I had originally made an “out-of-chronological-order” post about my trip to Belogradchik, which you can find here.
I loved it there so much that I could not wait to do it in chronological order. But there is some information I would like to add, specifically about getting there and back.
When I was researching this, I found out there was a bus. But the information was really lacking and completely conflicting. Now that I have been there, I can help.
I was taking a 4:30 am bus from Niš, Serbia to Sofia, Bulgaria. My Niš apartment was on the third floor of a building that had a cement spiral staircase, and no lighting at all in the hallway. Being that I am leaving at this ridiculously early hour, there is also no sunlight in the hallway.
I gave myself an extra half an hour to sit down on the stairs and scoot down them with my suitcase in tow, to avoid breaking my neck and killing myself. It is times like these that I almost wish I were not solo, just so that someone else could witness how stupid my life is.
Today I was able to sleep in a bit since Nis doesn’t have all that much to see. This means I am up by 8:00 anyway.
First thing I do is Google to see where the train station is, since I had forgotten to do that before I left. Oh fuck. It is a 21 minute walk, which is fine. But there are a lot of turns and stuff on Cyrillic written streets. There is no way in HELL I am going to be able to find it in the dark at 2:30 am. FUCK. This was my whole reason for staying an extra night in my hotel. I don’t want to trust that I can get a cab. So I decide that I will just take the bus to Sofia tomorrow. Good bye dreams of finally taking an overnight sleeper train. UGH.
Since I am going to the Fortress today, I make that my first stop since it is pretty much at the bus station. This way I can buy a bus ticket to Sofia for tomorrow. It was an easy walk, passing over the Nišava River.
I had originally done a “quick picture post” of Sarajevo, here.
I had not planned to spend any time in Sarajevo. I wanted to go to Mostar, and planned to use Sarajevo as a home base to travel to Mostar from, as a day trip. However, after arriving in Sarajevo, I just felt like I wanted to be here. I can’t really explain it. I don’t know if the city affected me in any way, if I was just mentally exhausted, if I was so over Rome and all the people or what. I just knew I wanted to stay here. I woke up early and was raring to go. I wasn’t really sure WHERE to go though. I hadn’t planned on staying here, so I hadn’t done any research. I hopped on a tram and took it to the end of the line and walked around a bit. I found a cool park. 
Sarajevo has so much beauty. I could not get enough of gazing at the multi colored houses in the hills. 
Today I am leaving Rome and heading to Bosnia. This section of the trip is both where I got all frustrated while booking it, and then even more frustrated living it. I originally wanted to go from Rome to Puglia and take an overnight ferry to Dubrovnik. Well today is Wednesday and guess what day of the week that ferries do not run? Yes. Wednesday. So I opted to fly to Bosnia. This was the start of several days where I watched my “Best Travel Planner EVER” crown turn to rust before my eyes.
Hotel check out is at 11:00 My flight is at 4:05. I decide to go to the airport this early because I don’t want to be in Rome anymore. Plus my flight has changed and I am not all that sure of the new time because there is no wifi in my room and I am limited on what I can see on my phone.
There was no one upstairs when I checked out of my room. I just left the keys there. I had to restrain myself to keep from leaving a note about YOU LYING BASTARDS. THERE IS NO WIFI HERE.
I walked downstairs and the dude who checked me in is out there! He asks me how my stay is. I say “there is no wifi” and he says “yeah…” in this sheepish tone that causes me to FLIP OUT on him. I am so pissed off, I am yelling about how I never would have stayed here, this is bullshit and false advertising. I basically just keep yelling at him. He basically just keeps standing there. I finally walk away while giving him the finger. I am still so mad about this. It is so irrational but I hate liars and to knowingly lie about having wifi when you don’t just really set me off. The hilarity of all of this is that this is the first trip ever in my life where I have brought a laptop type thingy. On any other trip to any other place I have been to in my past, I wouldn’t have even known that this hotel is a liar liar pants on fire.
Today is my last full day in Rome. I will not lie; I am looking forward to my stay here being over. I am just dying to go east. I am doing that thing again where I wonder why the hell do I keep coming to places that are not even in my top 100 places to see before I die. I keep getting sucked in by famous tourist spots. Like how can I not go to Rome and see the Sistene Chapel or the Colosseum? I need to guide myself away from doing this in the future. The three days I have spent here could have been spent anywhere east of the Adriatic and I would have spent these three days in absolute heaven.
But then I think of things like my time in Naples or last year in Florence. I fell in love with Florence. I loved my time in Naples and all its surrounding areas. I wasn’t really expecting either of those things to happen. I am so glad I went. I love finding new places I love that I hadn’t planned on falling in love with. It makes me feel like I am learning about the world and growing as a person. I guess I am bipolar about my vacation destinations.
