The Night Train to Belgrade

15 hours on the night train to Belgrade sounded like hell when I first figured out that was my best option to reach the project from Italy. Thankfully God intervened and it was actually quite pleasant.

there were only two other guys in my cabin so we could spread out a bit (it was a six bed cabin). One of them was a guy from Santa Cruz California so it was fun to talk with him. The other guy was Alex from Macedonia, he acted as our translator to the train guy who's english was probably worse than the japanese tourists.

The trip was mostly uneventful. I even slept pretty well except for the 'passport control' at 3:30am. They came and knocked on every door demanding passports. That was when i learned how good it can be to have an American passport. They didnt even open mine just saw that it was from USA. Alex's however they looked at for a good 5 minutes. That all happend right before reaching Zahgrab.

Then in the morning we enjoyed watching the Croatian and Serbian countryside roll past. It looks alot like the central vally of California. Flat but hills in the distance. All farm land. Bright red poppies lined about 2 feet on either side of the tracks most of the way.

The best part of sitting for 15 hours is that my blisters are MUCH better. Praise God!

Now I am in Belgrade with the rest of the summer project staff getting acclimated. The students get here in two days!