Day 1 made classic mistake ,was at wrong end of Platform ,got on wrong train, everything in Cyrillic , am now back on track up to Dobrinishte
Day 2 Bansko to Septemvri train cancelled.Bus replacement back down to Septemvri Super train journey to experience through.Septemvri to Krumovo to Asenvgrad
Day 3
Asenovgrad to Krumovo
Krumovo to Dimitrovgrad
Dimitrovgrad to Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora to Veliko Tarnovo
At Dimitrovgrad Engine is shunted to opposite end then heads North to Stara Zagora ,nice town will have to come back ? Then Stara Zagora to Veliko Tarnovo, the weather is very Hot,already nudging just under 30c
Today's Guards all recognised the Digital Pass Yippee.Hotels have been cheap but you get what you pay for.
The section from Stara Zagora to Veliko Tarnovo was well worth Doing , very densely Forested Hills for miles
Very scenic and tunnels where the train does 360° to gain or lose Height.
Best section so Far.If your in Veliko Tarnovo stay at Guest House Gurkov £32 with Breakfast, just be mindful this town is very Hilly .
Weds Day 4
First train cancelled Veliko Tarnovo to Gorna Orjachovica did a shared Taxi for £2.60
Changed plans Got Direct train to Varna , was going to veer of but to many minor trains getting cancelled.
Day 5
Varna to Kaspican by Train then it's Bus replacement between Kaspican and Samuil due in at 1354
Then Ruse to Bucuresti Nord at 1415
I've not been able to reserve a seat on this leg but my app says Not Compulsory! Not even approaching major ticket offices in Bulgaria, they just shake there Heads, and ring Hands.ill update tomorrow evening
Day 5
Varna to Kaspican then bus replacement to Samuil then back on train to Ruse you go to Platform 3 and board at far end, end near exit will be full of arrivals from Romania awaiting there passports returned. Bulgarian Border official takes your passport away while you have got on comes back with it ,you proceed to Ruse on Romanian side a Romanian official comes to you on train and Takes Photo of your passport
This is a more Modern train Guard comes up scans your Interrail pass , no need for seat Reservations on this one not compulsory but will be during high summer , but not easy to do , not online! this is a very slow train to Bucuresti Nord gets in at 1715 from a 1415 set off time . As soon as I got to Bucuresti N I queued at Kiosk to reserve my Domestic trips to Brasov and Sibiu then went to kiosk 1 for Brasov to Bucuresti reservation Total came to about £4.50 , so cheaper to reserve at Station, i just used Google translate to show lady what I wanted Cheap Hotel Bucuresti £22 ! Get what you pay for
Local travel is via 24Pay app 24 hrs unlimited travel for about £1.60 also Romania is more up to date in regard to Paying by card just get yourself a
Starling Card.
Day 6 Travel
Bucuresti Nord to Brasov 0824 I'm getting off and Dumping bag to have a walk round Brasov and find a Good Local Romanian Food stop for Lunch get back on about 1450 to head to Sighisoara, I've decided to stay in Romania Longer as it's very cheap and I withdrew £103 worth of Lei 600 so it will take a while to spend that amount of Romanian Money , food is a lot cheaper as in UK The afternoon jaunt was Brasov to Sighisoara 1450 takes just under 4 hrs and is 117 km long so barely got above 30 kmph, a new line is being built at side but will take years
Day 7
Sighisoara to Targu Mures via a stop at Razboieni , this section is very slow as well with no facilities at this Junction stop .
Day 8
Early start to get back Down to Razboieni short wait for Intercity to Cluj Napoca , couple of hours in Cluj for lunch then back on The Budapest Bound train but I'm getting off at Oradea for my last night in Romania while I figure what I'm doing in Hungary. EU money is being spent right along this section.
Just had to Pay 12 Ron Romanian on a Interregional from Razboieni to Cluj Napoca , apparently these are not included in Interrail Pass but I can't find relevant exclusions anywhere!
Cluj Napoca to Oradea this Sunday was a Bus replacement service Left Cluj Napoca at 1330 and got into Orabea at 1720 , stopped a couple of times for comfort breaks.
