Of Course I know how to Catch a Train in Bulgaria!
Remember how I said I was going to go to some other volunteer’s house with my site mate? And how I cooked a ton of food because I just got a new stove? Well we did go to our friend’s town for Thanksgiving, but it took us a while to get there.
My site mate and I were really excited to celebrate Thanksgiving in Bulgaria with PCV friends. I didn’t realize how much Thanksgiving meant to me until I got to Bulgaria. It’s a time for the family and friends. Anyhow, my site mate and I left work early at about 4:30ish to go home to get the Thanksgiving food and catch the 5:20ish train to our friend’s house. Everything worked exactly as we planned it. I had all the food wrapped in proper containers safe and secure. Even the street dog that tried to sniff/eat my pride and glory couldn’t dampen my happiness. We paid the fair for the train secured our place on the train and waited patiently for it to take us to our destination.
We were both extremely tired and dozed in and out of sleep for the hour ride. I finally looked up and asked my friend “Do you know were we get off?”. Her answer was that, “Of course she didn’t because she had never been to the town before”. I started to get a little panicky because I had been to the town the weekend before but couldn’t remember exactly what the station looked like. If you know anything about trains in Bulgaria you will know that the names of the various stops are not always clearly displayed. There isn’t a loud obnoxious voice over the intercom, like in Chicago, announcing the stops. There isn’t even the little indicator thingy like in New York City or Philly, which shows you were you are on your trip. To top it off it was extremely dark outside and we couldn’t see anything but the shadows of the trees.
I looked at my watch and saw we had about 15 minutes left to travel to our destination. I wasn’t panicky anymore because I knew the trip was exactly an hour and we defiantly didn’t miss our stop. I set my alarm and we both went back to sleep. I woke up about five minutes before my alarm went off and SMSed my friends (the one we were going to visit) to say we would be their in about 10 minutes. At that very moment that train stopped to let people out. I asked a Bulgarian girl nearby us if this stop was the town I needed. She said “Da” (yes in Bulgarian) and we jumped out of our sets grabbed our bags of food and headed towards to doors.
My friend made it off the train a couple seconds before me, but as I started to get walk towards the doors, the train started to move!!!! She quickly grabbed the food (Yeah I know save the food let me die) and told me to jump. Being the superwoman that I am, I jumped without difficulty. As I landed on the ground I heard voices yelling from the train in Bulgarian. I had no idea what they were saying and decided to ignore them. Once I got my bearings, my friend and I turned and waved bye to the people on the train, but they continued to yell. We had no clue what they were talking about so we just ignored them and a couple seconds later the train was gone.
I turned around and noticed right away that something was wrong. The entire train station was dark and deserted and it did not look like the station from the weekend before. I said to my site mate, “uhmm, this isn’t our stop. I have no idea were we are”. We both started to laugh hysterically because we knew we were stranded. We walked to the small booth at the station, but no one was there, but we learned that the next train didn’t come pass that station until around 8:00pm. She suggested that we start walking in the direction the train. I didn’t think this was a good idea so when I saw a large group of random Roma (Gypsy) men I yelled for them to help us. My friend was a little threatened by the fact that they were Roma, but it didn’t bother me at all. I asked them how far we were from our destination and they said it was the next train stop. We asked about cab options and they told us the cab number and even called the cab for us. We waited for the cab for about 15 minutes and got to our destination where our friends were waiting for us. Ohh the wonderful world of the Peace Corps!!!
Thanksgiving was really nice this year in Bulgaria. The PCVs I spent my time with were awesome.
My site mate and I were really excited to celebrate Thanksgiving in Bulgaria with PCV friends. I didn’t realize how much Thanksgiving meant to me until I got to Bulgaria. It’s a time for the family and friends. Anyhow, my site mate and I left work early at about 4:30ish to go home to get the Thanksgiving food and catch the 5:20ish train to our friend’s house. Everything worked exactly as we planned it. I had all the food wrapped in proper containers safe and secure. Even the street dog that tried to sniff/eat my pride and glory couldn’t dampen my happiness. We paid the fair for the train secured our place on the train and waited patiently for it to take us to our destination.
We were both extremely tired and dozed in and out of sleep for the hour ride. I finally looked up and asked my friend “Do you know were we get off?”. Her answer was that, “Of course she didn’t because she had never been to the town before”. I started to get a little panicky because I had been to the town the weekend before but couldn’t remember exactly what the station looked like. If you know anything about trains in Bulgaria you will know that the names of the various stops are not always clearly displayed. There isn’t a loud obnoxious voice over the intercom, like in Chicago, announcing the stops. There isn’t even the little indicator thingy like in New York City or Philly, which shows you were you are on your trip. To top it off it was extremely dark outside and we couldn’t see anything but the shadows of the trees.
I looked at my watch and saw we had about 15 minutes left to travel to our destination. I wasn’t panicky anymore because I knew the trip was exactly an hour and we defiantly didn’t miss our stop. I set my alarm and we both went back to sleep. I woke up about five minutes before my alarm went off and SMSed my friends (the one we were going to visit) to say we would be their in about 10 minutes. At that very moment that train stopped to let people out. I asked a Bulgarian girl nearby us if this stop was the town I needed. She said “Da” (yes in Bulgarian) and we jumped out of our sets grabbed our bags of food and headed towards to doors.
My friend made it off the train a couple seconds before me, but as I started to get walk towards the doors, the train started to move!!!! She quickly grabbed the food (Yeah I know save the food let me die) and told me to jump. Being the superwoman that I am, I jumped without difficulty. As I landed on the ground I heard voices yelling from the train in Bulgarian. I had no idea what they were saying and decided to ignore them. Once I got my bearings, my friend and I turned and waved bye to the people on the train, but they continued to yell. We had no clue what they were talking about so we just ignored them and a couple seconds later the train was gone.
I turned around and noticed right away that something was wrong. The entire train station was dark and deserted and it did not look like the station from the weekend before. I said to my site mate, “uhmm, this isn’t our stop. I have no idea were we are”. We both started to laugh hysterically because we knew we were stranded. We walked to the small booth at the station, but no one was there, but we learned that the next train didn’t come pass that station until around 8:00pm. She suggested that we start walking in the direction the train. I didn’t think this was a good idea so when I saw a large group of random Roma (Gypsy) men I yelled for them to help us. My friend was a little threatened by the fact that they were Roma, but it didn’t bother me at all. I asked them how far we were from our destination and they said it was the next train stop. We asked about cab options and they told us the cab number and even called the cab for us. We waited for the cab for about 15 minutes and got to our destination where our friends were waiting for us. Ohh the wonderful world of the Peace Corps!!!
Thanksgiving was really nice this year in Bulgaria. The PCVs I spent my time with were awesome.
There are more pictures of Thanksgiving, if you click on the link on the sidebar you will see them.
Thinking about Cornbread,
Crystal
Thinking about Cornbread,
Crystal
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