AASebWorldTour

October 1, 2013

Roadtrip in Israel

For our remaining days in Israel, we decided to drive around and explore the country. Driving out of Jerusalem was a lot easier than driving in Jordan as most people actually stay within the lines and respect the road rules. We drove toward Tel-Aviv, and went north to reach Akko. Akko has a old fortified city and a citadel. We wanted to visit the citadel, but unfortunately, because of a theater festival, the citadel was not available for regular tourists. We walked for a few minutes in the old city, and in the market but we didn’t feel like being stuck in people so we decided to get out of the old city and have a look at the Mediterranean Sea from the Israeli side.We enjoyed the view and the wind before getting back into our rental Smart and driving East.

Because we were early, we went to the viewpoints mentioned in the Lonely Planet. We drove along the Syrian border to Majdal Shams, but couldn’t see the viewpoint. The views were pretty good anyway and we got up to Mt. Hermon, were the road was blocked by a gate so we stopped and took a few pictures. The Golan Heights region is scenic with nice valleys and some orchards and wineries. During our stay in Katzrin, we stayed at Golan Garden, a brand-new hostel run by really friendly owners Milou and Alon.

On our second day discovering Israel, we went for a hike in the Yehudiya Nature Reserve. We followed the upper Zavitan trail from the hostel to the waterfalls. It was a good three-our walk. We saw some natural pools and a nice waterfall. After our morning walk, we came back to the hostel to shower and relax, before getting back in the car to have a look at Mt Bental lookout (an Israeli bunker turned tourist attraction) We tried to go in the bunker, but it was too dark to be able to see where we were going.

On our last day of discovery, we drove toward the Dead Sea. On our way we stopped to a nice viewpoint over the Sea of Galilee. Alon from the hostel had mentioned another nice viewpoint where we could see three countries; Israel, Jordan and Syria. We had GPS coordinates so we though this was going to be easy to find. It was not.

We followed the small road,which looked like a farmer’s private road all the way to a United Nation building. We turned around and kept going on the road, thinking we were going to see the viewpoint. As soon as we started going downhill, we were driving along the Syria, Jordan borders… lined with very tall barbed-wire fences. We kept driving, but soon there was a closed gate. So we turned around. On the other side of the electrified barbed-wire fence, the view seemed really amazing, over the mountains of Jordan and Syria, but we didn’t feel it was the kind of place to stop and snap pictures. We were just worried somebody was going to stop us and ask us what the hell we were doing on the border line, in a rented Smart…

We kept driving to the Dead Sea, entered Palestine, no question asked, and followed the groups of slow driving tourists. The Dead Sea is nice on the Israeli side as well, the turquoise water and the Jordanian mountain makeup for a good scenery. But again there are some barbed-wire fences so no great photo opportunities while driving.

We arrived in Masada early in the afternoon. Masada was a fortress, a palace and a rebel stronghold perched atop a mountain. It has a pretty surprising history giving that it is not easily reachable and located in less than human friendly setting. After spending a about an hour at the top, exploring the ruins, and enjoying the view of the Dead Sea and sand dunes, we came back down the 700 steps and drove some more. We stayed in Arad for the night and the next morning we brought the car back to Jerusalem.

The next day was already time to leave Israel and go back to Jordan in order to catch our fight. We left the hostel at 7:30, walked to the bus station and arrived just in time as the minibus was almost ready to leave. We passed a few checkpoints on the way to Allenby bridge. When we arrived to the passport control, we put our bags on a trolley and walked in the building. The way out of Israel was a lot faster and easier than coming in. They looked at our passports and our visa cards and sent us to the next counter. After getting our exit stamps and paying the exit fees, we walked out and waited for the tourist bus to arrive and take us to the other side. The Jordanian side was as hectic as coming in. The officer gathered everybody’s passport, and went out of the bus. The guy selling tickets for the bus than got on and collected money. As soon as we paid, we were allowed outside and went to wait in front of the three officers for them to call out our names and give us our passports back. We walked outside and were assaulted by taxi drivers, and finally made our way back to Amman where we spent the remaining of the day doing what we loved most in Jordan: eating, walking around, and trying to find something to spent our last dinars on.

