Mikkel and I are headed for Turkey!! After everything that went on last night, I called him at 7 to make sure he was up in time to meet me at the train station at 8:30. He said it was a really good thing I did, otherwise he would have slept right through his alarm. He was very somber and groggy when I met him around 20 to 9, so I gave him a hard time about his hangover, but then told him I’d watch his stuff if he wanted to go find some greasy food (Fornetti) to try to cure it. He did, and came back and then we boarded the 9:04 train. Along the way, Mikkel called his mom and talked to her in Danish (which I’m always fascinated by), and we played cards and took turns napping to pass the time. We got to Bucharest at about 12:15, and then had about 40 minutes to buy lunch and provisions before boarding the 19 hour train to Istanbul. We had paid for a sleeping car, so we found our compartment and started to organize our stuff. There was room for 4 other people in the compartment, and we
hoped hard that we would have it to ourselves. Unfortunately, just as we were saying this, another guy walked in who looked to be not too much older than us. He was really nice, and from Greece originally, but had lived in London for the last 10 years and was on holiday for the week. He was headed to Bulgaria to spend a few days there before going back to London.
Mikkel climbed up to the very top bed to try to rest off his hangover (apparently he had a very bad headache) and I looked out the window and tried to catch up writing in my journal. Eventually, it started to get really hot in the train, because there was no air conditioning, and the sun kept beating in. I stripped down as far as I could, and rolled up my pant legs. After an hour or two, Mikkel came back down and we played a few games of Rummy 500, the only game either of us knew how to play with only 2 people. He won the first few games, and made sure to rub it in my face. Before long, we were stopped at a border
checkpoint, indicating that we were about to leave Romania!! We were stopped for quite a while, and the border guards came to check passports. They squeezed yet another stamp onto a page that was already full, and gave it back. No one else got a stamp. Mikkel commented on how he always feels a little bit jipped. When we started moving again, we noticed that we were crossing a large body of water, and realized that it must be the Danube!! So we left our compartment, and went out into the corridor to look out the window. Across the Danube, I could see some strange letters written on barges and knew that we must be crossing the border into Bulgaria!! I was so excited! Mikkel just laughed at me. We stopped again soon after crossing the Danube so that Bulgarian border control could get on and check passports. They looked briefly at Mikkel’s and the Greek guy’s passports, then they took mine, scrutinized over it, and walked off. Mikkel and I looked at each other, very confused, and he laughed that it was because I was an American and obviously couldn’t be trusted. I replied with, “yeah ok, whatever, but
a least I’ll get a stamp in mine!” He shot me a look and then stopped his taunting, haha! Soon, they brought it back, and after a few more minutes we started moving again. We lingered at the windows for a bit, taking in the sights of Bulgaria. The first few things we passed were a nuclear power plant with 3 smoke stacks, 1 of which was emitting some sort of yellow smoke and a bunch of old communist block apartment buildings. Eventually though, we passed through more countryside and rural areas. Bulgaria was so green, and much prettier than I would have imagined!
As the day progressed, it started to get hotter and hotter, so eventually I dug into my bag and changed into shorts. We played a few more rounds of cards, and I went to open some of the chocolate I had bought to sustain us on our long trip. Even though I probably shouldn’t have been, I was surprised to find that the chocolate was very, very soft and melty. I was initially disappointed, until I realized that this meant Mikkel didn’t really feel like sharing any of it, so I had it all to
myself. Of course, I also got it all over my mouth and hands, and looked like the little fat kid that dove face first into a big chocolate cake, but whatever, it was delicious and totally worth it. We played cards for most of the afternoon, with Mikkel winning the majority of the games, and occasionally stood at the window for fresh air, letting the wind blow back our hair. Finally, it started to get dark, and around 8:00, our Greek friend got off and we had the compartment to ourselves. Around 9:00, we decided that we should probably try to go to sleep now since we would be woken up at the Turkish border. It was still pretty hot, so I didn’t even need to use the sheets they had provided for us, but I took out my contacts, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep.
Bulgaria's Flag
Map of Bulgaria