31 hours on a train...Or how to go CRAZY!

The original plan was to go from Krakow to Budapest by train, spend a day there, then go to Sofia, Bulgaria by train and spend a day there, then go to Istanbul by train. This plan would have seperated the train rides by just enough down time in the cities. HOWEVER, we had so much fun in Budapest, that we decided to stay an extra day. This meant no stop in Sofia and we,d have to push straight on to İstanbul in one go. This meant 31 hours by train!! Approx. 19 hours to Sofia and then 12 hours to Istanbul, with a train change in Sofia.

Everything actually went great, for most of the ride. We travelled through Serbia and Bulgaria, which had fantastic countrysides but some sad signs of poverty near the rail stations and around small towns. We almost missed the train in Sofia but thankfully found the train and gave a train operator 30 Euros to give us our own compartment. We still have no idea what it was supposed to cost, but it seemed fair.

The craziness of the trip really started at the Bulgarian-Turkish border at 2am. After a few border guard types came on the train, they then demanded everyone get off the train and announced PASSPORT CONTROL. We were not lead anywhere but left to fıgure out what to do on our own. Everyone in the train got off and waited in long lines at the station. Luckily someone asked us if we were Canadian and pointed out where to buy a VISA stamp or we'd get to the front of the line and get kicked out, only to wait in the long line again. We saw this happen to a lot of people. There were NO signs about what to do and the trains were just sitting there un-attended. Anyone could have gone on the trains at this point and taken everything. Luckily, we got out of there without incident, except getting ripped off by the VISA salesman on an exchange rate, since we had no Euros. The whole Passport Control ordeal took approx. 3 hours. Once we fell asleep again on the train, more men came on and demanded to see the stamps ın the passports now. After all the drama, it was hard to get back to sleep.

Next came Istanbul!
P & C