Mediterranean Sea from Akko, Israel

Soldier crossing the street

Welcome to Golan Heights

Small town in northern Israel

Go in peace

Viewpoint of the Syrian – Israeli border

Border fence

Mt. Bental bunker viewpoint

Mt Bental lookout

Direction sign at Mt. Bental

Inside the bunker

One of the pools in Yehudiya Nature Reserve

Zavitan Waterfall

Sea of Galilee

Carved stone head

Dead Sea from the Israeli side

Masada ruins

View from Masada

Masada, Israel

Masada

September 30, 2013

Jerusalem, Israel

While we were in Jordan, we decided a visit to the neighboring country, Israel, was a must. Jerusalem is really old and rich in history. Because of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday, we had to book everything in advance as most places were full. We never heard of Sukkot before but we lived it for a few days. It is probably celebrated everywhere in the world where there are Jews but Jerusalem was obviously the best place to be to feel the emotional charge in the air as thousand of people were gathered to pray. This historic city is considered one of the holiest city in the world by three of the most popular religions; Islam, Judaism and Christianity. It is quite amazing to see how all of these coexist within the same walls. The old city actually has 4 quarters; Armenian, Jewish, Muslim and Christian.

We highly recommend the free walking tour offered every day as our guide was extremely knowledgeable. We joined our group close to Jaffa gate at 9:30 AM. It was a two-hour walking tour of the different quarters of the Old City. He made us go through 4000 years of history in that short period of time, this was a lot of very interesting information. In addition to a walk through the four quarters, we saw some roman ruins of what was the main road and market place. We saw the Western Wall. and we walked by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus is said to have been crucified and buried. Actually, the whole tour was slightly different because we were not allowed to go to all the sites thanks to military road blocks related to the holiday. After our tour, we explored outside the walls for a few hours. We walked to the Mount of Olive, where we saw the “Grotta”, the place where Jesus was betrayed, and also the tomb of Marie right next to it.

Walking through all the small pedestrian cobblestone streets of the old city was a delight with all the different smells and atmosphere of the four quarters. We enjoyed Jerusalem very much and we think it is a must. The city outside of the walls also have a lot to offer from restaurants to shopping as ethnic and cultural variety makes it a place for everybody to enjoy and find what they are looking for.

The wall outside Jaffa Gate

Damascus Gate

Friendly military cadet

Military road block

Western Wall

Rooftop view of the old city

Roman ruins of the old market street

Spice market

Inside the Church of All Nations

Dome of the Rock

Western Wall

One of the largest Jewish cemetery in the world

Outside the wall

Olive trees of Gethsemane

Tomb of the Virgin Mary

Grotta

September 28, 2013

Exploring Jordan

After everything we have seen from this country, there was still more to see of it. Jordan is rich in history and nice areas to visit. We had to wake up early to catch the first minibus to go get the rental car in Aqaba as there is no car rental in Wadi Musa as far as we could find. The buses here, they don’t run on a schedule, they leave when full and we had to wait for almost 2 hours. When we arrived, we were surrounded by taxi drivers, they are a little aggressive here. We walked away, towards the center to try to find the car rental agency. On their website, it said behind the Movenpick hotel, so we actually walked all around it, under a terribly hot sun and a forty degree celsius temperature, with our backpacks. We had to ask a security guard at a hotel who was happy to show us the way. We finally found the office and got the car. It was quite challenging to drive in Aqaba, as there are many round-about and Jordanians do not use them like we are used to. The round-abouts are 2 lanes wide and people will leave from the inside lane, cutting everybody off to get out… without any indicators.

