Bulgaria - trains, trains and Dorina the Armenian

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13 Aug - another long-ish train journey, expected to take 10 hours from Serbia to Bulgaria. Pretty countryside with lovely rural stops. Again, reminiscent of Trans-Sib life and a good chance to chill out, natter, play cards, read and doze. We pass some spectular scenery at the Serbian / Bulgarian border with huge mountains. Must find out what mountain range we went through, surely can't be the Rodopi which I visited a few years ago, maybe the Pirins... any ideas???

We spend 1.5 hours at the border....most border crossings are a doddle after experiencing the Russia / Mongolia crossing of 8 hours 10 mins (for exact times please refer to Gel's diary!!!). In hicksville in the middle of nowhere but we are able to get off the train, wander about and get an icecream, that wouldn't happen in Russia!

It's after 9pm by the time we check into our hotel at Sofia so we just have a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant and head to bed - it's v tiring melting on an extremely long train journey (it ended up being a 12 hour journey).

14 Aug - ah Sofia! Walked round most of the sights I'd seen when I'd visited a few years ago but with more time to explore and background info. I found it fascinating to look at the Communist buildings and Orthodox church and compare them with the 'real' thing I'd seen in Moscow just last September.

After lunch we catch the first of two trains. First stop Gorna, yet more quaint Bulgarian stations in the middle of nowhere where the pace of life seems extremely laid back. We then catch the sleeper train to Istanbul. What an experience - how NOT to do train travel. As well as Ali, Pete, Peter and Di, we have Dorina the Armenian in our cabin....yes, 6 to a cabin, quite a squeeze. I was on the top bunk with about 6 inches of head room. Dorina then insists at 7.30pm that we must sleep...what???!!! Doesn't she realise we're party animals?! We get the beds down about 9pm but after much huffing and puffing from oor Dorina she disappears for yet another fag. It's gonna be a LOOOOONG night. This is not helped by the border crossing faff:

1am - Bulgarian customs search cabin and do passport check
2am - buy Turkish visa on platform
3am - passport stamped while still on platform
4am - back on train, another passport check, then ticket check
8am - woken up an hour before Istanbul
9.30am - stagger off train, meet Omar our local guide and walk to centre of old town Istanbul to check in to hotel.

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