Day 17 - 05/07/23

 Woke up bright and early this morning and packed up all of our things in preparation for our big train journey. Had an absolutely nightmare trying to reserve seats as the queue was gigantic, and when we got to the front the lady at the desk just walked off for some reason, then returned 10 minutes later and informed us that we were queueing at the wrong desk. Despite this, we managed to get on our train in time.

We were very excited as this train was comprised of various rooms with seats inside, like in Harry Potter as opposed to the normal trains with just rows of seats. 

One of the two others in my carriage left shortly, so it was just me and Piotr for the rest of the journey. The carriage was very hot, and Piotr worked tirelessly trying to jam his water bottle in between the self closing windows to maintain a steady air flow. After about hour 5, I got a bit tired, so I stretched out along the seats and had a nice long nap.

When I awoke, we were travelling around the Balkan Mountains, and the three of us spent the next hour sticking our heads out the windows like dogs to get a better look at the views, which were stunning.

Sorry that the photos are quite blurry, it was a fast train! Anyway, we ended up being about an hour late, but the views made up for it. After getting to Sofia’s central station, we braved the metro on our way to our AirBnb, and after journeying through the suburbs of Sofia we finally made it. It was only £10 a night and probably the nicest place we’ve stayed in so far. I’ve got a bed right next to a gigantic window so I wake up with beautiful views over Sofia.

Still hungry from the train journey, we ventured out to find some food. We found a kebab shop with a very nice kebab man, and I ordered the biggest, oiliest, fattiest, artery clogging beef doner kebab ever, which hit the spot.

We planned to eat them at home but we were so starving we ended up finishing them on the way back. Full and exhausted, we headed to bed.