We drove north along the Dead Sea Highway, where we saw lots of goats and camels. The highway was pretty quiet as the locals tend to use the Desert Highway instead. The road was very scenic. We passed a few checkpoints without any problem, just flashing our passports seemed to be all they needed. There are many checkpoints and watchtowers on the coast of the Dead Sea, probably to prevent any unwanted people travelling to Jordan illegally. We soon caught our first glimpse of the turquoise Dead Sea. We were really excited and were not expecting the lake to be that big. Because the Dead Sea is long and narrow, we could easily see Israel on the other side. We followed the signs all the way up to the Panorama Complex. The complex consists of a small museum, a restaurant and a small boutique that was not open. We decided to have a bite in the restaurant and enjoy the breathtaking views from above the Dead Sea. It was really hot outside, but we couldn’t really see the sea from inside so we sat in the shade to eat some local specialties.

After a filing lunch, we drove a little more along the Dead Sea, trying to find a free beach, but we were unsuccessful. We stopped at the Amman Tourist Beach, put our swimsuits on and walk down to the sea. We went in, and we could float! Of course with the amount of salt in the sea, sinking is pretty much impossible. We had fun, floating in a standing or laying down position, without moving our arms and legs. It is a weird sensation to float without even trying. We had to get out twice, as we both got some water in our eyes and it stings A LOT! It is almost impossible to open one eye once there is salt water in it. When we had enough of the salt water, we showered and decided to enjoy the pool a little bit. It was very different after floating without trying, in a regular pool this is obviously not possible! We felt very heavy.

Madaba is a confusing city, a little Amman, and what confused us even more was the fact that the GPS coordinate that the hotel provided, turned out to be inaccurate. We drove in circles for a while, before deciding to stop and ask taxi drivers if they could tell us where the hotel was located. Seb parked the car in a round-about, and went out to ask the taxi driver parked behind us. Soon enough, about 5-6 guys were discussing with Seb trying to figure out were our hotel was. One driver told us to follow him in the taxi. It was literally around the corner, but not visible from the main street. We gave our very helpful taxi driver a 2 JOD tip for his trouble. The hotel was okay, but we didn’t get anything we booked. We had booked a double room, with wifi, fridge and garden view. We had a triple room, no wifi, a view of the neighbour’s yard, with the barking dog, no fridge. We asked the girl to get a double room, and she showed us another triple room, telling us that at least ours had a TV in it. We decided to stay in our room, but even though we had a TV, it was unusable without the satellite decoder…

After being disturbed by the barking dog almost all night, we got up, had breakfast (never been so excited to get bananas.. I think we miss fruits!). We drove to Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have been showed the promised land. The views over Israel were stunning. We also saw some well-preserved mosaics. After enjoying the views and the bus of tourists, we drove along the Dead Sea highway again, not sure if we wanted to go back for a dip in the Dead Sea. Actually we wanted to go back, but not to pay. Amman charged us 16 JOD (around 25 $ CAD) per person to use their facilities the day before. But because it was Friday, the resort was very busy, making up our minds quickly. We took a really small mountain road (street is probably more accurate) leading all the way up to the Panorama viewpoint. We made it back to Madaba where we parked the car before exploring the city on foot. We walked in the tourist quarters, but did not enter in any of the churches. When we walked in front of a shop, the owner asked us if we wanted to have tea. Turns out he knows a lot of Canadians as over 10 years ago, he dug in his garden, only to find some archaeological ruins. He then shared his garden with archaeologists from Montreal and Toronto. After drinking a lot of tea and chatting with the two men, one Orthodox and one Christian, it gave us a different overview of the country through the eyes of people from different religions.

The next morning, we drove to Wadi Mujib National Reserve. We bought some river shoes so we wouldn’t ruin our good walking shoes. The guy working at the reception told us we were going to be wet, and he was right! The trail is only 2 km, 1 km to get to the waterfall and back. The fun thing is, it is just like the Siq in Petra, but with a river in the bottom! The walls are as impressive as Petra and rich in colours. We walked in the river, with water about knee high for a while before arriving to our first challenge, a small waterfall that we had to climb. The water current is pretty strong as the water comes from quite higher before arriving in the Dead Sea. We had a lot of fun, the three small waterfalls were not that hard to cross thanks to the ropes and ladders, but still walking against the current is tiring. After our exhausting morning, we stopped to have lunch, while admiring the views of the Dead Sea.

