Arrival in Bulgaria

What a trip!!

On Monday I went from Bucharest, Romania to Varna, Bulgaria. A simple plan it seems at first. I had my ticket, a train from Bucharest to Ruse, Bulgaria, change trains in Ruse and on to Varna. I had a cushion of forty minutes in Ruse to make the change of trains. The train left Bucharest on time and other that one stop for about 5 minutes we proceeded without any problems. Except, we arrived in Ruse one hour late. So much for my forty minute cushion. On the train, sitting in my compartment was a German man who spoke no English but we were able to establish that he also was going to Varna. When we finally got to Ruse he and I got quickly off the train and met two travelers from Austria who also were trying to get to Varna. A man approached our little group and asked if we were going to Varna. We said yes and he said the last train of the day to Varna had left 20 minutes before, but he could take us by car to a station that the train would stop at, and he could get us there before the train arrived (so see cars are much faster than trains). We of course thought he was just someone trying to cheat stupid foreigners, so we went to the information booth. To get there we had to walk down two flights of stairs. The lady there said, "Varna, yes go to platform 1 to get the train." We ran to platform 1 and it was the train we had just left. We asked a man, does this train go to Varna, he said that it did, but it went to Sofia first and then tomorrow you can take a train to Varna. We asked are there no more trains here today for Varna and we were told no, go to Sofia, spend the night and try again tomorrow. We all looked at each other and the man who offered to drive us and 3 of us decided to take the risk and go with the man (the man from Germany decided to stay with the train). We jumped into his car and off we sped. In the car I learned that the two who had come with me were from Austria and they were school teachers. They taught at a school with a bilingual program, like Junction. They taught German and English to the students. Anyway I talked with the woman, he name is Daniella, to keep her mind off the road and the driver since he was going very fast and passing a lot of cars and she was very nervous. We arrived at the station (it was 72 Kilometers from Ruse) about 10 minutes before our train. The driver had told us that he would not charge us if he did not get us to the train on time. So we paid him and got on to the exact train that we had missed in Ruse. We were able to complete our journey to Varna without any further problems. My host and her husband were waiting for me in Varna. So an exciting journey to say the least!
I will meet with some of the students today to prepare for the classes that I will teach. Starting tomorrow I will have 3 classes of students. I will be sure to take some pictures and tell you all about them in future updates. See you all soon, goodbye from the beautiful Black Sea coast city of Varna.