Day 59 - Europe 2011

Day 59 - Friday, July 22, 2011 - Bucharest to Instanbul via Sofia, Bulgaria

I had a terrible night due to a bladder infection? Terrible pain when I try to urinate. I went down for b'fast at 7:30. I asked for cafe au lait and a ham omelette. I got expresso, an omelette, ham, feta cheese, tomato, bread and butter. I made myself a couple egg and ham sandwiches. I checked out at 8:30. Went for a short ride around the block but ended up having to walk my bike back to the train station due to a one way street. I was able to exchange 151 LEI for 35 E. I bought a 1.5L bottle of water for 4 LEI. I also bought 2 BigMacs for the trip (18 LEI). The board finally announced that the train for Istanbul would be departing from Track 3. I made my way over there at around 11:00. There were not many people waiting in spite of there being a train there with sleeping cars. I checked every car but couldn't figure out which one I should be on. I asked a signalman if this was the train for Istanbul and he said I should go check with Information. Nobody got on the train and it left. I sat down and waited. Finally the train arrived at 11:45. There were many more people waiting to get on now. I showed my tickets to a conductor and he indicated I should get on Car # 2. As I was about to get on the train another conductor came along and said I was not allowed to bring my bike on board. He was the conductor for the 1st class car the other guy was the conductor for the 2nd class car. I showed him my tickets for a private sleeping cabin and a 50 LEI note. He said that was not enough as he had to pay several other people. I said I would add more and he allowed me to get on with my bike. Big sigh of relief!!! As I was waiting for the train to arrive 3 other cyclists arrived (2 girls and a guy). The guy came over and introduced himself and said they were from Alaska and had been touring around Romania. He was curious about the arrangements for my bike. I said I was told I had to talk to the conductor which is the same information that he got. They were travelling 2nd class and had bought an extra ticket for their bikes which is what they had done for the trip from Istanbul to Romania. The only snag was that when the Passport Control people came on the train they expected 4 people instead of just 3. There was a lot of explaining to do about the extra seat for the bicycles. I had no trouble getting my bike on board and in my cabin once I removed my 2 rear panniers. I hung my bike on the ladder using the handle bars. The ladder was hanging on 2 sturdy coat hooks. When the conductor returned for my ticket he saw that I had added another 4 x 10 LEI notes. He was satisfied and kept my tickets. I asked if I could have them back. He said he would return them at the end of the journey. We left for Istanbul at 12:13 right on schedule. It was a very long ride. A lot of stops i.e. customs/passport control leaving Romania, entering and leaving Bulgaria and entering Turkey. There were also several stops in between including a 2 hour stop in Dubrovnik. Don't ask me why???