the bus.

Leaving Greece

Greece was so much fun.  Lots of sun, lots of warm air, and lots of sightseeing and shopping!  We loved Greece so much, and apparently that feeling was mutual because Greece would not let us leave.

When we first attempted to leave, we left an hour early and went to the train station to catch our bus that was leaving from there.  We arrived at the train station and they told us there were no trains or buses leaving the station for 24 hours due to a protest.  FACK.  After that, we booked it to a bus station in the hopes of catching a bus to our desired location of Thessaloniki.  We did manage to catch the last bus, at a cost of 39 euro a piece.  ouch.

Let me tell you ‘bout this bus ride.  This bus ride was the smelliest and most uncomfortable bus ride Kortnie and I have ever been on.  There was a large group of drunken men behind us.  They tried speaking German, but it was a combination of German and Greek that was slurred.  The lady sitting in front of us decided it would be alright to feel up our feet and then just look at us like we did something wrong.  As much as I love a random feel up, I am going to leave it to the men for that one, and they better not be touching my feet.  To make matters worse, the bus kept changing in temperature.  It would be freezing cold and then we would feel like we were sweating.  Every time the heater came on, it smelt like an old man had just finished a workout.

We arrived in Thessaloniki and we were going to wait out the strike.  We were told the strike was only for 24 hours.  So we got a hostel for the night, and took a good nap and slept that night.  The next morning we woke up super early, packed up our things, and started walking to the train station.  The train station was still under strike.  At this point, we gave up, and there was a bus leaving for Sofia, Bulgaria.  We bought our ticket for that bus, 23 euro to be exact, and we were on our way.

The bus to Sofia wasn't horrible, but the stop at the border was.  To save myself from raging again, and to not talk about what actually happened, I am just going to say that we are never going back to Greece...at least for a very long time.

Once we finally arrived in Sofia, we had to wait until the next day to take the train to Bucharest.  We ended up staying in a hostel.  The hostel was pretty decent and ended up giving us a moment of calmness and clarity.  It was much needed.  However, the shower didn't work...and we needed a shower realllll bad too.

The actual train to Bucharest was one of the scariest experiences of my life.  The train was constantly swaying and making these ridiculous noises.  Kortnie and I were in the same car, the train was an overnight train so we had our own beds and such, and the car we were in was ridiculously warm.  The car was even too warm for Kortnie, and that is saying something.  Needless to say, I managed to sleep through most of the sketchy train ride; however, the five times officials knocked on our door, I managed to wake up.

All in all, getting out of Greece was an experience Kortnie and I will never forget.  It was horrible while it was happening.  Looking back, even now, leaving Greece is probably one of the funniest and most aggravating situations we have been in.