Finally, an internet cafe!!

Well, here I am in Belgrade, which is the capitol of Serbia. It has been an interesting trip to get here, for sure.

I left Athens on Wednesday and hopped a train to Thessaloniki, which was, apparently, the first capitol of Greece. From what I hear, they still aren't too happy about it. Anyway, on the train I was in my first class 6-person room when I was joined by three women. Over the next 6 hours, they all proceeded to feed me. I have no idea what it was I was eating, but if there is one thing I've learned it's that you should never turn down an sandwich being offered to you, as you never know when you might get around to making one yourself. It was a good sandwich, by the way. Some sort of egg and ham combination.

After a 4 hour wait in Thessaloniki, I finally boarded my sleeper train to Sofia, Bulgaria. Now, I have been in some hot, stagnant weather before, but being in Greece, specificially the Thessaloniki train station gave me a new means in which to define hot, sticky, humid, and stale. I actually felt the sweat dripping down the small of my back - a first for me.

146 hours (or so it seemed) later, I arrived in Sofia. I walked around the city twice trying to find the hostel, but lucky for me, I couldn't so I walked around some more, admired the Communist building design and several left over artifacts from before '90 and then walked back to the train station to find my train.

Ok. Now, I have read all about how there are two kinds of trains that go to Serbia - slow and slower, but again, my defintion of slow was redefined. What was supposed to be an 6 hour trip took about 12 and it all started with my noticing of just how unclean the 1st class accomodations were. They were filthy and in a minute I learned why..

As I'm sitting there, in come about 5 women each weighing in at a healthy 250+. They, of course, chose my room and then within minutes of sitting down, began pulling bags of food from their bags of food! They pulled one of the chairs out and made themselves a nice little spread of, well, I didn't want to look for too long, but I swear I saw a few dead fish - which after a few seconds they, of course, offered to me.

I declined and away we went. After an hour of sitting there smelling and listening to them, it became too much. My line was cross when the oldest of the group shut the window because she was cold! Ahhhhhh I had to get out of there!

So I did. I moved to the next car which, unlike my car, was a smoking car. Now, in Europe, everyone smokes - even the children (or so it would seem). I sat through three hours of smoky haze, glad to be out of the fish car but kicking myself for not trying harder to find another non-smoking car.

It was great though. What an experience it was. In fact, I thought it couldn't be topped until about an hour into Serbia when I was joined by my new friend, 69 year old Narina. It was great she spoke to me in Serbia, I spoke to her in English, we laughed, we joked, we made hand-signals, we were, in fact communicating perfectly. As we traveled, she would take out the occasional sweet and give it to me.. This led to her taking out some bread and giving me that.. Which led to bread and butter, and then bread and feta. I was quite happy with everything until I looked over and saw just how she was cutting up the bread and cheese (you really don't want to know).

The highlight was when she found out I was from America and she told me, "I love America!!" and then, much to the delight of the other passengers, singing 'America the Beautiful' in her oudest voice. It was great!!!

So, that's it for now.. My timer is blinking 4 minutes.. I have to go. Next stop Budapest!


See ya!