And I paid for this...

Just about two weeks ago, Jon, Pete, Kali, and I headed to Serbia to celebrate the New Year. We were excited to see some new places, and to visit some friends. While Jon and Pete went ahead the day before, Kali started our train trip the day after them. It's about a 10 hour trip by train to go between Rijeka and Belgrade. We decided to take the night train figuring that we would just sleep in our seats and not pay for another night in a hostel. Everything started out great, the train was on time and during our three hour "lay-over" in Zagreb, we got dinner and coffee with Petra.

We got back to the station with what we thought would be plenty of time to get on the train and find seats. As we walked the length of it though, both Kali and I soon realized that this was going to be one full train. We tried to ask one of the ticket men if he knew of seats, and as helpful as he wanted to be, he was without a clue as to what we needed. Going from car to car, we would try to get on, and then move to the next because both the compartments and the hallways were packed with Slovene university students. Finally we settled in by one of the bathrooms because there was enough space to take our backpacks off, and the train was about to leave. As people crawled past us to get to the WC, Kali and I would ask about seats, only to find that all the people in the hallways didn't have seats either. Their recommendation to us was to join them in drinking their troubles away. Since we didn't want to do that and it was 1 am, we both leaned against our bags and came to grips with the reality that we might be here all night.

Kali started joking that we could charge for using the WC, since she was standing by the door and had to tell every person if it was in use, and even sometimes shut the door for them. I thought it would be a good way to make up for some of the train ticket we had paid for. The longer we stood there, the people continued to get even more sloshed, and with this they became more friendly. They started asking us why we were standing here and told us we would get sick from the cold. The door off the train didn't shut all the way, so we were getting hit with freezing gusts and snow every so often. One girl finally stopped to actually talk to us and find out why we were choosing Eastern Europe and Serbia for our New Year. She "informed" us of Ex-Yugoslavian culture and spoke of Tito. At the assistance and help of her and one other guy, we were able to move into the heated, smoke filled hallway. As our feet and faces thawed, we started counting the hours left, it had only been three of the seven hours.

The drunk Slovene girl urged us to join the party at the end of the car, but we stayed put as her flaming red hair moved through the crowd. The girl standing next to us was in a group with the guy who had helped us move, and she soon started asking us questions about what we were doing. She talked and talked, and said she was too drunk to sleep so she would keep us company. Now I have seen some smokers in my time in Croatia, but never have I watched one pack disappear, then another, and breaking into a friends pack. I am pretty sure that from the second hand smoke alone, we smoked those two, maybe more packs with her and everyone else. This girl took a lot of joy in introducing us to the passing people, whether she knew them or not. "They are Americans. She is from Idaho and she is from Utah." At one point she fumbled over this, and stopped when pointing to me. "She is from....Idaho...Right?!...Yes I rock!" At this Kali, who has been begging to for a place to sit for a good four hours now, says: "No, no. Iraq is no where close to Idaho." The Slovene stops laughing and looks at Kali, then at me. After a moment a broad smile takes over to be followed by laughter and "that was a stupid one."

We hit the Croatian border check, and went through without a problem. At about 5:00am we hit the Serbia border. A very large soldier comes onto the car and starts yelling in Serbian. I am too tired to try to translate and turn to the Slovene girls hoping they caught some of it. They though are too drunk to translate, and start trying to sweet talk the large man. He looks at me angrily and starts speaking, so I stop him and request that he speak in English. Though confused he tells me to find my seat, to which at this point all I say is "They over-booked the train, there are no seats." Even more upset now, he starts yelling, "Everyone get to your seat, and if you don't have a seat, find one!" I look at Kali, and she kind of shrugs so I laugh. Thankfully to save us from another confrontation with that man, one of the girls we had been talking to pulls us into her car, where now eight people are occupying six seats. After a half hour the train was allowed to start again.

Finally we were sitting, which felt amazing since my legs and feet were aching. It was also nice to be out of the smoke. The girl offered her seat for Kali and I to switch off sitting in, so we sat, and about a half hour from Belgrade a lot of people got off so we were both in seats. Getting about a half hour of sleep at that point, we got ready to come into Belgrade. I struggled to focus on putting the directions to the hostel to good use, and with a little help from Pete we were able to make it onto a tram. This old woman kept trying to talk to us while we waited for the tram, and while on the tram. The only thing I could make of her Serbian was "Where are your men? They would keep you warm. Do you have children? Watch out for thieves."

Kali and I were very happy to see the hostel, and know we had a bed waiting for us. At 7:30 we even woke up the night employee for the hostel. Kali was so tired as we were finding our beds that she wasn't thinking straight and entered one of the sleeping rooms by saying "Good morning! Rise and shine!" From then on is another story, but the train ride trumps most of our time in Serbia.