Euro Adventures

We were dreading the almost 2 days and nights on the overnight train from Zagreb to Athens. Our plan then was to go to Athens (while ıt was still under threat from bushfires) island hop through the Greek Islands and then make our way to Turkey. Before leaving London I had checked our visa requirements etc for the countries we would be travelling through on the internet, though maybe I should have checked more thoroughly. On the way to Greece we had to pass through Serbia and Macedonia. We got through Serbia with no problems but when we came to the Macedonian border we were unceremoniously dumped from the train, told our information was ' bad' and shoved back on the next train to Serbia (without a ticket of course) and told - go back to Belgrade - you spend 10 hours at embassy and get visa. Australians and Americans need visas though ıt changes all the time, hence our bad information. Having no desire to go back to Macedonia, even in transit, wıth the help of a nıce train guard and a lovely Macedonian woman on the train we were kicked onto, we decided instead to go to Turkey first, via Bulgaria. Knowing basically nothing about Bulgaria we caught a train from a small Serbian station at 2 o'clock in the morning and made our way to Sofia the captital. Sofia has some surprisıngly modern elements and Bulgaria has recentşy joined the EU though they still use their oen currency, the leva. Sofia's main tourist attraction is actually outside the city,Mt Vitosha and we didn't make it there but we enjoyed our time there. We had a very motherly hostel owner who was always very concerned about our well being and gave us nıce sugar loaded breakfasts.