My good friend Priya Patel is spending 6+ months in India working. Her amazing experiences and adventures have been uploaded at my Out of Athens blog on The Red & Black Web site.
She is updating it fairly regularly and the posts have been extremely interesting so far. Take a look!
blog.redandblack.com
I am definitely more advanced in my transportation knowledge as well as my geography after these few months in Europe. Traveling alone has been a true learning experience! Never did I think that as a woman I couldn’t make it, but when you don’t speak the language and you are expected to figure it all out alone, things get a little hairy.
I have now flown to five different countries, ridden trains in and through five different countries, and taken cars or buses in seven different countries. The past two days of riding trains has topped all experiences I’ve had. Morocco’s train was dingy and loud, but I had someone with me which I’ve found makes all the difference.
I rode the train from Sofia to Budapest, stopping through Beograd along the way. A night train through Serbia isn’t exactly the safest way to travel alone as a woman and with the current political circumstances. I was terrified at one point when a guard asked for my passport, and then, told the entire couchette that I was American. I had been told the day before by a few Bulgarian friends that the Serbian people aren’t too keen on my country and was prepared not to tell anyone where I was from, unless necessary. Obviously, the guard had other plans. Really though, I made it safely and without too much trouble.
Yesterday, I rode the train back from Budapest to Beograd to Sofia. The train left Budapest at 13:20 and arrived LATE in Beograd at around 21:10. The train to Sofia was scheduled to leave at 21:10 and I didn’t have a ticket yet. I literally sat in my couchette in tears praying that somehow I would make it to that train. Otherwise, I would have to find a place to stay until morning when the next train would leave. Doing that on my own would have probably pushed me over the edge and placed me in some very dangerous situations.
I stood up to walk forward in the cars so I would have a quick exit. Three men obviously from different backgrounds were speaking English in the car ahead of mine and told me the door wasn’t working on the front of that car. Immediately, a man from Australia (long time traveler) asked if I was on my way to Sofia. He and a Serbian man were helping a young Hungarian guy catch that train when we got to the station and they offered to help me as well.
I was amazed at their kindness and relieved that I wouldn’t have to go through the switch alone. I knew there was no way I could get off the train, run to the International ticket desk, buy a ticket and get to the train to Sofia by myself or at all. They had a plan!
Dennis, the Aussie traveler, said he was going to run inside to find the platform (as Beograd doesn’t have any signs on the platforms for the train destinations or arrivals except inside the station) and that the man from Serbia, Alexander, would be our translator. Laszlo, the Hungarian guy, and I prepared at the door to jump and run.
When the train landed in Beograd, we did just that. Somehow, by the grace of God, we made it to the train! Imagine the hilarious lot of us running down the platform: Laszlo in front with his bag, Alexander tagging along just in case, me with my purse and my food from Gran, and a random man from the train who offered to run with my suitcase all jumping through the end corridor of a train to get to the Sofia platform fast enough! We didn’t even have time to run around it; we just jumped through it. A few minutes later, Dennis came running up to say that the train wasn’t even on the screen inside. We even lucked out and the train attendant allowed us to stay in a sleeping car even though I didn’t have a ticket. In order to stay, I had to pay 35 Lt, but I didn’t have any money. I had planned to pay inside with my card. Laszlo and the man made a deal that he would take American dollars. But when the man gave Laszlo his change he didn’t have enough, and so offered him a Bulgarian beer to make up the difference. Laszlo said it was good I wasn’t in the deal making because I probably would have been traded in real Eastern European style.
What I would have done without these kind men from Australia, Serbia and Hungary–I don’t even know. Laszlo and I made it, and we laughed about the whole experience in our sleeping car for the rest of the night!
