Today has been a great day during which I undertook the 10.5 hour journey from Bucharest to Sofia and its what travel is all about.
The 1011 departure from Bucuresti Nord is an unusual and interesting train. It consists of just 3 coaches, the three coaches belong to three different operators and they go to three different destinations.
The rear most is from CFR Calatori the Romanian State Railway and is taking mainly Romanian holidaymakers to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast resort of Varna. In the middle is an air conditioned sleeper belonging to TCDD the Turkish State Railway which runs to Istanbul.
The last coach is a rather run down, graffiti covered coach belonging to the Bulgarian State Railway which runs through to Sofia. I joke with people that the graffiti is an integral part of the construction because it helps hold the rust together.
Actually despite the outward appearance of almost all Bulgarian railway stock, the insides are really very comfortable. We won't talk about the toilets though!!
I was sharing a 6 seat compartment with a couple from the Netherlands and a couple from France, the French couple having met whilst at university in Exeter. We chatted, exchanged travel stories, moaned about our respective governments and reminisced about the Olympics in both Paris and London.
The Dutch couple surprised me by saying "We love Phil and Kirsty, we watch them every week". The French couple were really up to speed on our Post Office trauma, with "Mr Bates V The Post Office" having been broadcast in France.
They were great people to spend a day with and in the great tradition of travel, people I have shared a day of my life with but will probably never see again. I would also add that the scenery during the last couple of hours of the journey as the train worked its way through the Balkan mountains was also amazing.
Arriving in Sofia we all went our separate ways - although the other four were heading to Istanbul later in the week - I am jealous now!
It was around 9pm when I arrived at my hotel, so nothing to report on Sofia so far except it was buzzing when I went out to find something to eat and look at this Metro pic - looks very smart.
We do have the funny letters here though - the Cyrillic script will be a challenge, but like everything else that is one of the joys of travel. More from Sofia tomorrow.
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