‘Just for you!’ he said. ‘Here you can buy souvenirs. You see…? You have honey where you come from?’
‘Yes.’
‘Oh. Well here…honey has C-vitamins!’ he said with a laugh. The other women sitting at the front also laughed at his pathetic attempt to make the Bulgarian honey sound extraordinary. I laughed too.
‘When you’re hungry, you buy food here,’ he continued as we drove past some food stalls and…restaurant-looking places.
‘Monastery up there. Like 100 metres,’ he said as he stopped the shuttle and pointed up a small hill.
I tried to ask him at what time the buses back to Plovdiv left but he didn’t know. I thanked him so kindly for his services and got off the bus.
The Monastery was enclosed in a beautiful backyard. There was a souvenir shop but they didn’t seem to have tickets. I asked some guys who pointed to a big guy sitting by an old table under a gate. It was very unofficial, but he sold me a ticket. He didn’t know anything about the buses back to Plovdiv either.
There wasn’t much to see inside the Monastery; it wasn’t very big, but it was still so worth it. The paintings were amazing with vivid colours that must have been maintained recently, and golden shimmering halos around all the saints. It was really nice - and unlike Boyana, you were actually allowed to take pictures.
On the way back I looked at the souvenir shops a bit. They had some nice things but most of it was either too heavy or too big to bring home. I did pass a candy-booth though that caught my curiosity. I tried to ask what it was but it seemed like the only English she had learnt was that five pieces cost x lev (I can’t remember how much). I also tried asking how long it’d last, as I’d prefer to bring it home so my parents could try some…but she just repeated what she had just said, word by word. In the end, mostly out of curiosity, I decided to get one roll instead of five pieces for 2.5 lev.
Then I continued, and had to ask a guy that was unloading his car if he knew where the bus to Plovdiv would stop. He pointed at a bus shelter by the main road. Yes, it was a bus shelter but with no bus…sign, and no time table, no information, no nothing. Just a bench. So I sat down and waited. If I was lucky, it’d get there within the next 15 minutes. If I was unlucky I had just missed it and would have to wait for an hour.
I checked Google Maps to see how long it’d take to drive from Smolyan (the town that the bus was going to on the way) to where I was. It was approx. one and a half hour drive. If I made an assumption that the bus also left Smolyan at every hour, on the hour, the bus would arrive in approx 10 minutes. I had some corn snack while waiting and indeed, I hadn’t waited too long when a red shuttle turned the corner. I got up to make sure it’d see me; I wasn’t even sure this was the one.
The shuttle indicated it’d turn and stop, and as it did, almost half its passengers got off.
‘Plovdiv?’ I asked.
‘Yes.’ And that’s how I made it back.
With a bit of luck, I walked towards a park in the Old Town. Mostly because it had only been around 5.15pm when I was at the theatre so I still had some time to kill before heading back to the bus station. And the park had an amazing view over the entire city…and it was close to sunset as well so the light was fantastic. But what I hadn’t realized, or thought about, even though I should have known, was that sunset was at 6.45 - so when I suddenly realized that it was 6.25, I got in a hurry to get to the bus station. I could have taken it easy and gone for the last bus at 8 instead but with their complicated and weird bus system, I didn’t really want to leave it to that. So I hurried down, and got to the bus station at 6.54.
We weren’t in Sofia until just past 9. Just as I got off the bus, my Airbnb host even messaged me to ask if I was alright. I said everything was fine and that I’d just grab something to eat first before going back. When she heard I had actually made it to Bachkovo she used the same words as the driver: ‘brave’. In all honesty, Bulgaria is hardly the bravest thing I’ve done alone on my travels…
I took it easier the next morning. I didn’t have to check out until 12, and since the bus wasn’t leaving until 4…well, I could relax for once after two early mornings and a cold - which I by the way, miraculously, felt much better from.
Around noon I hit the main street. My colleague had asked me to buy her some things so I went looking for that. One of the brands I didn’t find, but the other thing I found; she had requested three of them. It was so cheap and relatively small and light, so I decided to get one for myself, one for mum, dad, grandma, grandpa… Basically my Christmas presents are sorted! And one for a friend. 9 in total. I must have looked a bit crazy with all those things in my basket.
Then I went back to a café I had been on my second day and ordered a hot cocoa, because I had seen they had huge cups with massive amounts of whipped cream on top. Or maybe the girls next to me had ordered something else, because I got a regular sized cup and no cream. So yes…I was a bit disappointed. But I also got some pasta takeaway from them that I saved for my bus ride.
Around 2.30 I went back to the apartment to repack my Bulgarian products and return the keys. Then I took the metro and headed to the bus station.
I purposely got there quite early. Partially because I had seen online that it had said 15.00…and partially…just plain paranoia. I sat down on a bench where I could see the company where I had made the reservation the day before, and where I could see when and if the bus would arrive, and then I watched ‘How I met your mother’, which to my pleasant surprise was available on the Bulgarian Netflix (it’s not in Macedonia).
