the steps toward St Mark’s church, which was, predictably, surrounded by scaffolding, luckily the roof, which is the impressive sight was not covered.

Headed back down the hill towards the Cathedral, more scaffolding, which was being put in place by a huge crane, and a gang of workers with a head for heights.

Wednesday, we headed to the Botanical Gardens, which are very close to the apartment, we are a month later in the year than our last visit, and the gardens are a lot further along, more flowers out, especially the Irises which Nic last time had requested to visit a month later to see them all in bloom! Still lots more to come out on this visit, so maybe another trip in May will happen at some point ?!

Thursday, check out day again! There was no luggage storage at the train station as all the lockers were out of action, they are in the process of changing them over to accept Euros (Croatia joined the Euro zone on 1 January). Instead, via the “Stasher” app, we found a local hostel that will store luggage, for a fee.

More wandering around Zagreb until our train at 16:45, including a super lunch spot for some local cevapici for Nic, and burgers for the other. Cevapici is a Bosnian specialty, (the chef was Bosnian!) it was very tasty and much too big to finish!

At the station our train was their early, so we managed to get another 6 seater compartment to ourselves for most of the journey to Budapest.

The Budapest AirBnB was a little disappointing, it was very reasonably priced and ok for a couple of nights, but it is the first negative AirBnB review we have had to leave.

Friday, we had not realised before but the Pope is in Budapest, so we got a “Bolt”, another app like Uber for taxis, over to Buda Castle, we managed to get most of the way there before the roads were closed. We waited for the Papal convoy to pass, after lots of different security conveys there was the Pope in a white Fiat 500.

We were then able to walk up to Buda Castle, but parts of it were closed for the visit, still a beautiful view over the Danube river and the rest of the city.

We planned to walk over the chain bridge back to the Pest side of the river, but more building work meant it was closed to pedestrians, but still open to cars so we got another Bolt to the parliament building. A huge building. The square in front of it was being prepared for the Papal mass on Sunday, Nic spoke to one of the security Guard to ask how many seats there were? He didn’t answer that question, but did say they were expecting 1 million to be in the city for the Mass!! But not us as we are on a night train to Bucherest on Saturday night.

Saturday, we had a lovely breakfast at a cafe on the ground floor of the AirBnB building, then checked out, we took our bags to a luggage storage spot near the train station. Then walked across the city, everywhere we turned it looked like we had just missed the Pope again! We walked through the Jewish quarter to the Synagogue, the largest in Europe, being Saturday it was closed to visitors. We then walked to the covered market, another impressive building, where we bought ham and cheese for tomorrow’s lunch.

As we were again near the river, with time to kill before our night train, we did a river cruise to see all the sights from the water. Whilst cruising the boat was stopped from going under one of the bridges, until the Pope’s convoy had crossed over.

Dinner in a Hungarian restaurant, a bit touristy, but the food was surprisingly good. Excellent Goulash soup, Beef Stew and Chicken with Mushroom sauce, and they had very professional live music.

Then back to pick up the bags and do a bit of shopping for supplies for the train journey, our longest (time) yet, 15 1/2 hours. The train was a little delayed but no problem really. The main problem, thankfully not for us, was that one of the sleeper carriages was out of service, and they had attached a normal carriage instead, luckily our compartment was in the carriage behind.

Sunday, we arrived in Bucherest (Bucuresti) at 3pm after another time zone change, and a Bolt to our AirBnB, the Bolt was definitely a different experience compared with the new bright yellow Bolt taxis in Budapest. This one arrived and it was a battered old thing, but the 15 mins journey across the city cost 16 lei (£2.89) we might try the “comfort Bolt” next time, for £4!

The AirBnB is nicer than the last one, but was a little tricky to get into with automatic key entry, which is a little bit temperamental, but at least they warned us, so if you don’t succeed try and try again!

The neighbourhood looks a little colourful again, the building at the end of the road is falling down, but we’ll explore that tomorrow.

This week

Only 3 trains

1,181 Kms

In total

33 trains

6,635kms