Drivin' home for Christmas

For the majority of people, Christmas and New Year's Eve is associated with family gathering and celebrating the holidays with them. I can say that I also belong to this category of people.

So, while doing my erasmus in Zagreb, I had some thoughts of what to do for Christmas holidays. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go back home for a couple of days or just spend my holiday travelling around the Balkans. I talked with my family, and after all the gifts and the food that they promised me, I decided that I could go back for a week.

Taking a plane from Zagreb to Thessaloniki is very expensive -especially during Christmas - so my only affordale option was to take a bus until Belgrade and then the train to Thessaloniki.

One friend of mine decided to visit me in Zagreb for Christmas, so we decided to spend some days here, so that I could show her city, spend the Christmas with my Erasmus friends and then go back home together.

On Christmas Eve we gathered at one of my friends' place, cooked, played games and drank the traditional chritsmas wine ''kuhano vino '. The next day we decided to chill and relax because we hd a tiring trip in front of us. So, we just went to book our tickets and came back home.

Our bus was leaving at 9 am, so it was a rough wake up. We went to the main bus station and got into the bus. The trip to Belgrade takes 5 and a half hours and the price is 230 kunas. The bus was full of people, and we were so tired that the trip seemed soo short.

At about 2. 30 pm we got to the main bus station of Belgrade. We had to find the train station first and book our tickets, and, if we had enough time, we could walk a little bit around Belgrade.It was very easy to find the train station, because it is located almost across the bus station. So, we got there and booked our tickets for the only train that starts every day at 6. 30 pm. The price is 34 euros and with 8 extra euros, you can have a bed, but we decided that we didn't need it ( a big mistake i think, you will understand later! ).

We had a couple of spare hours, so the best way to spend them was to walk around the city and also buy some food for the trip.

We asked some people on the street for some information and started walking around.

The first thing i saw and impressed me, was a building that was bombarded in the war, It had huge holes and you could still feel the atmosphere of the war when you were looking at it. Of course you don't feel happy when you see it and recall all tremendous things that happened in Serbia, but it was still the first time in my life that I saw a building so emotionally charged.

The photo of the building.

Then, we found on our way the building of National Assembly of Serbia and tooka couple of photos.Across the building is the park of Nikola Pasic, where we sat a little bit to relax.

National Assembly of Serbia by night full of Christmas lights.

We also saw the Old Palace and took a photo of it.

A photo of the Old Palace.

After the sightseeing, we realized that we still had some free time, so we decided to go to a pub that we had seen while we were walking, which was close to the train station. The pub inside was beautiful, everything was made of wood and the prices were very cheap. I took half a litre of draught beer for less than 1. 50 euros.

After the beer, we realized that it was time to go to the train station. We bought a Kebab for the way and still we had a lot of money to spend.In Serbia, the currency is the ''dinar'', so when we got there we had to exchange some euros. We exchanged 20 euros for both of us and we couldn't ''get rid of them '', because everything was so cheap. We bought more food and some souvenirs and got into the train.

We had a long way in front of us, approximately 15 to 16 hours, so it would be a long night. We found a room to leave our luggage and to have a seat. Each room has six seats and it is quite small, so it was a bit crowded. However, we were lucky because two of our co-passengers were people in our age, so at least we had more company.

Before travelling with this train, I had heard that it can get very cold inside there, because the heating is usually not working properly. However, it was the total opposite than this. The temperature was so high, that we had to have the window open during the whole journey, to have some fresh air.

I was so exhausted that I immediately fell asleep. The seats were comfortable to sit but not so much to sleep, because the room was full and you couldn't move a lot. So, I slept for a couple of hours and then woke up. I decided to walk a little bit around the train.It was full but not overcrowded, so I could easily walk around. Also ( one very good thing for smokers ) you can smoke in the corridor, as long as you open the window, so as not to disturb the other passengers, There were a lot of people smoking, so I decided also to have a cigarrette. I talked a little bit with my friend and with the people from our room. We introduced ourselves, talked about the trips we have done and the time passed very fast. It was already 12 o'clock in the night, so we had completed almost 6 hours of travelling by then.

I ate a little bit and decided to sleep again. After some hours, I woke up again due to the high temperature and I wanted to go out to the corridor for a cigarrette, but I was ''trapped'' because everyone was sleeping and if I moved, I would wake them up and I didn't want to. So, I just started thinking what would I do first when I come back home and how would I make the surprise to my friends, because I hadn't told them that I was coming back.

After some point. I fell asleep again, and when I woke up, we were only three people in the room, so it was much more comfortable.

At about 11 in the morning, the ticket controller came and told us to get down from the train, because we had reached ''Yeugeli'' and there would come a bus and pick us up from there and drive us to the train station of Thessaloniki.

The trip with the bus lasted pretty much one hour and when we got there, my younger brother was waiting for us with tha car to drive us home.

The long journey of 27 hours was finally over and I was home to celebrate New Year with my friends and family!

Photo gallery