Well, I finally made it!!! Yesterday I took a train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece. It was a 7 hour ride with no air conditioning. I was probably the only foriegner on the train (which was cool). I sat in a compartment with 6 Greeks (2 old ladies and 4 people my age). I chatted with the younger people and the older ladies talked to me via the younger ones. They were eating all kinds of yummy stuff and kept giving me food...it was soo good and I got stuffed! They were really nice!
After I arrived in Thessaloniki, I reserved a bed on the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria. There weren't very many people on the train. I shared a compartment with a French lady who works at the French Embassy in Sofia. The train left at 11:40pm. I went to sleep only to be awakened at 2am when we arrived at the border of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (only I didn't know we even were supposed to pass through that country, I thought it was the Bulgarian border) where a border patrol came on and took all of our passports. After about twenty minutes he came back and we were on our way. Then at 4am we came to the Bulgarian border and the same thing occurred only it took about an hour this time! I eventually got about 5 hours of sleep. I arrived in Sofia at about 8:30 am to be approched by many hostel managers trying to get me to stay at their hostel. Took a cab to the one I chose, right in the center of the old town.
Sofia is beautiful. And nice and cool too!!! I went for a 3 hour walk this morning. Went to the Archaeological museum, and it was marvelous, one of the best museums so far. Things are really cheap here! Ate lunch at a nice resturant, and had an appitizer and a meal for about $5. I thought the Greek alphabet was hard to read, try the Bulgarian which is the Cyllic alphabet (Russian). I managed to navagate pretty well, didn't get lost. Bulgaria is much better than I thought it would be!!!
I think I am going to stay here for a couple of days and then head to an old city halfway between Sofia and Bucharest, Romania. It still is a walled city and has a fortress, supposed to be really cool.
Well, that's it for now....until next time
After I arrived in Thessaloniki, I reserved a bed on the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria. There weren't very many people on the train. I shared a compartment with a French lady who works at the French Embassy in Sofia. The train left at 11:40pm. I went to sleep only to be awakened at 2am when we arrived at the border of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (only I didn't know we even were supposed to pass through that country, I thought it was the Bulgarian border) where a border patrol came on and took all of our passports. After about twenty minutes he came back and we were on our way. Then at 4am we came to the Bulgarian border and the same thing occurred only it took about an hour this time! I eventually got about 5 hours of sleep. I arrived in Sofia at about 8:30 am to be approched by many hostel managers trying to get me to stay at their hostel. Took a cab to the one I chose, right in the center of the old town.
Sofia is beautiful. And nice and cool too!!! I went for a 3 hour walk this morning. Went to the Archaeological museum, and it was marvelous, one of the best museums so far. Things are really cheap here! Ate lunch at a nice resturant, and had an appitizer and a meal for about $5. I thought the Greek alphabet was hard to read, try the Bulgarian which is the Cyllic alphabet (Russian). I managed to navagate pretty well, didn't get lost. Bulgaria is much better than I thought it would be!!!
I think I am going to stay here for a couple of days and then head to an old city halfway between Sofia and Bucharest, Romania. It still is a walled city and has a fortress, supposed to be really cool.
Well, that's it for now....until next time
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Take pictures of Dracula's Castle!!!