We drove to Al Karak, were we visited the castle. It is perched atop a mountain, protected by the natural obstacle of climbing said mountain. It was also fortified during the Crusades to prevent the people living in the city to get in uninvited. The castle ruins are pretty impressive, they include few levels of rooms made for different purposes. We enjoyed our visit once we could get rid of the guide who was following us and trying to force us to take his tour, not mentioning that he was expecting to be paid at the end. Karak is a very busy city, with many cars honking to try to get the traffic to go faster. Oddly enough, it doesn’t work, haha! When we left Karak, we were aiming to come back to Madaba by the King’s Highway, but we somehow ended up on the Desert highway. We drove north following 3 different maps that had different roads on them, and we had to go all the way to Amman. They are also working on the road and there was no turn-around for a while. When we finally found one, it was really narrow, and didn’t look legit, but we finally made it back to the hotel. We went for a walk to find supper and almost decided to just by some hummus and forget about a real supper but we saw some locals sitting at a table by the street, eating falafel sandwiches. We had a really cheap supper! 1 JOD for 2 tasty falafel sandwiches.

Jordan is a great country that we loved visiting. From the food to the people, it was great. This was a good taste of the Middle East for us and we will be back. We are going to visit another country in the Middle East and we will share it with you in our next post.

Dead Sea Highway

Goats

View of the Dead Sea from above

Mount Nebo

Dead Sea

Road going up in the mountains

Al Karak

One of Al Karak’s chamber

Al Karak underground passage

Ruins, Al Karak

More ruins, Al Karak

Kings Highway

Viewpoint over a valley, Kings Highway

Classic Jordanian transport

View of Wadi Araba desert

Camels on the side of the Desert Highway

Sunset over Wadi Musa

Nightshot of Wadi Musa

Sunset over the valley of Petra

September 1, 2013

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Have you ever dreamed of wandering in the desert? Well, in Jordan, it is a must. It was a really hot day, but that was to be expected. Camel rides were our introduction to the desert. They are really impressive animals, walking and moving smoothly, making growling noises we would expect from a dinosaur. We joined the rest of our group, another two persons, next to a sand dune. This is where our Jeep expedition started, in a Mitsubishi SUV (they call all their SUV tours Jeep tours even though there isn’t that many jeeps around). Our friendly Bedouin guide brought us to the main sights of Wadi Rum and we drove around for three hours. We climbed and ran down another huge red sand dune and saw some Nabatean hieroglyphics carved in the stone of a dried out canyon.

We stopped for a typical Jordanian lunch in a quiet area, including a well deserved two-hour nap. Next, we explored the desert some more, visiting the mushroom rock, and also climbing on Umm Fruth Rock Bridge. The climb to get to the top of the arch was not very long, but seemed very hard for some other travelers. The view from the top was lovely, and we even got a good picture of us jumping on the arch. After enjoying the rock bridge with our new friends, our guide drove us to a nice mountain so we could watch the gorgeous sunset. The setting was perfect, quiet, with a wonderful view of the desert valley.

Later, our guide drove us to the Bedouin camp where we put our bags down, enjoyed a really hot shower (amazingly hot thanks to the solar panels) and had a nice supper. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with our new friends while watching the stars before retiring to our cabin for an undisturbed sleep. The desert was so silent, it was very different than Amman or Wadi Musa, where we can hear the prayers five times a day and every car using their horns to communicate.

Following our excellent night sleep, we woke up and had breakfast, before being driven back to Wadi Rum where the minibus picked us up in front of the office of Jordan Tracks. While sitting in the bus, we thought this experience should have lasted longer as we enjoyed it so much.

