Monday July 8th

05.57 27 minutes ago the alarm clocks rang. Now we are slowly waking up. Yoghurt has been eaten and we had a shower. We have dried us with our sheets. In about 30 minutes we will leave. It will be walk, tram, walk, metro, walk …. station.

07.14 It is time to slow down, on soft green seats on the train to Belgrade. The trip here started bad. First we walked up the wrong stairs towards the tram and it left without us. It didn’t carry on much better, the one we caught we almost missed to get off. We managed to get it right and took the metro. As we got to the station it was time to have our tickets checked. Now all is great?! We are ready for a 7.5-hour ride.

09.16 We have been on our way for 1.5 hours. All is running smoothly and it isn’t too hot.

10.58 We just left Hungary, what will happen next?

YUGOSLAVIA

11.54 Our tourist passes have been bought. I had to follow a policeman into an office. We got signed in a register. After that they printed the blue tourist passes. Another guy wrote on some white sheets and all were done. The passes cost us $9 each. I paid with $ 20 bill and got the change in Yugoslavian Dinars.

12.11 We just got a visit from a lady with a cameraman. She gave me a question in Serbian, I replied in English. She understood me but I doubt her viewers did. My TV-career here died young.

12.37 I just bought some coffee for 15 Dinars (30 cent). It is black and hot.

13.02 We are moving!

200 dinars

16.40 In Belgrade, a chaotic, smog filled and HOT, city. After lots of looking we did finally find an exchange office. Christer has gone to get “Belgrade in your pocket”. We tried other books in that series before and like them. He will also try to find out where our hotel is.

17.18 In our new home at hotel Centar, it cost us 710 Dinars ($12) per person and night. Christer didn’t get a “In your pocket” but he bought a map, from a man with one eye and hardly any hearing.

17.29 A short summery of what happened to us since we got here. We met different kinds of people at the station, false money exchangers, cab drivers and people offering rooms. The guy that took the first price was a man offering to shoeshine my sandals. The drivers here must have got their license as a gift. They drive and park as it pleases them on pavements and so on. Is this “Guns and roses” Welcome to the jungle”? Right now someone turned on the water and our tap started to pour, pure sympathy?

21.18 Back home after walking the town. We were all but alone. Had a pizza and bought postcards. Next, bed.

Tuesday July 9th

08.15 To wake up I do my best, but all I want is to rest. My body hurts I have no power, perhaps it will help with a shower. Today will be a slow day, stroll in the town, and take some pictures and buy souvenirs.

08.45 Back from the shower, and what a shower. The positive its spray-nozzle is 8-10 cm (3-4 inch) wide. The negative, it was almost impossible to turn of the water.

09.40 Back after breakfast. The waiter mentioned several eatable things such as cheese and eggs. He said –“Complete” and we answered “Yes”. Tea or milk he replied and we said “Milk” Soon the breakfast arrived. Sweet tea, without milk and some bread and jam. The mentioned egg and cheese was not in sight. Now we will write some postcards before we head for town.

Trg Nikole Pasica, Belgrade

11.36 Break on a bench in a cosy park. We just had some ice cream. As we bought them the lady that sold them did remove the paper around them. Its is all but cool today, 31 C (87.8) shadow degrees.

12.45 We have walked around in a castle and a little guy tried to talk to Christer. He said something and held out his hand with a bill in it. After that we saw the river Sava run into Danube. Now we are at Cafe Antique and have malt. The equipment is cult. Radios from before World War II and a TV from well the 60s.

Café Antique, Belgrade

14.30 We have walked slowly, that’s all you manage here. To say it’s just the beginning. It is around 35º C (95º F) add to this the smog.

18.10 Home again after a delicious dinner at the hotel. We also had short walk to a nearby store. This was enough to make the sweat flow down our bodies.

21.30 Back in the room after a short walk of the town. Although the sun set an hour ago is it far from cool. We sweat and sweat again. The tourist agency that we looked for is more a tourist booth.

