Day 10 - Belgrade, Serbia

-Pulled into the Belgrade train station around 6:30am, and I confidently marched into the ticket "room", exchanged a bit of currency for some local dinar, then walked over to the International Ticket Counter and said, "One adult to Sophia, Bulgaria, please; one-way." Choosing to be adventurous, I had decided I would train it from Budapest to Istanbul. My plan had been: night train from Budapest to Belgrade, day train from Belgrade to Sophia, and then night train from Sophia to Istanbul; exhausting, but straight-forward and cheaper than flying. Unfortunately, the woman behing the glass looked at me matter-of-factly and said, "No day train to Sophia. Only night train. Next one is tonight at 9:50pm." My heart sank. Fifteen hours? What was I supposed to do for 15 hours in this freezing cold city(current temp was -7)?

Look carefully out the window there..it's like the North Pole out there!

-With no other option, I begrudgingly booked the ticket, then found Daniela and Elena and ended up booking a bed (for the day) where they were staying (conveniently right across from the train station), and after sleeping the morning away and emailing my Istanbul host that I'd be a little later than planned, we wandered out to explore a bit of the city centre. And to find food.

Walking the city streets

-We picked up maps at the train station and once in the centre we poked in a small travel shop to ask where a good traditional Serbian restaurant would be. She pointed us in the direction of a little side street off the square, and we ate at a little hole-in-the-wall 9-tabled restaurant called "ГРИЛ 'ВЕНЧАЦ.'" It's a good thing we were starving because the food was not only good but very filling. We shared a plate of delicious Serbian cheese and bread, then each had our own dish of meat. Washed it down with a cold Serbian beer, all for just 920 dinar, or just over 9 Euros.

Lunch in Belgrade

My lunch :D

-Found our way to the Bohemian quarters and walked through them, I finally got a hat to keep my head/ears warm, and on the way back to the hostel we stopped and bought some delicious pastries. I bought 4, intending to eat one and save the others for the trains. Hung out in our room for a few hours, napping and talking, then I bid them farewell and headed off to the train. I was a little early, so I went and sat in the station's little restaurant, where I had the worst cappuccino I've ever tasted. Despite my attempts to make it tolerable by dumping the entire sugar jar into it, it was still just a cup of dirt.

In the Bohemian quarters

Sweets!

SO delicious

-While I'm sure I wasn't, the amount of stares I got when boarding the train and entering my sleeping cabin sure made me feel like the only foreigner to ever ride the night train to Bulgaria.