The Turkish border at 3am in the cold fog
To get into Bulgaria you are required to exit the train (at 3 am) to go get your passport stamped. This involves waiting deliriously in a long line in the freezing cold because there is only one agent checking passports for the whole train. Then, you return to the train but you have to stay awake because then the Turkish authorities will come by each compartment to check that your passport is stamped. The train then travels for maybe 30 to 40 kilometers where it stops in Svilengrad - the Bulgarian border - where the train stops again and you have to wait for the Bulgarian authorities to walk through the train stamping and checking passports. On the way there it took 2 hours, on the way back it took more than 3 hours.
L: The 2nd class sleeper car corridor R: The outside of our train
L: Aaron, Devin, Jill and Will outside our 5 rooms - each room slept three people. R: Greg, Devin, John, Jill and Kendal packed into one room.
This weekend, November 16 to November 20, a group of 10 exchange students bought one way tickets to Sofia, Bulgaria on the night train (some of us didn't get our tickets until we showed up at the station that evening). Equipped only with ATM cards, LP: Bulgaria and great enthusiasm out intrepid group departed from the Istanbul train station at 10 pm without the weight of plans or a schedule to weigh them down. After a 2 hour stop at the Turkish-Bulgarian borders and 14 hours after they departed the City of Seven Hills they arrived in Sofia in time for lunch and conscious enough to begin ciphering the Cyrillic alphabet.
No comments:
Post a Comment