Wednesday July 10th

08.05 A new day is here. The alarm clock has rung with a sound so clear. We have a new day faced but still not from the bed raised.

10.00 Back from breakfast, a little more to eat today. Besides the sweet tea, bread, cheese and some sausage.

10.39 We just had a quick visit from the cleaning ladies. In a short while they changed the sheets, cleaned the windows and took away the trash.

12.16 Break by a big fountain. On our way from the station, there we bought tickets to Skopje, we saw some kids bathing in another fountain.

13.06 A stop in the same park as yesterday, making sure to get some liquid in us.

16.31 After a short lunch in a restaurant we are having a siesta in the room, still enfeeble after today’s heat. What’s left today is dinner and to buy some food for tomorrows trip.

19.47 Resting our tired bones by a street of cobblestones. We have seen cars being towed, they had parked in the wrong places. Time for dinner.

22.05 Home after a big meal. Christer had Pljeskavica, a huge hamburger and I had mixed grill. We are surfeited and soaking of sweats. It is time to pack.

Thursday July 11th

05.55 Just got out of bed and we are tired. All is packed and we are ready to head further south. I am afraid it is going to be a LONG and WARM day.

06.45 Onboard the train to Skopje. It seems that we have to stand up, how will this end?

09.21 A nice old gentleman came and showed us some free seats just before we left the station. Now I have slept for a while, had a croissant and some lemon soda. Lemon sure is what you need in this heat. We are passing an agricultural countryside. I just ordered some coffee from a man with a small wagon.

09.31 I wonder what happened to my coffee? Outside mountains are turning up by the horizon.

09.43 The coffee has arrived and been drunk. We are now leaving the station in Jagodina and it is still hot in the compartment. The air through the window just cools it down a bit.

11.38 We are as of now in Nis with 32 (89.6) wonderful degrees in here.

12.17 Only for more hours to go. Time for lunch.

13.51 Still damn HOT but the wiev keep getting more beautiful. Right now forest covered hills. We have soon travelled for 7 hours.

15.09 Leaving Yugoslavia. First they took my tourist passport after that they refused to stamp in my own passport. Now I will write a note to the Macedonians about myself while I wait to get back my passport from them.

MACEDONIA

15.13 Nice passport police here. They brought back my passport and they had stamped it.

16.20 Arrived to Skopje and one thing is for sure, we won’t freeze here. We will now head for our new home.

16.57 Back at the station, we went the wrong way. But we have exchanged and also seen a horse that stood among the houses eating grass.

17.55 Checked in at Ferealni but just for one night. After tomorrow is the place booked. It wasn’t easy to find. There are no street signs here. I wonder if this is U2:s “Where the streets have no names”? Now it’s time to head for town and the tourist office. We need a place to stay tomorrow night.

18.35 A stop by the river and the old stone bridge. As we looked for the tourist office we got a beggar girl at our tails. She sits a bit further away and seems tired. A horse is standing by the river.

19.35 The beggar girl left us, unfortunately with Christer’s money. She had somehow managed to get them from deep into his pocket. We have on top of this, not found a tourist office.

22.18 Time to sleep. We just had dinner here in the house we are staying in. Good food and excellent beer, Skopsko is for sure tasty. We have also bought 2 litres of Fanta Icy Lemon for tonight and perhaps tomorrow. Tomorrow is planned and it seems like Christer will head for a trip for the tourist office (it is supposed to be in the city centre), look for a room and exchange money.

Skopsko, wonderful beer from Macedonia.

Friday July 12th

07.00 Just woke up and we are far from ready for a new day. The Fanta is as good as finished and we need more. We will beside this also need a place to sleep tonight. If we don’t find any room are we forced to travel on and I wonder if we can manage that.

07.57 Time to go down for some breakfast. I wonder what they will serve today?

08.38 Back after breakfast, which we got after we had picked up a blue note from the reception. Today a cheese and ham omelette with bread and tea was served.

