Train from Istanbul to Sarajevo

After Cappadocia, we had a free week in our itinerary that we hadn't decided what to do with yet. We spoke to some people that were staying at the same hostel in Fethiye, they had just been to Bosnia and loved it. It was right en route to Croatia, cheap and looked really interesting so we thought it would be a good idea.

We decided that we would take on the massive mission of heading from Cappadocia to Sarajevo via Bulgaria by Bus and Train instead of flying. This was way cheaper, but it involved 3 nights in a row without a bed, either on the train or bus.

I was fully prepared for what would be the worst bit of the trip, as it turned out, the bus wasn't much fun but the train was really comfy. The sleeper that we had was supposed to sleep 6!!! 3 on each side stacked on top of each other in fold out bunks, which was ridiculous, but there was only us two in there so it was really cool. The only issues we had were the heavily armed Serbian border guards storming into our little sleeper at 4am to check passports. Machine guns are not what you want to see when you are woken up in the middle of the night in a strange place on a train. They just grunted and took our documents away with no explanation, we were super relieved when they brought them back.

Cozy, reminded me of an Agathie Christie sort of thing.

Me stretching out in the sleeper car.

Views of the Bulgarian countryside from the window.

Panels on the old sleeper trains.

We arrived in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, pretty well rested and spent the day there. Visited a few of the sights and got to have a bit of a look at the city.

Angie in the park.

The changing of the guard at noon.

Sitting at the steps of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in central Sofia.



Couple more shots of the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.


Natural hot water springs, locals head down there with huge containers to fill up with spring water.


Finally arrived at the Train station in Belgrade. We thought we were going to be staying the night, but realised that there was a bus leaving in 30 minutes, we thought we may as well keep going and get settled in Sarajevo. After a serious case of language barrier with the Serbian drivers regarding paying to check our bags underneath the bus, we got on ready to check the views of the much hyped bus ride from Belgrade to Sarajevo.

See you soon..