So going into this travel day we all thought it was going to be easy with little to no worries. Yeah that was a happy thought while it lasted. Our day started out early at the train station. Our train didn’t leave until 9:50 pm, and we got there at about 3:30 pm. We had a lot of time to kill at the station before we left on our journey to Bulgaria. Finally it was time for us to board the train; we had to get 3 compartments for all 15 of us. Our bags took up more room than our bodies did. We were all settled in and ready to go. You could feel how excited we all were to get the show on the road. Everything was going great, people were sleeping, others were talking, and some were in our own little worlds. Around 3 am Marie came into our compartment (woke us up) and told us we have 10 minutes to get our things together and get off of the train. We all did this in a very sleepy haze. After we got off of the train in the middle of nowhere we found out that we were supposed to get off the stop before in Nis. The train we were on was heading to Macedonia. We didn’t know that we were supposed to get off anywhere. We were told that once we got on the train it would take us straight to Sofia, Bulgaria.
Now it’s around 3:30 and we come to find out the next train back to Nis comes at 6 am. I found a bench and crashed. It was so nice to get a little more sleep. A little before 6 we were woken up and got our bags back on our backs ready for the train to come get us and take us back to Nis. Us being crazy Americans thinking that the trains would be on time, were wrong. The train was 20 minutes late. As we got on this train there was nowhere for us to sit or put our bags. The tiny isle became our place to plop. If people wanted through good luck hopping over us and our bags. We were all laughing a bit at this crazy situation. So we get off in Nis and had to jump onto another train that we thought would take us all the way to Sofia. We got settled in again, most of us sleeping. Marie comes in again to tell us that we were at the last stop and had to get off. Turns out the last stop was at the border between Serbia and Bulgaria.
We all sat in the train station while our fearless leaders went to find us transportation across the border and to our destination. When they came back they told us to put our packs back on and we were walking to the bus station. We of course asked how far of a walk it was, and they said oh not far about 5 minutes. Don’t believe a leader when they say that. It took us about 15 minutes. In reality it isn’t that far, but we were all still tired and were losing energy from the craziness before. We get to the bus station and waited for the bus we were told to take to get there. They told our leaders that we will take this bus to the border and at the border there will be many buses and taxies that will go to Sofia. As we were waiting at the bus stop a TV crew from the town came to interview us about what we were doing there. Now we will be on Serbian news. So we took the short bus ride to the border and got off like we were told to do. As we got there it started to rain. We had to walk across the border (let’s just say we got a lot of crazy looks from people). So we get through the exit of Serbia and had to walk in no mans land in the rain to the entrance of Bulgaria. As we get to the other side it turns out we were lied to…. There was no transportation what so ever. So our leaders went to try to figure out what we were going to do.
They came to us and were like alright guys we have things under control, but we really need you to start praying. So we do as we are told and started praying as a group (my prayer was for transportation to take us right to where we were staying for the night and no more switching buses). Not even 5 minutes later they came back and told us the amazing news. A guy wanted to help us out and called a van to come pick us up and they were taking us right to the door of our place to stay! Praise God!!! We all were so exhausted and excited at this point that there were some tears flowing. The border police were so nice and let us sit inside the border and wait under the covering from the rain. The driver took us right to the door of our place and we got to join the rest of the squad. So what was supposed to be a short travel day turned into a much longer day.
Our leaders did an amazing job at staying calm and handling everything thrown at them. We all had really great attitudes about it all too. I look at the day and laugh so hard at the series of events. It was such a fun crazy day. I couldn’t have asked for a better group to be with in that situation. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe and providing everything we needed. He really had our backs during our travels.