09.09 “Christer has left the building”. He will exchange money, find a place to stay, check if and when buses leave this town and find more to drink. I will hit the shower.

09.59 Christer just returned. He has found the tourist office. (It was closed), exchanged money and bought two more litres of Fanta. It is according to him another warm day. We decided to stay away from the buses and leave Skopje by train.

The Vardar river in Skopje.

12.20 We have a new home at hotel Boda. We live on the upper floor at an old lady´s place. There is a slight problem with conversation. We don’t speak the same language but got this room. It is small but just what we need. Our sweet hostess has registered us as Swiss!!. We met another old lady on the way here. We met her as we rested in the shadow, she looked at us, our backpacks and said – “Turisty???” and smiled a lot.

13.08 I am now, after a shower almost ready to walk the town.

14.50 At an internet café, searching for a place to stay in Thessaloniki.

16.51 We just had lunch/dinner on the same place as yesterday. It will now be a trip to the station to buy some tickets and also find the post office that is supposed to be near the station.

17.32 We just have been at the train station but the counter for international tickets was closed. We looked for the post office and found nothing. We asked some local people and they directed us and asked why we didn’t send e-mail instead. Christer stayed outside during the time I was at the post office. He decided to get inside as three goats passed him on their afternoon stroll.

18.55 Ticket bought and we also got a card that we got from a nice taxi driver. We are back home and outside it is raining and thundering.

20.00 We have just seen Britney Spears perform “I love rock n roll” on TV. It wasn’t even close to good.

21.55 According to the weatherman on TV has it been 36 (96.8) degrees here in Skopje today.

Saturday July 13th

05.30 Newly awaken and just had some breakfast. Time to pack the last stuff before another stationwalk. A huge thanks to the fan in our room it kept us from sweating.

06.50 What a morning! We had just got out of the room and down the narrow stairs only to realise the door out was locked. It was supposed to be opened with a key and the one we had didn’t match. We turned to door into there our room lady lived. A strange sound cried out as we rang the bell. The lady got out and so we did. Onto that a fast walk to the train station and here we are. Our train is late, what ever will happen next?

07.22 After some walking through the wagons we do have a compartment. Not on our own but we are allowed to sit down.

08.17 We just passed a beautiful landscape. Steep mountains with grass on them, running down towards a small river. Most of our fellow passengers have left the compartment and it has also been swept.

09.55 At the border. I´ve just written a fact sheet to hand to the Macedonians. They wanna know my name, date of birth, passport number an so on. I left out the number on my license plate.

10.03 Passports checked, sheets collected and the odour from the toilet is far from pleasant.

10.19 We are moving I hope we will get into Greece.

GREECE

10.33 Passport collected to be brought to the police station. I sure am happy that it wasn’t us they wanted to take there. Here we find huge hymenopters and as usual flies that like to walk on our feet.

11.09 The passports just got back. Could it be that we were supposed to go and get them? We will now move our watches an hour ahead to adjust the Greek time.

12.28 Lunch eaten. The landscape is flattening out and we see lots of fields being irrigated.

13.01 Arrived at Thessaloniki what ever might happen here?

13.44 Stop by a street in town. We are hopefully on our way to the tourist information and we are sweating Niagara Falls. It is close to 40º C (104º F) if my thermometer is correct.

14.17 We reached the Aristotle’s square and hopefully the tourist information.

14.26 Tourist can for sure get information here, if the place is open. We are all but successful as it comes to such agencies. I guess it is a reminder that we are supposed to die. We do have an address to a possible place to stay. I will take a walk there and see what it is.

15.39 I´ve been at the hostel, seen a thermometer that showed 38 (100.4) degrees and returned. After some thinking have we realised we better travel on. The only train that can take us to Sofia leaves at 10.00 and we think it is better to leave now instead of waiting all day tomorrow.

17.10 Back at the train station. We have bought some fruit, searched for a place to eat at and are all exhausted. We saw bridal couple in a car and a cab from Albania on our way here.