When it was almost 4 o’clock I got up and walked to the bus stops. No bus. I asked the woman who had made my reservation about it.
‘The bus won’t leave at 4. Maybe 5. Maybe 6. I don’t know,’ she said.
…Great.
A Chinese woman approached me, asking me if I was also going to Skopje - and if I was Chinese. She said that apparently the bus had broken down somewhere about an hour from here and they didn’t know how long it’d take to make the repairs.
So I sat down again, got my computer out, started writing a bit, including starting on this post, chatted with some friends… Around 5pm, there still wasn’t any sign of the bus - and at 6 not either. By that time, I went back to the woman at the bus company and asked if she had heard anything new.
‘It might be here in 10 minutes. 15. I don’t know,’ she said while shrugging her shoulders and then walked away.
‘Helpful…’ a guy sitting on his suitcase said sarcastically to himself.
He was a middle-aged consultant from London travelling the Balkans for 6 weeks. The Chinese lady also came back and we updated her on the situation. Apparently the fault wasn’t with the lady from the company though; she had called the bus driver and he was the one always giving unclear answers.
I talked to the Londoner for a while until a blue bus marked Transkop finally drove into the bus park at 6.20pm.
When I arrived to Sofia with this bus (and I even think the same driver), I had arrived at around 2pm. These people were arriving now. In other words…they were probably around 4h hours delayed - and so far I was “only” delayed by 2h30. Plus I had been stuck at the bus stop with shops in case I had got hungry or thirsty, but goodness knows where they had been stuck for so long. Not to mention the driver who didn’t catch any break - had he even eaten? In other words, I was surprisingly non-annoyed, just happy that the bus had finally arrived.
I did have another dilemma though; the last bus from Skopje to Veles was at 9pm - so there was no way I’d catch that. I had no credit left on my Macedonian number to make any calls nor message friends via Whatsapp/Messenger - and I only had 110 denar left in cash, because you may remember that I unexpectedly spent it on the bus to Skopje and the ‘exit’ ticket. My options?
1) I could take a taxi from the bus station and all the way home. It’d cost about the same as the airport shuttle costs back home. I’d ask the driver to wait while I’d run up to my room to get my cash and pay him.
2) I could take the train if I’d catch the last train - and if I even had enough money for the ticket. Then I’d need to take a taxi from the train station and again, ask him to wait while I got cash, as I’d presumably spend my 110 denars on the train ticket. I had heard the train was cheaper (but slower) than the bus, so since the bus is usually 110 denars, I probably had enough.
3) I could spend 100 denars on getting credit (or if I was lucky they’d even take accept cards!) and then call my friends in Skopje and stay the night. For whatever annoying reasons, none of them had received my messages (having nothing to do with them not reading it; just that their devices hadn’t even got my messages) asking if I could stay. Then I’d be forced to take out some cash to get to their place, then back to the bus station in the morning to catch the bus to Veles. However, if it wasn’t possible to stay with them, I might miss the last train while buying credit… But if I got credit I could also message my company’s driver and ask him to pick me up at the train station when I’d arrive…and he would definitely be fine with getting paid at a more convenient time.
At 6.30pm the bus left the station in Sofia. I had my much-needed pasta I had bought at the café earlier; I think I’ve never been so thankful to myself for having bought fast food takeaway.
When we got the border, we got stopped at customs and were all asked to get off the bus along with our belongings. Now, I have crossed quite a lot of borders since I got to the Balkans in August; three times in and out of Kosov, Albania twice, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria one way…and I’d never been stopped at customs. A guy with a torch checked through the bus but when he got out he didn’t actually check any of our bags; we were allowed to board again.
We got to the first border point: exiting Bulgaria. No problem; our passports were collected and returned shortly after. Then we got to the next border point: entering Macedonia. Our passports were collected and then… Somehow I sensed it. Our driver was on the phone while walking towards me and said that the border police wanted to talk to me.
Now, I’ll scroll back in time a bit, to Thursday, last week: my colleagues had said that they were leaving the country for the weekend so the country had issued them with a piece of paper saying…I have no idea, but something about that they are guests at this company or something like that. I had got it when going to Albania and I had asked what it was or what I needed it for, since I had been to Kosovo without being asked for any piece of paper.
They explained that it was only needed because I had gone to Albania by private car - but that can’t be entirely true either because when I left Macedonia with my parents, we also went in a private car, and even then I was fine. I told my colleagues they probably wouldn’t need that piece of paper, but asked for that piece of paper for myself as well, just in case.
So when I was on the bus, I was quite thankful that I had that piece of paper.
‘What’s going on?’ the Londoner asked me, who was sitting in front of me.
‘I’ll be fine,’ I said.
You see, you’re allowed to stay in Macedonia for 90 days without a visa. I’ve been here for almost 11 weeks now, and thus I’m soon hitting my 90 days. That’s why they wanted to talk to me.
