the longest 48 hours of my life

I've just arrived in Athens, Greece and am SO glad to be here...not because it's beautiful Greece, home of ancient ruins and excellent food, but because I am FINALLY done with trains for a few days! Here's the breakdown of the last 48 hours...

Wednesday, 630pm - leave on sleeper train from Vienna and am scared by the train conductor woman who says "there are many thieves on this train - lock all 3 locks!" Luckily I don't have anyone else in my compartment....pretty nice not having to share that little room with 5 others.

Thursday, 630am - arrive at Belgrade, Serbia train station...it's pretty dirty here and fairly sketchy.

Thursday 730am - depart Belgrade for Sofia, Bulgaria on the grossest train ever. It is a pukey yellow-gold color straight out of the 70's and smells like the old camper that we used as a kid that my dad's parents actually took him and his siblings camping in - in the 70's!! This train ride is 10 hours long and very very depressing. Serbia is a sad place with an incredible amount of trash EVERYWHERE....everything from discarded kids toys and old mattresses to construction debris. Also lots of empty or partially destroyed houses. Again - sad deal.

Thursday, 530pm - arrive in Sofia, Bulgaria and proceed to spend the next 4 hours waiting for my next train at the station there. Pigeons roam freely, as do a few cats. Yep, it's nasty here. The time changes here, which thankfully makes my layover only 4 hours instead of 5. I also meet a Peace Corps volunteer from North Dakota here. He saw my book with its english title and got very excited to speak english so he introduced himself. He also helped me read the departure board, which wasn't in english and the information person didn't speak english either.

Thursday, 1030pm - depart Sofia for Thessaloniki, Greece on a sleeper car. Though older, it was the comfiest I've been on. It had a real mattress instead of just the seats pulling down, which would have been great if it'd been a longer trip. Sadly it was only 7 hours.....that ended up being very interupted. At 3am we crossed the Bulgarian/Greek border and had to stop for customs. The customs people come around, knock on your door to wake you up, look at your passport, and stamp it. This had happened when my Thursday day train crossed from Serbia into Bulgaria, so it wasn't anything new. (This doesn't happen when you cross borders between EU member countries.) After the Bulgarian authorities stamp us for leaving their country we go a little ways further and then do the same thing with Greek officials for entering their country. The difference was, when the Greek customs officials woke me up and looked at my passport they asked me to get off the train and go with them. Did everyone go? Nope, just me. 330am, I'm at the Bulgarian/Greek border and having to explain to customs people where and why I am traveling. Plus, I'm half-asleep still. Very confusing. I think why they asked me was because they were unsure as to why I was traveling alone. They were nice though and let me back on the train after a few minutes - and of course getting the stamp on my passport - whew!

Friday, 540am - arrive in Thessaloniki, Greece where I attempt to make a reservation for the 713am train to Athens as previous attempts to make that reservation from other countries were denied. It was full, as was the next 2 trains. So I sat in the Thessaloniki train station for 7 hours until the 1242pm train. And another 6 hours later, I arrived in Greece. Then I took the best shower ever :)

The end. For now.