August 25, 2013

A second expedition in Petra, Jordan

Petra is a huge site, way too big for a one day visit. We started our second day with a ride to the visitor center in the back of a pick-up, Jordanian style, in the box. We then started walking on the path leading to the site. After a little while, we arrived to a point where the path turns left. We went straight, going through Al-Muthlim tunnel. For about 30 minutes, we followed what looks like a river bed, but dry. This path leads to a curved canyon about 3 feet wide, with stripes ranging in colour from orange to purple all over the walls. The rock was amazing. When we got out the canyon, we turned left toward the main sites, seeing some old carved houses and a flight of stairs. We decided to take the stairs up the mountain. There is a path at the top that leads to the Treasury again, but giving us a stunning view from above. We had to come back down the same way. We admired the Sextius Florentinus Tomb Palace Tomb, Corinthian Tomb, Silk Tomb and Urn Tomb before exploring the Street of Facades.
We made our way back through the Siq towards the visitor center in the middle of the afternoon, under a hot sun and blue sky. In the evening, we enjoyed another awesome sunset from the hotel balcony.

Petra is the main attraction of Jordan and one of the New Seven Wonders according to one of the lists and we now understand why. The Nabataeans built most of this over 2000 years ago and it is a fascinating archaeological site.

Colorful motif in the rock

Dry canyon

Canyon

Rock carved houses

Inside a rock building

Sphinx in Petra

More steps…

View of the Treasury from above

Us overlooking the Theater, Petra, Jordan

Blue lizard

Seven Wonders Bedouin Camp, Petra, Jordan

August 24, 2013

From Amman to Wadi Musa and our first visit to Petra, Jordan

We have been in Jordan for 2 nights now, it’s quite a different experience compared to Europe or North America. We decided to try to use the public transport to go to Wadi Musa. There is an easier way to get around like paying a taxi, which seems to be the way most tourist do it or take the Jett bus (a tourist bus more expensive but supposedly more comfortable). The taxi from Amman to Wadi Musa was 70 JD, around 110$ CAD, way too much for our budget. We found online that we could use a minibus, leaving from the south bus station. The minibus system is quite different than what we are used to in Canada; we have to wait until it’s full enough before it leaves. It could take a long time to fill out but we were lucky and waited only 30 minutes. The drive was really cool as we were now officially in the desert! Desert views are amazing, and it’s just the beginning…

The drive to Wadi Musa was around 3 hours. We didn’t exactly know where our hotel was going to be in Wadi Musa, but the bus drove right past it when we got in town. The bus station was down the hill closer to the city center. The Rocky Mountain Hotel is very good for the price. It offers a free breakfast and a free shuttle down to the visitor center in the morning and for the way back at the end of the day visiting the amazing site of Petra. The view from the hotel balcony is amazing! We also watched a great sunset right out our bedroom window, a great bonus.

We spent the next day walking in Petra. Visitors should make sure to have good shoes if they want to see everything as it involves a lot of walking. One day is definitely not enough to see the whole site, plan at least 2 days. As a start, we walked through the Siq, which is a 2 kilometers long path, with 80 meters cliffs on both sides, it is a narrow and sinuous canyon. At the end of the Siq, we got face to face with the Treasury (Al-Khazneh). It is a really impressive tomb carved in the face of the cliff. A few minutes past this, we turned left to go up some stairs, all the way to the High Place of Sacrifice. On our way we saw the two Obelisks. The views overlooking the valley at the top of the High Place of Sacrifice were simply spectacular. We enjoyed the scenery and then we went down the back way, which hides a lot of carvings and tombs most people miss. We saw the Roman Soldier’s Tomb, looking a lot like the Treasury, the Garden Temple Complex and, the Triclinium. We walked down in the valley, and up again to the Al-Habis Fortress. We followed the path that circled the Fortress. The views from up there were again impressive. After climbing 800 steps, we got up the mountain of Ad-Deir where we discovered Petra’s second most famous attraction; Ad-Deir Monastery. The Monastery is huge and really impressive, as it is the largest carved building of Petra. We walked all the way to the End of the World viewpoint past the Monastery. It offers a great view all the way over to Israel, west of Petra. On the walk back, we were really tired already so we didn’t stop anywhere. This first day was a 16 km walk and took us 7 hours.

To be continued …

Inside a Jordanian minibus.

Sunset from our room at the Rocky Mountain Hotel.

