According to my timetable I would have to change trains in Sofia and I would also have time to get some food. Little did I know that Bulgaria is one hour ahead of Serbia and that meant that I was in trouble!!
I ran around the station trying to find out what I could do, because I had missed the train to Istanbul. I don't speak Bulgarian, and they didn't seem to speak much English - so I felt pretty helpless. A taxi driver came up to me and said "I know what happened, you missed your train". How could he have known, I thought. "Happens all the time", he said.
He said that he could drive me to the next station and I would be able to catch the train there - so that my travel plans wouldn't be disrupted. This man is crazy I thought, how would it be possible to drive faster than a train. Anyhow he did it and I caught the train in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city. A bit of a crazy driver, he was speeding right up behind other cars so that he could overtake and white lines, what are they for, he just made his own lanes in the road. The cost, €50. Not too bad I thought, as it was a fair distance between the two cities and after seeing the train station I was glad I didn't have to stay in Sofia. A real communist inspired building, it had an darkly lit, ugly, dodgy underground area full of little tiny little 'shops' and lots of dodgy looking people.
I boarded the Istanbul bound train pretty relieved and settled in to my 'bed' for the night. Passed through border control early in the morning and had to get off the train to buy my visa to enter Turkey - €15. Arrived in Istanbul about 1 or two hours late and found the hostel that I stayed in last time, had a little sleep - was knackered.
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