It’s a good thing that Bucharest is kind of boring. I needed to focus on figuring out how to get out. I still need a bunch of days outside of the Schengen zone and Romania was not going to help. I looked at the Rome2Rio.com website and got to work. It is an 8 hour bus ride to Sofia, Bulgaria. I was there a few years ago and it seemed nice enough. It is also a pretty good jumping off point for the non Schengen countries that I needed to get too.
The other option that Rome2Rio came up with was a multi-leg journey to Beldrade, Serbia. I dislike multi-leg journeys just lightly less than overnight bus rides especially when different modes of transportarion are involved.
I am under the impression that Serbia does NOT get along with it neighbors. When I was here last time I had to take an all day bus fro. Bulgaria to get to Kosovo because its border with Serbia was closed and then reverse the trip and then take a train up to Budapest then back down to Belgrade because there was direct way into Serbia from Romania. It was days and nights of busses and trains to go a couple of hundred miles.
That was before Rome2Rio existed. It was saying that I could get to Belgrade from Bucharest in 1 day with good timing of the connections.
It was a snowy morning when I headed for the Bucarest train station so that was nice. My first fresh snow the entire trip.
Rome2Rio told me to catch the train to the Romanian border town of Drobeta-Turnu Severin. It overlooks Serbia to the west with the Danube River flowing between them. I just had to get across the river and catch the bus onward.
Instead, I got a room in town to plan my assault on Serbia after a good night’s sleep. It was a nice little city and it was off season so rooms were cheap and plentiful. I was a little worried that it was too off season when I walked around town looking for dinner. I walked quite a ways looking for something open on a Sunday night before settling for a pizza at a bar hosting a teenager’s birthday party. The pizza was better than lying in bed all night listening to my stomach growl so that it was what I needed it to do. There wasn’t a lot of planning needed for getting to
Belgrade from there. There is only one way. It starts with hiring a driver to take you to the bus station across the Danube. You can almost see the bus stop in Kladovo from Drobeta-Turnu Severin. The only way to get there was a 10 mile drive up to a hydro electric dam/border control gate crossing then 10 miles back down to the bus stop.
I thought I might look to see if there was a city bus going that way then just walk across and catch another bus into town. Seemed like a good adventure. There are no busses running anywhere near where I needed to be. The next option was to get a taxi. The problem I have with Rome2Rio is their cost estimates are about as accurate as the maps in Lonely Planet guides. Like Lonely Planet maps are rarely an accurate depiction of how to get from point A to point B, Rome2Rio rarely gives an accurate estimate of how much its going to cost to get from point A to point B. Per Rome2Rio, i had a 5€ fare in my head. The taxi drivers were giving me 40€ fare. I had no option and no Euro, so I walked back into town to find an ATM with Euro. I finally found one in the main hotel on town. I tried one last time to find a cheap way across by seeing if the hotel had any tourist busses heading that way. No, but she did have a friend who would take me for 40€. Next thing I know i am sitting in a new Mercedes driving to Serbia. I was surprised how quickly I got through the border checks. I was expecting a lot of hemming and hawing. But 5 minutes later and I was in Kladovo trying to figure out the bus to Belgrade. The bus station was just a reserved parking spot with a coffee and snack kiosk. I gained an hour coming over so had time to walk around town.
Ćevapi: Bosnian grilled sausages. Not as good in Serbia but still a good burner.
An hour was a lot of time especially on a snowy morning with nothing open. Plenty of time to get to an ATM for bus fare. Which as I sit here, can not tell you why I didn’t. I think I was thinking I was at a proper bus station with a short layover to hope that the bus driver would arrive early and have a layover before heading on so I could figure There was no ticket office and I had no idea how much money I needed. No one wants to be stuck with left over Serbian money. It is pretty much worthless at a money changer so I was hoping the driver had a portable POS credit card machine. Nope. And he wasn’t waiting for me to get to an ATM. So I waved
The NOT exciting Serbian border town of Kladovo.
goodbye from the curb and wondered what I was going to do until 4 pm when the next bus rolled through. I already walked around the town once but I had another few laps in me. I stopped for a coffee in a smoke filled cafe. That used up a couple minutes before it was time to replenish the oxygen in my lungs. A few more laps and a slow lunch of ćevapi for lunch. Then a few more laps and a visit to the ATM for bus fare. Instead of more laps I gave up and just sat on the cold metal bench and waited for the remaining hour.
Finally, the bus came and I snagged a nice window seat. I was happy to settle in on the warm bus and wait for Belgrade. I immediately regretted my seat though. The bus route followed the Danube River and spoiler alert… it was one of the prettiest drives I have been on without actually getting to see it. It is a narrow road through the Danube gorge. I could only see narrow glimpses through the curtains from the far side of the bus. And the sun was going down. I would do the trip again in a car it was so pretty. The rest of the trip was dark and quiet.
Belgrade has changed a lot since the last time I was there. They have built a whole new part of town called New Belgrade. Lots of sleek high rise office and apartment buildings. The shiney new bus station is there. My hotel room was not. My ćevapi lunch had long worn off so figured I would would kill two birds my stopping for dinner along the walk to the hotel. It was just a mile but a mile of nothing. If I was in a big city in the US and walked this path, I would have been very nervous. I kept an eye out but I didn’t even come across anyone to be nervous about. Definitely no place to get dinner. It could be that the robbers and restauranteurs are smart here and don’t waste their time looking for victims or customers where nobody would think to be. In any event, it was an ok walk and wasn’t too long before I was safe in the city and hit the first McDonalds I came to.
The hotel was self check in and much nicer than I expected for the low price I paid. I was tempted but it was a long day. I decided to call it a day and crawl into bed.
My Belgrade hotel view
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