Journey to Belgrade - 19-20 September

I started my long journey to Belgrade on Saturday morning in Trikala where I caught the early train to Thessaloniki. This train would head through Northern Greece along the coast up to the top of the country. It was meant to be a direct train but an hour or so into it an announcement came over the loud speaker in Greece and said something about Thessaloniki. I asked a guy sitting near me what it was and he explained that we would have to change trains at the next station. Luckily he was heading to Thessaloniki as well so I asked if I could just follow him. On the next train we got talking and he was really interesting. He was heading home to Thessaloniki for the weekend from his university to vote in the election the next day. Over the next few hours we discussed the current Greek situation and the politics involved as well as what a normal life in Greece consisted of while I also told him about NZ. Sadly we were soon in Thessaloniki and we parted ways but not before he directed me to some things to do and places to eat in the city. When we got into the station I sorted out my night train to Belgrade that night where the guy said something about track works so needing to catch a bus to the next station first or something.

The night train was leaving at 6.30pm giving me around 6 hours to explore the city. I spent that time just wandering the streets and exploring the Roman forum, the old walls and gates, and the white tower right on the water front. I also went to the souvlaki place recommended by my Greek friend and it was amazing and so cheap. I also found a nice cafe which had wifi and somewhere to charge my phone and people watched while I sorted out my life for the next few days.

It was soon time for the train and I headed back to the station. There I found a bus waiting but the man just said 'another bus' and shooed me away with no other explanation. I got talking to a couple of Germans who had had the same treatment and discovered that they were reporters heading up to the border to interview some refugees and report on the current crisis. They were very interesting and had some crazy stories from other places they had been to report on similar issues in the past. Eventually another bus turned up and we piled on and traveled about an hour or so North. Here he dropped us off in a random empty carpark just saying 'another bus' again before driving away and leaving us all. About 15 minutes later the original bus from the station turned up and we discovered that we were just 5 minutes from the Macedonian border and the bus was just taking us to the train on the other side as there were apparently 10,000 refugees trying to get through the border. At the border they came on and checked all our passports and one Egyptian couple were taken away and sent back to Greece for some reason unknown to the rest of us. Once through the border however we were soon taken to a train station where a train was waiting for us. In my cabin was a young German couple going to Skopje and we talked for a bit before grabbing some sleep. Soon after we had dropped them off in Skopje we got to the Serbian border. Here the whole train was searched above and below as well as all of our passports checked, first by the Macedonian border patrol and then a few minutes later by the Serbians.

At the next station a man came round and told us that we all needed to move up the train to the other cabin as there were lots of people at the next station. In this way they moved everyone on the train already up into the front few carriages so I was now in a full cabin and then after locking us from the rest of the train they let refugees into the other coaches to take them to Belgrade. With all the stopping and checking we ended up getting into Belgrade about 4 hours late. It had been a very interesting journey but it had been the lack of explanation of what was happening next that made it much more nerve wracking then it needed to be. It had actually been a very pleasant and well planned train ride but as I hadn't known what was happening it had made for a long night. It was quite crazy seeing the refugees get off the train in Belgrade though as they were just normal people, with families and children, just trying to escape their situation.

The long train ride had meant that I had missed my bus to Sarajevo and the next one wasn't until mid afternoon. This meant that I had a few hours to explore Belgrade. I attempted to walk towards the cathedral only to discover that all the roads were blocked by armed guards with riot shields and armoured vehicles. I asked what was going on and discovered that it was the annual gay pride parade and that they shut down all the roads for it. Just my luck! I ended up walking around a little bit before finding a cafe to charge my phone, chill out and watch the parade on the TV. Later in the afternoon the blockade came down and I walked around the streets a little bit before heading back to the station to get my bus.

I hadn't really had a chance to see Belgrade, but from what I had seen it did look like quite a nice city. My train ride through Serbia had also been quite an experience but it had all worked out in the end and had really made me realise the extent of the refugee problem and how they need to find a solution. Being there and going through the borders had really driven home what these people are going through.