Belgrade - Istanbul

After having arrived from Venise into Belgrade, I subsequently bought a ticket bound straight for Istanbul. In the midst of a folie of Serbians buying their tickets to get out of the roasting city for August, I met Jo, a London-based Kiwi who was also heading to Turkey.

We spent the day wandering around Belgrade, up by the castle, and getting hassled by the police come nightfall, before retiring to a hostel near to the station. The next day would involve embarking on the 26 hour journey winding through the Serbian mountains & Bulgarian plains.

Arriving in our carriage, we met a couple of Dutch guys who were making the most of their month-long Interrail ticket.

The pace on this leg of the train journey was somewhat relaxed, with plenty of time hanging out of the windows watching the world go by, and the alphabets change from our familiar Latin characters, into their Cyrillic brethren, on which I maintained a slight grip from last year’s trip to Russia.