Night view of Wadi Musa

Sunrise over Petra, Wadi Musa

The Siq

Path in the Siq

The Siq

The Treasury (Al-Khazneh)

Camel caravan

View from above on the path leading to the High Place of Sacrifice

High Place of Sacrifice viewpoint

Us going down the path

One of the multiple tombs

View from inside the Garden Temple Complex

Inside of a tomb

Andree-Anne and the Roman Soldier’s Tomb

View over the valley

The Monastery (Ad-Deir)

August 21, 2013

And the secret destination is… Jordan!

Two weeks ago, we decided we wanted to see something different. We looked at options and decided on a destination that would be really different from what we know. We bought our round trip flight ticket from Bucharest as it was the cheapest option we could find.

We arrived the night before in Bucharest, as we thought sleeping close to the airport would save us some stress in the morning. We got up at 5:25, a very early start. The hotel had a free shuttle and was 10 minutes away from the airport so that was great. We used Austrian Airlines so the first flight was to Vienna where we had a short stop before leaving for our secret destination. The views from the plane were amazing. We flew over the mountains in western Bulgaria or eastern Montenegro, along the coast of Turkey, and then over the Mediterranean Sea until we turned straight east through Israel and landed in Jordan. It was a pretty easy trip with a great lunch on the second flight. We were actually impressed as we never had good food on an airline before. Landing was great and exiting for us, eager to visit this new place.

Jordan is a Middle East country that has lots to offer. It even has one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is full of very interesting rock formations and desert areas.
Our first stop was Amman, the capital. Amman has a very different feeling from any city we experienced so far.

Our first impression was great; people were really helpful, from the locals helping us to find our way on the local bus to smiling border agents giving us our entry visas. After taking a bus followed by a taxi to the first circle, we walked to our hotel. It was quite special to walk there as people dress different than what we are used to. Traffic is a little crazy in the downtown area and every taxi or minibus were honking at us to make sure we didn’t miss their bright yellow cars. This was fun, until we got to the worst hotel we stayed at so far. We saw quite a few rooms in this trip already but this was, by far, the dirtiest of them all. Everything was broken, from the window screen to the bathroom door. We stayed there anyway, as it was just for 2 nights. The room was already paid for and we didn’t want to argue to get our money back.

We went out and walked downtown in the crowded streets of the Souq. There are tons of small markets, shops and bakeries. Here, there are no price tags on anything so we had to ask and also sometimes get ripped off of a few JD (as locals call their Jordanian Dinars) as we are tourists and don’t know yet the value of things… but it is part of the fun of discovering a new country.

The next day, we visited an old Roman Colosseum and the Amman Citadel, which are both in ruins. It took us 3 hours to visit these 2 sights and we also had nice views over the city from the Citadel. After this, we needed a break as walking under a nice blue sky and 40C is really hot and exhausting. We went inside our crappy room for a couple hours and went out again for the night activities of the downtown streets.

For our last morning in Amman, our only goal was to find the Wahadat bus station with the help of a friendly taxi driver. We had to try 2 taxis as the price the first driver was asking was a little too much and after a little arguing, Seb asked him if he could just use the meter and he drove away. Too bad for him, we gave the meter money to the next one, with an extra tip for a total of 3 JD. That station is 3 km from downtown and it’s where our bus to the next awesome town is leaving from!

To be continued…

Our plane getting ready for boarding

View from the window

Amman

Roman theater, Amman

View from Citadel Hill

Inside the Citadel

Roman columns, Citadel Hill, Amman

Ummayad Palace

Temple of Hercules, Roman Corinthian columns at Citadel Hill

Roman Theater from Citadel Hill, Amman

August 18, 2013

Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Our last stop in Bulgaria is Veliko Tarnovo. It used to be the capital of the country during the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is a great town with lots of shopping. We don’t do much shopping obviously as we think our backpack are already too big. There is a huge fortress, Tsarevets, the biggest and nicest medieval stronghold area we saw so far. It is a must see for anybody visiting Bulgaria.

