Night Train from Hell

I had to check out of my place in Belgrade at 2:00 PM yesterday, and the train to Sofia was not leaving until 9:50 PM.  So I took my big bag, which had mostly just clothes and books in it, and left it at the Belgrade railway station left luggage facility (keeping my day pack, containing all of my valuables, with me).  I walked up to the window, and there was a lady eating a sandwich in slow motion.  There was also a guy sitting there in the office.  Moving in slow motion, he asked to see my passport, took my bag, and gave me a receipt for it.

Now I had the rest of the day to explore, while carrying around all of my valuables on my back.  I got some coffee and, while reading, managed to drag it out for a good long while.  I checked out some book stores.  Now, it was starting to rain and the wind was picking up.  I had a glass of wine that I managed to make last for over an hour.  Back out into the wind and rain, hoping my umbrella didn't blow inside out.  Went and had dinner, with (thankfully this time) slow service.  Back to the station.  I claimed my bag, and bought a couple of cans of beer (Jelen) because intoxication often helps with these kinds of trips.

Earlier in the day, before checking out of the apartment, I had become concerned that I might have problems at the border.  The concern came from the fact that I had not registered with the police on arrival in Serbia.  I just happened to stumble across this requirement while reading some of the horror stories about the train I was about to take.  A lot of the horror stories involved border police shaking down people who had not registered with the police for "fines" on trying to leave the country.  I contacted my host.  He was not aware of this law.  He called a police station and he said that a nice lady there told him that it was his responsibility, not mine, to register me with the police, and so if anybody was going to get into trouble it would be him.  He also told me that he had never heard of anybody getting into trouble for not registering with the police.  So I decided to hope for the best, but to also be prepared to demand an official receipt if anybody wanted me to pay a "fine".

In any event I got onto the train and found my compartment (a second class couchette).  There was only one other person in my compartment, a Swiss teenager from some town near Zurich who had just graduated from the equivalent of high school and was doing some traveling before doing his compulsory military service.  He also had bought two cans of Jelen, so we drank those before trying to go to sleep.

I was dressed warmly because I thought it might be cold on the train.  Cold wasn't the problem.  It was roasting hot in that compartment.  About 2:30 in the morning I couldn't take it any more and so I went and stood out in the corridor, looking out the window for about an hour.  The floor of the train was filthy and there was a pool of water standing in the corridor just a few feet from where I was standing.  At the other end of the carriage, the conductor was smoking, right next to the "No Smoking" sign.

I think it was about 5:30 AM that we reached the Serbian border checkpoint.  I was relieved when they did not ask me about police registration or where I stayed.  Mostly, they seemed to be after people smuggling.  There is a lot of smuggling on this train, I read, and a lot of lowlifes that take this train.  But we sat there for quite a while, as the police went from compartment to compartment, looking for smuggled goods.  After the train started moving again, it seemed like quite a while before we got to the Bulgarian border checkpoint, where the whole thing was repeated.  I was surprised that the train was only 15 minutes late, arriving at 8:30 AM.

Fake tour guides and taxi drivers were immediately on me as I stepped off the train.  Fortunately, my host Denislav was meeting me at the station and he was right out front in his red Skoda where he said he would be.  The apartment is nice.  Of course I had to brush my teeth and take a shower right away, and now I am washing some clothes before going out to see Sofia.

Leaving for Bulgaria Tonight

I'm setting out for Sofia, Bulgaria tonight on the overnight train.  The train leaves Belgrade at 9:50PM and arrives in Sofia tomorrow morning at 8:13AM (including setting clocks forward an hour - it's in a different time zone).  I'm leaving the apartment very soon, and I'll take my big bag (with no real valuables, mostly clothes) and drop it at the left luggage facility at the station.  Then I will have the rest of the day to do stuff in Belgrade until I go back to the station and get the train tonight, and I will be lugging around my daypack with all of my valuables.

Here are some pictures I took around Belgrade yesterday and this morning.

Selling books and records off of Knez Mihailova

Belgrade Fortress

Novi Beograd, taken from the fortress.  I like a lot of these communist era buildings, especially the one that has the round thing on top.

The monument to the liberation from Ottoman rule, at Belgrade Fortress.

The confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, from the fortress.

At the fortress

I like the green bricks on this building.

The apartment building where I stayed (on the ground floor).

The train should be "interesting".   I have read that there are a lot of lowlifes and criminals who take that train.  I don't think I will get a lot of sleep.

In Belgrade

I decided to head to Belgrade yesterday.  I loved Sarajevo, but I need to be in Istanbul by January 29 and I'm not sure what transportation options await me past Sofia.

A house I saw walking back and forth to the laundromat.

Another house in the area.

Looking down the hill heading back to the apartment from the laundromat, which is up the hill.

Apartment building in the neighborhood.

The National Bank of BiH.

Just down the street from my apartment.

Another tram.  I think this is the street that was known as "sniper's alley".

The 1984 Winter Olympics symbol.

In the old city.

Old city.

From old city, looking across the river.

The old city.

An indoor market.

Indoor market.

