Night train

Day16. 16th of Oct 2009
Location: night train to Buachrest
Status: Feeling first class
Lesson... Lesson free
Authour: Simon

We have left turkey. What a great place to begin our journey. It was
hot, sunny, beautiful, friendly and easy.
Eveything was easy, arranging hostels, night buses doing the tourists
sites ourselves.

Next stop is Buachrest via a 20hour train leaving at 10pm. I was a
little apprehensive about it.
Back in my "rock and roll" days, by rock and roll I mean low budget
contempary dance, we missed a connecting flight on the way to a show
in Italy so had to use a night train. But this is the first night
train I have arranged and I was not sure what to expect.
As we are on the cheap we opted for a choachett, 6 people to a cabin
and no beds. It's about half the price of a sleeper, 2 people to a
cabin.
We got on the train very early, got our stuff arranged on the
assumption that we might have to share. 10mins before departure no one
else in our carraige, 5 mins still no one. Then the off. As we leave
the guard comes to check our tickets. Leaves and comes back with
pillows and sheets and despite the language barrier we establish that
we are the only two in this cabin all the way!
If you book a sleeper you get bunkbeds and a kind of utililty area,
cupboard, mirror, power socket.
We missed out on this utililty section but did not have to use bunkbeds.

As we left a few other guys got on, all seamed to be friends with the
guard. He introduces us to the second guard that will take the
carriage the final 12 hours after the 20hours to Bucharest onto
Belgrade.
There is also a Police officer in our carriage.
Making the beds up and Mr policeman stops by to show us how to drop
the seat down to make a larger more comfy bed. He comes back a second
time to show us how the heating system works and he let's me hold his
gun. Later he beds down himself in the cabin next to ours.
So we booked second class but were the only customers in our carriage
and got our own armed securty! Beat that you pompous first classers.

Of course sleep was light and regularly disturbed. We had our tickets
and passport checked a number of times as we crossed border points.
Only once did we have to leave the train.
We both slept untill 9.30. Had something to eat then went back to
sleep and also had a little nap after lunch.

All in all. Not a bad way to spend 20hours.

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