Sofia, Bulgaria (Day 11)

Train travel is not fun! It is okay if you are only taking one train or so, but after many, many days of trains, it gets old very fast! And it does not help when the trains are late, and you miss your connections! While crossing the Turkey/Bulgaria border, we had to get off the train to get our passports stamped (usually they come on the train, but not at this border!). This took forever! Either way, this in combination with the slow-moving train, we were like five hours late getting into Sofia and missed the train to Belgrade by 20 minutes. The next train did not leave for another five hours, so Layne and I decided to see some of Sofia while we had time.

When we were leaving the train, there was another American who was trying to get to Belgrade. We told him our plans and invited him to join us. We knew that there was a famous church that we wanted to see and a great pizza place (as told by Ian- our couchsurfer friend). He gladly accepted since the alternative was sitting in the train station for five hours. After checking our luggage into the storage room and buying our tickets for Belgrade, we began the walk to the church. Along the way, we learned that Paul was a geology professor at the University of Georgia. He had been visiting one of their partner schools in Istanbul and was making his way to Vienna for a little side trip before going home to the states. He was a super nice guy and easy to talk with. 

We had some idea of how to get to the church, but after a while, we decided to grab a taxi. I am glad we did because it was a lot farther away than we thought. When we made it to the church, we paid the entrance fee and waited for our turn to go into the church. Once inside, we met the tour guide who was this old man whose name was White White (It translated in English to this, and I thought it was weird). Although we did not pay for a guided tour, he let us listen in. This was not too difficult because the church was only comprised of two small rooms. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed inside the church because it could damage the very old paintings inside the church. The paintings were very impressive and dated back to the 13th century.

 Outside of Boyana Church

Our tour guide was so cute and would hold our hand and point out all the different paintings. We later learned that he was 78 and had taught himself English. All three of us were very impressed because his English was very good. On our way out of the church, we ran into our English friends with whom we had shared a sleeping compartment from Istanbul. It was funny running into them there!

With the one and only Mr. White White!

After seeing the church, we took another taxi to the pizza parlor. It was soooo good! Since it was the last Friday of Lent, I went with an eggplant, zucchini, and tomato pizza (I really wanted the pepperoni one because I have been missing pepperoni, but passed on it.). Although the pizzas looked huge, but all three of us were able to finish them! We then walked back along the pedestrian street to the train station.

Sofia, Bulgaria

We got back to the train station and boarded the train. Layne and I got a compartment by ourselves and settled in for the train ride. We learned that we would get into Belgrade at 4 am! After a few hours, the border patrol came through and we were able to sleep for the rest of the journey.