We awoke in our rundown hotel room hustled our bustles to get to the train station. We had tried to look for train schedules online but there was nothing to be found. We arrived at the train station and went directly to the international ticket counter. The problem was that the seat behind counter was currently absent. There happened to be this man who I would estimate to be in his late fifties early sixties, with long gray hair in a ponytail, tan weathered face, and a sweet cane/walking stick, came up to me and asked me where I was from. Turns out at one point in his life, he had lived in Leavenworth, Washington! He had been traveling around Europe for a very long time and was trying to get to Albania to take a ferry to Italy to get to Greece. Andrew had gone to information and they summoned an attendant to issue our tickets. We let this gentlemen go before us and he asked how to get to Albania. Very bluntly, she informed him that NO trains go to Albania, but he could take a bus. Albania is full of drug lords and human traffickers. No one in their right mind would want to go there, but apparently he did. After he got the information he wanted it was our turn. "Umm… we need to get to Germany". The ticket lady with her thick Greece accent, “No.” “Farthest you can go is to Belgrade, then you buy new ticket to Germany.” Andrew and I looked at each other and just shrugged our shoulders, “Perfect. 2 please.” As she is penning our tickets, we look at each other for the second time and both ask the question, “Where is Belgrade?” We were both pretty sure that it was in Serbia but I wouldn’t have exactly bet my life on it. I then asked her what time we would be arriving in Belgrade and she said 6. Our train left at 5 so we had a couple of hours to kill.
We then sat at a tall table and I pulled our my Europe map of railways I keep in my bag. Correctamungo ---- Belgrade is in Serbia. Gold star in geography for Nicole and Andrew. Yessss. After about an hour or so we got quite bored. I decided to make up a game. It was a contest with only 1 goal --- Eye contact. The person who makes eye contact with the most people won. Oh man, this game was hilarious…. And slightly awkward. Once I got tired at staring at strangers we had discovered that Goody’s, a fast food chain in the train station, had free wi-fi. Which was quite handy… except for when our computers died. I was able to find some outlets at another table so we migrated there.
I might add in that prior to this, we did not know where in Germany we were going. We thought about staying in Munich or Regensburg, but had never made a final decision. Kelley offered her humble abode which I voted for. Andrew didn't really care so that was our new plan. At this point in our trip, I was quite relieved for 3 reasons. #1. We were going back to Germany. #2. Once we got back to Germany, we were heading back to the States. #3. The time we would have to wait to get to the states, we would be staying somewhere normal with someone I knew, which alleviated loads of anxiety. Phew. I really do enjoying staying in hostels and meeting new people, but it can get exhausting.
After we had settled into our new location, I spent my time of reading the news, facebook stalking people, and getting in touch with the parentals to tell them our plan so they would know we were not dead… yet. The time came for us to board our train. These were not the kind of trains we had ridden in Germany. Theses were old school trains, graffitied and rusted. While walking down the narrow hallway on the right while searching for an empty compartment on the left, I became very aware of my surroundings and felt very uneasy. Andrew and I were able to successfully take over a whole compartment to ourselves and spread out our stuff so no one would sit with us. There were 3 seats on both sides of the compartment and Andrew sat on the far left on the right side, and I sat on the middle seat on the right side. These seats were made of faded, dirtied maroon fabric. Just like our carpet at the hotel in Thessaloniki, these seats had questionable stains on the fabric. The walls were pealing and rusting. We had a single garbage attached to the wall that I didn’t even want to touch to open it. Home sweet home for the next 13 hours. On the walls were pictures in plastic cases of destinations in the Balkans. Belgrade just so happened to be the destination in the right case. But it was not Belgrade, Serbia. It was Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Wow. They are about 10 years out of date. When the train first took off, Drew and I looked at each other and started to discuss Serbia. To be quite honest, the only thing we really knew about Serbia was Milosevic. A war criminal who practiced genocidal techniques. Not quite positive thoughts of Serbia. It had been only a decade since NATO had bombed them. Yah!
As we crossed the line into Macedonia, an officer came and ripped open our door demanding our passports. As we handed them to him, he informed, in his thick accent, that we could pick them up at the police station. I was in utter shock that I could not quite get out the words to ask him where this “police station” was. When traveling, your passport was your identity and I was NOT comfortable with this man taking my identity. I could just imagine them looking at our record and seeing that we were in Europe for longer than the law said we could But it was not like these countries were in the European Union so I did not know what would happen. My life did flash before my eyes and a scene appeared in which Andrew and I were in interrogation rooms, being yelled at with spit falling upon our faces, and being squeezed for answers. Answers to what I am not sure... just answers. After traveling at the 10 MPH this train seemed to cruise at, we stopped in a small location and guards could be viewed from the right side of the train. We had been parked there for about 30 minutes and we started to become anxious. What in the world were we doing? I could see people getting on and off the train, which is quite unusual. I then walked out of our compartment and looked at the window. Police Station. Andrew and I then ran out of the train to go retrieve our passports. The lady who was returning them was handing them out by country. There happened to be three Americans on this train and Andrew and I took up 2 of those slots. She tried to give us the third passport and I tried to explain that we didn’t know who that person was. She didn’t understand. Finally we just shook our heads and walked away. I figured she would figure it out. We then got back on our train and hid in our compartment. Once again, out door slid open and we were presented with paperwork we needed to fill out. Once this was done, the guard came back to pick them up and then pointed at Andrew and then the outside of his compartment. I was next. Once we were aligned outside of our door with the rest of the passengers on the train, several other guards brought a dog into every room to sniff for what I would guess to be drugs. Sketch. That is one of the most uncomfortable situations I have ever been in my life. My padre had always told me his stories from Russia and that was all I could think about. GGGrrreat. Whenever I am in an airport or any high security place, I always think about those movies where a criminal slips something in someone’s bag or luggage to smuggle it across boundaries. As the dog came into our compartment, I was sooo nervous because somehow I knew that I would be that person where someone had put something in my bag. Thankfully this was not the case and the puppy dog did not find anything. Stupid movies, implanting fake scenarios into my head. As the guards passed through us another passenger pointed at us and then back at the compartment signaling that we could go back in. After about another hour or so, our train finally began to move once again
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