My Images of SEE – 10:41, Fri 12th August

After coffee, we meandered our way back to the square, and to an Italian restaurant facing into the square. I had a pesto lasagne which was lovely. However we didn’t spend all of our time there, as we were harassed by a wasp. So we went over to Trend for a beer until 19:45. We then slowly walked back to the train station, bidding farewell to Skopje. We arrived at 20:10 and went direct to left luggage. We paid our 77 Denars and collected our belongings. We then went up to Platform 4. The train was already there, but the lights were out as people boarded. We just followed. The toilets look vile, however, in my condition, I think I can bear it. We found a cabin that was free and put our bags in the overhead holders. The cabin was old school in its set up. 3 chairs in a row, twice, with a sliding door and curtains to boot. It was dark outside now.

At 20:45 on the dot, we left. But that was about as much luck as we got last night. We had a nice and bouncy ride out of Skopje, when we suddenly stopped 10 minutes. 3 minutes later we continued, discovering our delay to be a road crossing. We bumped along to the border, 10 minutes late, and had our passports checked; the lady asked if we had anything to declare. 10 minutes later we stopped on the Serbian side. A repeat of the border procedure here too. Then we were still waiting. And waiting. The drilling began. About an hour later I saw, 2 carriages down, a worker drilling then climbing into the roof. They then came into our cabin. We had to move as they suspected something up in the roof. How odd. Didn’t look like there was enough room.

1 ½ hours later we had the all clear and departed. We were in a cabin with two local women, who Liam noticed were fascinated with my piercings. We then moved into another carriage as ours was shut off! So we knew that we would miss our connection, and confirmed this by the guard. So we sat there glum. It then dawned on us that we would need a hotel. So we fretted over that as the guidebook said that Nis train station was 2km out of the city.

At 03:05 we arrived at Nis. In vain, I asked if the Sofia train was late at the desk. It had gone. So we walked out of the station, and right, to the main road. It was quiet. We looked right and noticed two adverts for a hostel and a hotel. We opted for the hotel as it took credit cards. This was our 3^rd country, albeit unintentionally. We walked up a road off the main road; a wall had daubed on it a swastika. Our fears were raised. We then reached a junction, so decided on left. We then saw a pack of dogs. Fears raised more, but subsided once passed. The road was quiet and claustrophobic, and odd car would pass raising our heartbeats should they stop near us.

At another junction, we saw a sign with further directions to Hotel Tami. We walked 200m, then left at the lights for 1300m. We hugged a park to our left that curved left then straightened out. The odd car still passed, and we were now walking up hill. After what seemed like an eternity, we saw a sign pointing right. After 2 minutes up hill we saw in big red neon lights the hotel sign. What a relief. 

A fast pace took us to its doors. They had rooms, a twin, for €65 – excellent. It was 4* too! We handed over our passports then went upstairs to collapse. I returned to collect our passports and was relieved that they took Euro’s for Dinars. We drifted off at 04:30 until 09:00. We then had breakfast and prepared for the day.