18.02 We just bought a ticket to Sofia. We will travel on in four hours. The 13th of July seems to be a tough day to travel (se last year´s journal)

A very hot day in Thessaloniki.

19.33 Back from dinner at the station. Christer chose spaghetti, I chose souvlaki, a delicious barbecue spit. Finally I did order some Greek coffee. I turned down sugar and milk, the waitress looked at me, gave me a glass of water and said –“This is Greek coffee”. It is for sure not weak. There are white dots on Christer’s T-shirt. I wonder if it might be salt? In the speakers they play music from Disney movies.

20.40 I washed myself and changed T-shirt.

21.20 In the compartment. It sure isn’t cool here. In less then an hour will today’s second trip begin. This will be the first night trip.

22.04 We are on our way. Leaving Greece, Thessaloniki, the station and the music.

Sunday July 14th

00.03 We are sleeping from time to time, running through the Greek night on our way to the border.

00.20 We are after 20 minutes stop one the move again.

00.51 We are standing still waiting for the customers and passport checkers. I hope they will be here soon cause I sure wanna sleep.

01.02 A man came just out of the night carrying a trunk. He put it down, reached something to a man on the train and walked away. As this was written did a man collect our pass ports. According to the timetable we shall travel on in an hour.

01.39 The pass port guys have gone into their place with all the passports in a plastic bag. Can they really keep them apart? They sure aren’t moving fast. Another thing that is slow is the line of trucks out on the road. The drivers are sounding their horns and one of them just began to sing.

02.10 All quiet on passport front. A man from the compartment next to us is walking back and forth.

02.23 The passports are returned from a plastic bag for tax-free stuff. Another man that the one that collected them brought them back. We were lucky and got ours without problems. The others in the wagon were from as fortunate. To get the passport back was for sure a lottery. The man opened doors crying out –“Stavros”, “Bulgaria” and so on.

02.34 The passport guys are done, more song has been heard and the train is standing still. The guy next to us is on the move again.

02.39 A Greek orthodox priest just ran like hell to the customs office and back. Just after that he did stroll down the aisles with a water bottle in his hand, might it be Holy water? Even the train is finally on the move.

BULGARIA

02.39 Stop again, I wonder for how long and what will happen here? One thing is for sure our neighbour walks.

02.48 We just left the station with customers, passport guys and a man in a blue overall and gloves.

02.51 We are going backwards, back to the station.

02.56 Stop, the passports collected and put in a plastic bag or shall I call it passport bag? We are standing a bit on the side and guys are checking under the train using flashlights. “It’s been a hard days night”

03.04 We just had a visit from a customer armed with a flashlight. Our neighbour, wearing a thin jacket, on the move.

03.57 I slept for a while and just got back my passport.

04.02 At last the train is moving. This night has been full of surprises, what ever might happen next? Our friend the walker has changed to a thicker jacket.

06.15 More passengers have been added to our compartment.

08.00 We reached Sofia.

08.24 We have a new home, hotel Horizont. It is in the home of Sachko Varadinov Bikarksi. He picked us up at the station and drove us here. We are all but fresh. It’s been 26 hours since we last slept well.

10.06 Life is on its way back. We just had breakfast in the garden. Mixed sausage and cheese, a large piece of tomato, cucumber, breads and egg. To this COFFEE, I sure needed that. The cat of the house shared our breakfast. This cute little animal took the chance and stole some of Christer’s cheese. I took a shower after breakfast and with a little sleep on this and I will be back in business. Our hostess refuses to remove her…

14.00 I slept for some hours. I am not 100% fresh but I feel better then before.

18.02 After we went by tram and walked the streets of Sofia we are now resting on a bench. Big and beautiful houses and few people on the streets. Here and then sheets with picture and name of deceased, obituaries perhaps?

Banya Bashi mosque in Sofia.