I got a 6:00 AM bus out of the Sarajevo main bus station (next to the train station), and arrived in Belgrade a little after 1:00 PM; a trip of less than 300 kilometers (about 180 miles) taking more than seven hours.

The first rest stop in Bosnia.  I'm always afraid of getting left behind at one of these bus stops.

First bus stop in Serbia.

Much of the trip through Bosnia was in the mountains, and I'm sure the scenery would have been great if it had not been dark for much of the time.

I was curious to see what it would be like to go from one entity in Bosnia to another.  I looked, but I didn't see any sign announcing that we were entering the Republika Srpska.  I just noticed that the signs that show names of towns changed from showing the name first in the Latin alphabet and next in Cyrillic, to showing the Cyrillic first.  And I started seeing more signs in Cyrillic.  After crossing into Republika Srpska I still noticed a lot of towns that had mosques, some of them looking very new.

We crossed the Serbian border at Zvornik.  The border here is defined by the River Drina.  We went through a checkpoint on the Bosnian side of the river, and another on the Serbian side.  In Serbia, I noticed things moved more slowly.  The roads were bumpy and we were often stuck behind tractors and slow, old cars.

My host Damir met me at the bus station and walked with me to the apartment.  I have the whole apartment to myself because Damir just rents it out.  It's very close to Knez Mihailova, one of the main shopping / hanging out streets in Belgrade.  After getting unpacked and washing some clothes, I had a late lunch at a restaurant just down the street.  Then I went walking around Knez Mihaila.

Great Communist era clock on a building.  They did some great design back then.

Knez Mihailova

Book shop window on Knez Mihailova

Cool sign - I think it might say "Progress"

Knez Mihailova

More (presumably) Communist era architecture

Art gallery

Looking at bad paintings for sale on the street

Another art gallery

Just off Knez Mihailova

This morning, I went to the train station and bought a ticket to Sofia.  On the wall behind the woman selling me the ticket, there was a map of Europe that showed two Germanys, a whole Czechoslovakia, and a whole Yugoslavia.  The whole station looked like it hadn't had much done to it since those times.  I am taking the night train tomorrow night, and I have a couchette reservation.  The train leaves at 9:50PM tomorrow night and gets to Sofia at 8:13AM Saturday.  I have heard some horror stories about this train, so it should be interesting.  I have to check out of the apartment by 2:30PM tomorrow so I will leave my big bag at the left luggage facility at the train station, and carry around everything of value that I have in my smaller backpack the rest of the day and evening.  I'm not sure I would want to leave anything of much value at the Belgrade train station left luggage.

A street market, heading down hill towards the train station this morning.

The train station

The platforms

Inside the train station.

There are still a lot of Yugos around here.

In Sarajevo, Trying to Dry Out

I left Mostar on a 7:05 AM train to Sarajevo, which arrived Sarajevo about 9:30 AM.  Before leaving, Emir made me Bosnian coffee again.  Because it was raining again, he called a taxi to take me to the station.

Bosnian coffee

Mostar station this morning, waiting

There was some spectacular scenery - deep gorges, snow capped mountains and such.  Unfortunately the train windows were covered with dirt and graffiti so I don't think I could have really gotten any decent pictures.

After I arrived, I found a taxi to take me from the train station to my apartment.  I have a one bedroom apartment all to myself - not bad for about $35/night.  For the taxi, my host Emir (another Emir, same first name as my host in Mostar) suggested that I use the Crveni taxi company because they are generally honest, and insist that they turn on the meter.  The driver didn't have to be reminded.

Arrival in Sarajevo

Sarajevo station

The first order of business was to begin drying out my soaking wet shoes (I am now wearing my Keen sandals) and to do my laundry.  Emir pointed me to a laundromat in the neighborhood, where I went, and I was able to do a load of washing for 4KM (about 2 euros).  After getting back to the apartment I put the clothes on radiators to dry  and went out exploring the city and getting some lunch.

In my neighborhood looking down towards the city center

Walking along Marshall Tito 

One of the famous trams

Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice

Playing giant chess

Serbian Orthodox Cathedral

Gazi Hursrev-Beg Mosque

Cemetery outside mosque

Old market area

Feeding the sky rats

Lunch - burek

Old market area

Old market

Marshall Tito

Those lamps just like they sell to tourists in Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Having coffee

The eternal flame, memorial to the World War II dead in Sarajevo

I have discovered, in researching how to get to Belgrade, that there is no longer a train service between Sarajevo and Belgrade.  I could take a train to Zagreb, wait 15 hours, then get another train to Belgrade.  Nah, I'll just take a bus.  This useless web site is, unfortunately, the web site that is used to look up international bus timetables in Bosnia.  Why are there so many broken web sites in the Balkans?  Doing some research, it seems that to get a bus to Belgrade I will need to get myself to not to the main bus station, but a bus station in Lukavica, a suburb of Sarajevo that is in the Republika Srpska entity.  I can take a city bus or taxi there, apparently.

I figured out that I miscalculated how long it will take me to get to Istanbul and I could, if I wanted to, have an extra day here in Sarajevo (or an extra day in Belgrade, or Sofia, or Edirne).  I'll sleep on it.  Sarajevo is very nice.  I may spend an extra day here.