But anyway, less deep thoughts with Jennifer and more back to Rome.
I do not like Rome. This is not entirely Rome’s fault. I acknowledge that. But I do not like it.
I was leaving Napoli today. I last left off leaving Castel Sant’Elmo. I had to go back to my hotel and pick up my luggage. Dying, hot, sweaty, death.
I walked back over to Centrale to buy a train ticket to Rome. The next train was leaving in ten minutes, I wanted a tiny bit more time to do things like buy an ice cold drink (DYING, HOT, SWEATY, DEATH) and smoke a cigarette. I look at the later times and see prices €40 and up. What the hell, I thought it was going to be like €10. Then I notice the too-soon train is only €11.20. Perfect, I will take it. Who needs a cigarette and ice cold drink when you will be in Rome in about an hour for only €11.20?
Ugh. Did you know they have slow trains between Naples and Rome? I didn’t. I am now on a three hour train. I boarded late so there are no seats left. I am sitting outside between the two cars, burning hot. There is a guy selling cold water, he does not have change for a €20 bill. I don’t have anything smaller since I just put all my change and smaller bills into the ticket machine.
I did see some cool scenery though:
My last morning in Naples. I wanted to spend a few hours here before leaving for Rome. Especially since I have now mastered the fine art of not being murdered by a Vespa when crossing the street. (Hint: walk with a local in between you and the direction of oncoming traffic.)
Naples chaos:
After a last game of catch with the cute dog who lives at my hotel, I was off.
I last left off in Pompeii. I wanted to go to Mount Vesuvius. I know it is cold there, always. This should have been a draw since I was slowly dying in the heat in Pompeii. But I could not get my mind to believe that a volcano would be cooler. So I decided to go to Sorrento, which was burning hot of course. Meh, whatever. At least I had the joy of being able to switch my plans last minute and not have to deal with anyone else because I am solo lalalalalaaaaaaaaaaa.
Leaving Pompeii and buying a train ticket for Sorrento was a bit difficult. The ticket booth guy was not at the window, but instead could be seen from the window gabbing it up with his coworker. The maniac behind me in line starts smashing at the window. Of course, the guy thinks its me since I am the one standing there when he comes over. Great. I ask for a ticket. He gives it to me and tells me “You need to run to catch the train”. Yeah well I wouldn’t have if you had been here instead of over there….whatever.
Since it is later in the day now, the Circumvesuviana train smells even worse than it did earlier in the day. I am from New York, I can handle this.
Today is one of those days where I am reminded how much I love traveling solo.
My original plans for today were to overdo sightseeing. I was determined to go to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Mount Vesuvius all in one day. The internet says it can not be done, I say it can. I guess we will never know now though because I ended up making a very last second decision to go to Sorrento after Pompeii, rather than keeping my original plans. Changing plans last minute always seems to be so easy when you are solo and so difficult when you are not. I didn’t have to confer with anyone, all I had to do was get on the train.
First stop: Pompeii. I took the Circumvesuviana train here from Naples. At the Naples train station, some random guy approached me and asked me if I was looking for the ticket booth. I made the mistake of saying yes. Oh here we go. He then tries escorting me through the train station, out the other side and down a new entrance. I do not want him to do this because I know he is going to ask me for money. I actually say to him “I am not giving you any money, I can make it the rest of the way by myself”. He ignores me. We get to the ticket window and he tries to pay for my ticket. I think the trick here is that he pays for my ticket (it was something like €2.40) and then would hope I would not have exact change and give him a €5 bill). I keep insisting “DO NOT BUY MY TICKET” and he will not stop. So I then yell to the booth guy “DO NOT SELL HIM MY TICKET”. Then I think I will outsmart him and pay with a credit card. No change, no cash, sorry guy. But the Circumvesuviana does not take credit cards. ARGH.
So I pay in cash and turn to leave. My unwanted escort asks me to buy him a cup of coffee. NO. I find it so completely annoying when people do things like this.
The train comes and its every bit as run down and rickety as the internet told me it would be. It was also hot as hell on there.
We get to Pompeii. Walking from the train station to the entrance is about a five minute walk, during which you are offered to purchase a bunch of things such as slushies, sun hats and souvenirs. I almost bought an enormous sun hat as my 100 spf sun screen is not working and I am so burned up. But I resisted.
Pompeii is HOT today. Burning hot. There are just about zero spots with shade inside here. I had to keep reminding myself “you know, people here died from being buried under volcanic ash, I bet they would love to trade spots with you”.
