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Published: August 22nd 2008
Macedonia
Waiting for customs.The Old Serbian Train
The train from Thessaloniki was stinking hot. The seat covers were a nice shade of brown so there was no telling how disgustingly dirty they really were. There was no air con, just open windows and curtains that would flap in the wind. We had seats though. The 3 of us shared one cabin and thought we may even sleep that night. The cabin seats six, so when you fold the seats down can sleep three, kinda. We had about an hour and a half to the "Macedonian" (F.Y.R.O.M.) border. Kell and I were slightly nervous but Dejan was confident that we wouldn't have a problem.
When we arrived at the border a policeman came and took everyones passports and headed off to his little room to run their checks. Everyone took the oportunity to get of train, find some shade and sit. It felt like we had arrived in Cuba or something. There was festive music being broadcasted over the stations loudspeakers, and old men playing chess in the sun. We waited for about forty five minutes until we could collect our passports and get back on the train. At the next stop our
Dejan
Dejan with the old lady and her bottle of ice private cabin was invaded by a sweet old lady who was insistent on us using her fan, and her bottle of ice to cool down. It was much appreciated but a language barrier brought an awkward silence into the room. Luckily she wasn't on the train too long and we once again had a chance to sleep. Or so we thought. When the train pulled into Skopje, F.Y.R.O.M the platform was packed with people heading to Belgrade, Serbia. There was no way that they equalled the amount of people getting off, so we tried our best to reserve our extra seats. It was no use, Dejan spoke Serbian back and forth to a group of guys for five minutes, until finally giving in. The train was packed.
We now shared a cabin with three extra Serbain guys, all about our age. They had beers and smokes and the cabin soon resembled the Round Bar, well, the Round Bar before the new smoking laws. There was no way we were going to get sleep so chose the next logical step. Find beer. A conductor led me to the man in the blue shirt. The man in the blue shirt led
Kell
Everyone hangs out the windows on these old trains. me to his "cabin". His cabin had a fridge, and it was stocked with beers, coke, water, whatever you wanted. So i got some beers and we joined in the fragmented conversation with Dejan as our translator. The night rolled on and everyone found strange and uncomfortable looking ways to sleep, before arriving to our destination, Belgrade, Serbia.
We had originaly planned on heading to Budapest, but the offer of a shower and a place to stay in Serbia to catch up on sleep was too good. So after a short tour of Belgrade we were on the train to Novi Sad.
Dejan's parents place was about twenty minutes out of town by bus. From the looks we were getting, I don't think anyone has ever seen a backpacker on the bus to Temerin before. We arrived to the welcome of Dejan's mum, his sister Romana, and her boyfriend Tim. Tim is from Plymouth, and Romana spoke english as well as Dejan, so we felt very comfortable from the start. Dejan's mum was really sweet and we were thankful to get some home cooked meals. Not wanting to overstay our welcome we planned to get the 11:30pm train
to Budapest in 2 nights time. That gave us a night to rest and a night to party before leaving.
The second night Dejan took us into town to meet up with his mates. Highlight of the night was in the tradition pub which was packed to the rafters. The musicians played in amongst the crowd and just as i was thinking the barmaids were doing a fantastic job not to spill anything, Kell had beer poured all over her.
We slept.
A few Serbian coffee's later and we had to head back into town to get the train. Naturally the train was an hour late and no one could tell us in English what was going on. Trying to downplay the negatives we ignored it, got on the train.
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margie
non-member comment
at last!
Brilliant to catch up on some news again! thanks Nic for great info. the prices of everything are really something!! m