Even though I knew I’d be fine, it was a bit nerve-wrecking to be pulled off the bus. I handed them my piece of paper and they asked if I was there for work or tourism.
‘Tourism,’ I said.
‘How long are you staying?’
‘I’m leaving next week,’ which is the unfortunate truth.
He looked at my piece of paper for a bit more, then nodded that I could go back to the bus. He kept my passport along with the others though.
Shortly afterwards, the passports were returned - except mine. I don’t know how, but the driver sensed that I hadn’t got my passport back, because he looked at me and asked if I had got my passport back.
‘No,’ I said.
He still got into the driver’s seat, and started driving, though he only drove a few metres, presumably to give way to the cars behind us in the queue. Then he told everyone (in Macedonian) that they’d get a 5-minute smoking break while we’d wait for my passport.
You’d think that when the bus is already 2h30 delayed, you wouldn’t be very popular holding up the bus for even longer - but the Macedonians (or people that had understood him) pretty much ran out of the bus to get some ‘fresh air’. And pretty much as they had all got back inside, I also got my passport back, and we could continue our journey.
The driver asked if anyone was going to Kumanovo, presumably so we could go straight to Skopje if not, but unfortunately one guy was getting off there. We finally got to Skopje at around 10.20pm. The bus terminal was almost closed when we got there; most of the lights had been turned off and the tickets booths were all closed. However, there were two guys sitting in the dimmed information booth, so I asked them how to get to the train station.
‘First door on the right,’ one of the guys said.
You know it’s strange how many times, not to mention hours that I’ve spent at Skopje bus station without ever noticing the entrance to the train station. But surely enough, there was a very unnoticeable door on the right. A monitor read 23.49 for Veles, but while complaining that it’d mean I’d have to spend almost an hour and a half just waiting, I realized that it said ‘arrivals’. So I went to, what I thought was the ticket booth, to ask a woman for a train to Veles.
‘Platform number 4,’ she said, and pointed back in the direction where I had come from. So I went back, and up the stairs to platform number 4. I hurried a bit, because I had seen another guy run up as if the train would be leaving soon.
Now, when my colleagues and I have a drink at our regular place in Veles, we sometimes see and hear these very old, extremely rusty, insanely slow and noisy trains pass by. And as I said, I had heard that the trains in the Balkans are slower than cars (and the buses), so I had very low expectations. Basically, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d needed to sit on the floor in a dark carriage along with cargo. So I was quite surprised when I got to the platform and saw what looked like a brand-new, modern train with really clean seats.
Once I had put my small suitcase on the luggage rack and got a seat, I could see from my seat that the screen read ‘Veles 22.33’. That was in five minutes.
Approximately 10 minutes after we had left, a guy in very unofficial clothes poked me on my shoulder as I was looking into the pitch dark out the window. He looked like he might as well have been a fake ticket master; he wore nothing to indicate he worked there.
‘Ticket?’ he asked.
‘Can I buy one?’ I asked and got my wallet out. I gave him “everything” I had; my 110 denars. He gave 10 denars back, and gave me a ticket.
The train wasn’t slow at all. It was…normal speed. But it did make some stops on the way, which the bus doesn’t. But after 15 minutes or so, I decided to sleep. Not because I was sleepy, but because otherwise I’d die of boredom and desperation. Not knowing when we’d arrive was like waiting for the bus from Bachkovo to Plovdiv.
Turns out I fell asleep pretty hard though, because when I suddenly woke up, everyone was getting off the train. I didn’t even have time to check Google Maps if we had arrived; I just rushed out as well. I rushed so much, that after getting half-way off the platform, I realized I had forgot my suitcase on the luggage rack. So I ran back inside to get it. On my way back, I saw a sign that confirmed that I was in Veles - but I had no idea where in Veles.
I went to outside the train station where some people seemed to be waiting; there were no taxis there. I asked a young woman if she was waiting for a taxi, and she offered to call a taxi for me.
Only a few seconds later, a black cab arrived (quite unusual, usually they’re yellow and tiny crappy cars…), presumably the one she had first called. She offered me to get into this one and that she’d take the next one. I felt really bad but she insisted, I think so that she could tell the driver where I was going for me, as she wouldn’t be able to do that if she left me there alone. So while she was at it, I also asked her to tell the driver that I didn’t have any cash on me but that I had it at the place we were going so he’d have to wait for me. That seemed fine.
I got home around 23.40. In other words, the train had only been 10 denars cheaper than the bus, and only about 10 minutes slower. But at least now I can say that I’ve tried the trains in the Balkans. And tried being questioned on the border. And hiked sick in Bulgaria.
As the guy on the border knew, my time in Macedonia is almost up. I’m off to other things. Thus it may be a while until I write again; I don’t know when or where my next adventures will take me. But I hope that you’ve enjoyed following me around the Balkans. Like always, thanks for reading - and should you ask, then yes: God, will I miss it…