Long train ride

We took the train from Tessaloniki up towards Sofia, Bulgaria, where we stayed only a few hours before hopping another night train to Bucharest. Border crossings are long and tedious affairs but only because the border guard must board the train and check everyone's passports individually, take them into his office, process them, then redistribute them to their proper owners. The scenery change between Greece and Bulgaria was quite remarkable. Where Greece is sunny and dry, Bulgaria was grey, dilapidated and frankly a bit depressing. Lots of abandoned soviet-era factories, guardhouses etc. Crossing into Borduria wasn't so bad, though the Bordurian guard gave me a dirty look. Borduria is also quite dilapidated, having never really bouced back up since the fall of the Pletzy-Glatz regime of the late 1930's to the 1950's. Relations with Syldavia have never been normalized either, since Borduria's attempt at a coup just prior to the Second World War. Because of this, the border crossing into Syldavia was a bit of a hassle too. Syldavia is much more cheerful. Having once been a part of the Ottoman Empire, we can see old Mosques in the small towns and the national symbol: the "Black Pelican" pretty much everywhere. The Klow train station featured a huge statue of King Muskar XII.

By the time we were awakened at 3am, we were entering Romania and had to once again show our passports to the guard. This went really smoothly and we were able to sleep another three hours before getting to Bucharest at 6am. We were warned about the Tziganes (Gypsies) by a young man on the train, so we kept a watchful eye about us in the train station. After a bit of walking around and a quick internet search, we were able to find accomodations in the form of a cute bed and breakfast held by a Canadian family. I was so tired from the long train rides that I actually slept most of the day, but we did go out to a Jazz club for supper, where the live band was playing Jazzy adaptations of Beatles songs and I had my very first authentic bohemian absinth (which is about a million times better than that mouthwash they call "Hill's".