Train to Turkey

It seems to be a while ago that I left Germany, but I will try to give you more or less the breakdown of where I have been the last few weeks. The first stop was Slovenia to visit some friends (Hari and Bea) and their baby. They have spent the last four months living in the mountains in a small house, while Hari completed an internship. For three days we enjoyed some relaxing back to nature time, played with Zacarias and did a bit of hiking. It was a good to slow down before the long journey to Turkey.

On Friday (the 6th?) we took a night train from Ljubljana to Belgrade, Serbia. We arrived there quite early and we were able to manage booking the night train to Sofia, which meant we had the day to spend in Belgrade. The first priority was park napping of course, but then we found the energy to walk around the city and along the Danube river. Then, it was back on a night train to Sofia, but this time we had a sleeper car, which seemed to be an advantage at the time.

Come to find out the next day it was not as great as it seemed considering my camera and some cash was stolen from our locked 'room'. Then again the 'passport police' as they refer to themselves can open any door they want, and the window was open, which would not be a problem if the train was always moving. So, there was my wake up call. Hello! Normally I have a close eye on my things, but after a sleepless night I guess I was more concerned with sleeping.

Moving on, we had to stay a night in Sofia because the overnight train to Turkey was already full for that day. So, we grabbed a map from tourist information, found a place to stay and had fun trying to figure out the cryillic street signs. It also must be said that we spent at least an hour probably more trying to find a movie theater. There were some listed on the map, but clearly the map was outdated. We also had trouble finding a place open for dinner. There were surprisingly few restaurants there and it was Sunday and some just had signs saying closed for holidays (at least I think). But not to worry, we found a mall, with a McDonalds for Thomas and a Subway for me, and Inception playing in English with Bulgarian subtitles.

One more night train to İstanbul, save the longest for last. We had the sleeper car again but it was divided into girls and guys cabins, three bunk beds per cabin. I expected more local people to be on the train but it was just tourists, which just means more time spent at the border crossing.

So, last Tuesday we arrived in İstanbul...and that is where I leave it for now...more later.