Our secret destination is getting closer now, as we are going to fly from Bucharest, Romania. This was cheaper than flying from Sofia and is about the same distance from here. It is going to be the third time we are crossing the border to Romania and our second time in Bucharest. We won’t stay long as our train arrives in the evening and we are flying in the morning. A 8:10 flight from Bucharest to transit in Vienna and then we are leaving Europe for now…

August 15, 2013

Plovdiv, Bulgaria

From Sofia, we wanted to see other cities in Bulgaria. We are now on a schedule as our secret destination is coming up and we are flying there on the 19th of August. We decided to spend one night in Plovdiv, which is another big city in Bulgaria and has a really nice old part we wanted to see. One day there was enough to walk around the old town.

Just for the record, it has now been 6 months since we quit our jobs! Time is going fast when you’re having fun. We still don’t regret our decision. It is great to be free for a while and see all those amazing things the world has to offer.

August 14, 2013

Sofia, Bulgaria

After our Bosnian destinations, we had quite a day ahead of us. We took a bus to Sarajevo, a bus to Belgrade and then a night train to Sofia. We woke up early, 5:45 AM, and got ready for a long 24 hours of transport. We bought our ticket in Mostar and waited for the bus to be ready. We were very comfortable waiting for the bus outside at 6 AM as it was ‘cool’ for once! The bus was pretty good too, recent and comfortable with AC. The road was again pretty scenic, going through mountain passes and beside rivers.

We arrived in Sarajevo, asked for the next bus to Belgrade, only to be told that there was only one per day, at 6 AM next morning. Good thing we arrived at the other station when we first visited so we could ask the lady, and than the guy at the other counter for the schedule from that station, which had a few other options. We walked to the city bus station and an older man tried real hard to help us and tell us how much is was going to cost. When we arrived at the West Sarajevo station, the lady selling the bus tickets was on 30 mins break, so we had to wait for her to come back. We tough we were getting short on time, but the schedule we were told initially, less than an hour prior to getting there, turned out to be wrong. The 11 AM bus did not exist, but there was the 12:30 PM one, not on the first schedule…

Really confusing information from different sources seems to be the norm since we arrived in Romania a month ago. Same goes for Moldova and the Balkans. We had coffee in the little ‘waiting area’ of the bus station, walked a bit and got on our second bus of the day. It was a pretty long bus ride again, about 7.5 hours to get to Belgrade. We arrived almost on time in Belgrade, rushed to the train ticket office, where we were told that the sleeper cabins were all full for the 2 following nights. We walked to the bus station ticket office, to see if there was some availability, but nope, there was only one seat available for the 00:30 bus. So back to the train station we went to buy a ticket, no sleeper, just a seat.

We had a little bit over an hour left so we decided to have supper, a pizza and beers in the train station. A few minutes before the departure, we got in the train and met our roommates for the night. We were lucky enough to get one of those 6 seats compartments instead of the hard seats usually used for commuter train. Our roommates were 2 Swiss and one Bulgarian guy, around our age. The compartment is really cozy when there are 5 people seating, but when comes time to sleep, it becomes extra-cozy! The facing seats can also slide in, almost to make a bed. A 1 person bed that is. So we made a big bed by sliding down all the seats, and laid down alternating faces and feet. It was really cozy and we could’t not touch the person next to us. We managed to get some sleep anyway, in between the numerous ticket controls, customs etc. It was quite the experience!

We arrived in Sofia and walked to the hostel. The Hello Sofia Guesthouse is all renovated inside and consist of just a few rooms. We put our bags down and went for a free guided walking tour by FreeSofiaTour. Our guide was really good and we learnt a lot. The city has an interesting story, especially the Square of Tolerance, where there is an Orthodox Church, a Mosque, a Synagogue and a Catholic Church. We saw many other churches during the tour. We also stopped at the hot mineral water source where we tasted the water. It was pretty hot water! And it is also funny to see all the locals coming with their empty bottles to fill them up. The tour also went by Alexander Nevski orthodox church. After the tour we came back to the hostel to do some research for our next, secret destination. It’s going to be really different than Europe.