Istanbul station where we dined in the Orient Express Restaurant before catching the 10pm train to Belgrade. Very impressive restaurant with all its history for fine rail travel over the years...fantstic meal so we were thinking this rail trip should be good.........WRONG..it was a nightmare.
Once we boarded we were totally blown away by how dirty it was..the sleeper compatment we had I don't think the sink had been cleaned in months.....thank goodness I carry loads of disenfectant wipes. the only good thing was when they handed out the linen it was all in fresh laundry wrap. I can't even tell you about the loos...lets just say more disenfectant wipes needed.
So we start our trip and finally drop off to sleep somewhere around 2am..next thing the train stops and we are herded off in our Pjs into this room for the border security check of our passports..its 4am and so cold no heating in this room and we were there for about 15 minutes. Then told to get back on the train...it was so degrading and in this day and age shouldn't happen.
Anyhow back on the train from hell we thought we would see where the restaurant car was for a coffee....wrong again not on this train.
Well we are now thinking ok we can hang out until 8am when the train arrives......only to be told no the train dosn't get in until 8pm..yes they had told us the wrong time when we booked.
Of course by this stage all we are thinking is get is off. When we stop at Sophia we are told it is a ten minute stop so Peter jumps off to get some water and food etc and i jump off to have my fag...I know......next thing the train starts moving out.I am yelling at the gaurd to wait one minute until Peter gets back and he is yelling at me to get on the train.Pleased to say I won and Peter got onto the train.
We finally got into Belgrade at 10pm found the nearest hotel showered and slept and left the next day.
Arrived in Zargreb which is just a beautiful place....more to follow...ps I now have photos on a disk so I am getting closer for you to view.
