We decided a beach break was needed so we headed to the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. The train took us through more fields of corn and sunflowers. Met a nice couple on the train from Sweden who have been just about everywhere and they gave us some great travel advice about India and Nepal. They had also been to Myanmar 25 years ago so we swapped travel stories. Unfortunately the train took us only as far as the border town of Ruse, Bulgaria. Customs and immigaratio...

The night train to Brasov was unpleasant as most overnight trains are unless you shell out an exorbitant amount of money on a sleeper car. Lizzy managed to sleep on and off until around 2:30 when two drunk a******s who insisted on talking loudly on their phones nonstop got on. We moved as far away as possible but could still hear their idiotic, profanity-laden conversations. The lights were on all night probably to deter theft. We had heard rumors about theft on ...

The train to Budapest was a nice ride through farmland dotted with modest stone and brick homes, fields of corn and tomatoes, and an occasional river. Keleti Train Station was big, noisy, and busy. The metro system was confusing since the name of our stop had been changed and the hostel had not updated their online directions. We found the place after several transfers and a fair amount of walking. Rastel Hostel was a kickback place over a Ruin Pub (WW2 bombed ...

With a freshly renewed pain in my heart for the people of war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, we headed to Belgrade. Trying to keep an open mind wasn't going to be easy after seeing the devastation up close in Mostar and Sarajevo, meeting some of the wonderful people, and hearing about their personal tragedies during the war. The train trip to Belgrade was long and through mostly farmland of corn and sunflowers. The only other person in our compartment was a Serbian man...

The bus to Mostar took longer than expected as Bosnian border/passport checks were convoluted and painfully slow. Arrived at the dumpy bus depot in the afternoon under a blazing sun. It only took a second to decide to hop in the car of a woman holding a picture of a decent looking hostel near Old Town. It turned out to be a spacious room with a great view of the surrounding hills (that looked a lot like Southern California foothills) and a balcony overlooking a s...