21.24 We have walked the town, bought postcard in plastic and seen a man that crawled on the ground. We also had dinner and seen a marker-hall. In there Christer saw a store dedicated to ketchup. I almost forgot we also saw a bridal-couple, in a car. Our hostess that keeps keeping the covering stuff on has washed our clothes. Christer’s T-shirt that we thought had got white stains from salt is just the same, we suspect the heat made it loose its colours.

Monday July 15th

09.18 Since fifteen minutes am I awake. I just had my breakfast. The sun is shining outside and we make plans to go into town to buy some stuff.

11.39 Only 31º (87.8º) in the shadow. Now we will head for the city centre and do the things we didn’t do yesterday.

The St George´s church with Hotel Sheraton all around it.

14.03 We have walked the streets of Sofia, exchanged money and been at the post office. There it moved SLOW as it finally was our turn did the lady just hand us the stamps and we were forced to put them on ourselves. WE are now near St George’s church from the 4th century, built close to hotel Sheraton. There are small stores here with apertures on pavement level perhaps for the man we saw yesterday?

15.31 Pizza, beer and espresso for 4 leva ($ 2) not that bad. There are some smart ladies here in town. They let you check your weight on bathroom scales for a small amount.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia.

17.20 Resting in a park, drinking lemon soda. We just saw a motorcycle police stopped a guy in a car. They talked, the policeman wrote something, the guy gave the policeman a T-shirt and moved on.

17.25 Our policeman just got a visit by another police. They are looking at young lady that passes them and they also talk into a walkie-talkie. Policeman number two just crossed the street and went into a café.

17.35 A third policeman just got here. He has also been at that café but he has returned.

17.46 Two guys in cars have been stopped. The policemen are writing something. I wonder if these guys also will give the policemen a T-shirt.

17.55 On the other side of the street is a police car, our policemen and another one on a motorcycle. The new one just went away, wasn’t he allowed to play with the other guys? Policeman number one and three just went back to our side but number two is still missing.

18.10 Number to just returned and left and so we will.

19.20 After a desperate search I did finally buy a telephone card.

20.20 Back home, I just paid for our stay here. It didn’t go well. I blame the heat. I only took money for one person not two as I was supposed to do. According to our hostess, still covered, these days are called the “Firedays” some timing from our side. Beer = Bira Cheers = Nazdrave

21.56 Some end of this day. Some nice person have turned of the water heater so the water in the shower is cold. The milk that Christer bought smells and taste just as if there is something wrong with it.

22.45 The night is crawling in our little camp. Someone knocked on the door as I left the cold shower. I opened the door and there was a short Asian lady. She said, “Finish?” I was for a while in the mood to answer –“No Swedish” but just said –“Yes”

Tuesday July 16th

07.35 So its morning again. Time to pack our things and travel on.

09.33 At the station, as the tram finally arrived it did move slowly here. It was crowded as we got onboard and more entered. Before we left it finally happened, our hostess removed her, sunglasses.

12.40 We reached Plovdiv. The bathroom door refused to open on the way here. I was trapped. I did after some tackling managed to open it.

14.41 In our new home. To get here were we forced to walk allot. The map in the guidebook is far from correct, the once that made it have forgot several streets. On our way here we did see some gypsy wagons. We are staying at Turistcheski Dom. Our door is far from small and what we first thought was a closet is our bathroom. The toilet has no door but a shower curtain.

16.27 I just had a late lunch. Grilled pork chop, lemon, cucumber and beer, after that coffee. Price $2-3. Here as in other places before are the flies really found of our feet. Is it the salt or what? If that is the reason they will keep following us for yet some time. Its is now +35ºC (95ºF), no risk that we will freeze.

18.19 I just wrote the last postcard and finished the beer. Kamenitza is really great on a hot day.

19.22 Our brains are reaching the boiling point. Our legs are like wet spaghetti. But we have arranged a place to stay in Ruse. We can stay at my old friend Elena’s place.

21.02 Back in the room. I just had dinner, a steak with a lemon slice on the side and some chips. It is time to gather the belongings. We won’t sleep long tomorrow. Outside we can hear music and people talking. In here we do have an antique radio.