Day 9
First Day in Hungary will consist
Oradea 0855 to Debrecen IR 1841 seat Res cost 15.5 Ron
Debrecen 1138 to Nyiregyhaza 1220 RE6214
Nyiregyhaza1238 to Fuezesabony 1512 RE5115
Fuezesabony 1527 to Hatvan 1609
IR543
Hatvan 1616 to Salgotarjan , I changed to this stop as there were no Hotels at Somoskoujfalu.
Will update pm Mon
When leaving Oradea on IR1841 it will be signed to Valea lui Mihai which is nearest Romanian Border town to Hungary on this line, this train goes on to Vienna I think?
At Valea lui Mihai Border Guards Come on and Check Passports while Engine is moved to opposite end and extra carriages added on, you come in Facing East and Head out West if that makes sense.Another job to do was turn clock back 1 hr when entering Hungary! .Hungarian side is called Nyirabrany, a Border officer comes round Checks Passport and finally at about 1027 local time were on the move West to Debrecen
Debrecen to Nyiregyhaza then to Fuezesabony then to Hatvan then to Salgotarjan, unfortunately this town is awful , probably the worst Hotel experience ever .Handed room key to Discover unmade Bed Awful place
There's very few Hotels up here.
Can't wait for the morning Sun to come up.Ive lost track of what Day we're on
The MAV from Fuezesabony to Hatvan was super . 6 Days left from tomorrow
So it's Salgotarjan to Hatvan
Hatvan to Goedoelloe
Goedoelloe to Rakos
Rakos to Ujpest
Ujpest to Estergom
Estergom to Komorom
Stay in Komorom next to Danube
Set off early to get away from this awful town of Salgotarjan
My itinerary is as above I'll cross Danube Wed 24/ to get to a station called Revkomarom , I have 5 days left to circle Slovakia.
The train to Komorom was a single carriage Diesel , was very warm Conductor would not let us open window! Crossed Danube on foot .Money exchange was right to side of Bridge, very good and honest exchange rates as well. Got Digs Called Harry's City 40€ right near train station at Komarno.
Weds itinary
Komarno -Nove Zamky
Nove Zamky-Nitra
Nitra - Leopoldov
Leopoldov-Zilina
Zilina-Kralovany
Kralovany- Trvdosin
My seat reservations I did on ZSSK
Web page for 1 €
Judging by seat occupancy if it says Seat Res Optional i'd book one as they look quite full.
I was going to go to Trstena but on Booking .com web page the Hotel price jumped up £20 on 2 visits , very strange, Airline style cookies gauging going on!?. So next town down for me.Tvrdosin stayed in a nice Hotel opposite Lidl.
Komarno to Nove Zamky then got held back to let The Hamburg train through
At Nitra the train just changed number and carried on to Leopoldov where the express for Zilina was waiting for us by 9 minutes, to be fair guite a few people who got off got on this Express ,it's 1€ to reserve a seat but there are plenty of unoccupied seats , but seat reservations are compulsory.At Kralovany got off and headed North to Trvdosin, this has the very famous wooden Church 15/16 century .In the early hours it snowed so got 0751 down back to Kralovany, the next train was 15 mins late got off at Strba and waited for 1239 to Strbske Pleso to go round Tatra Electric Railway.Carried on to Start Smokovec and Tatranska Lamnica and back to Poprad Tatry.Hotel is just by Marshalling Sheds and that was Thursday done, this electric railway was very busy , must be murder on a summer weekend
So 3 Days left in Poprad Tatry and my Digital Pass and all relevant travel stored Data disappeared of my Interrail App while at Station .Completely wiped clean , had to quickly read other people's posts as it would take Days to resolve with a response.Went in to Apps into Interrail App cleared Cache and Data and re loaded App up and it then let me re enter valid pass and loaded it back on but obviously after this you lose all your My Planner and previous travel Stats.
Luckily my next train was Delayed as they all are on this stretch.
So up and running
Poprad to Kysak to Presov to Bardejov,all these trains were late and Heaving and it was a Friday
Penultimate day will be spent getting
Back to Margecany to Banska Bystrica via Brezno through middle of Slovakia Digital Pass Permitting! I gave the App a one Star . Judging by previous posts this is not isolated and is totally unacceptable really.its not being asked to store vast amounts of information
The Data is miniscule really
So in concluding I'd go for paper in future.
Got down to Presov and Margecany quite easily then the train to Banska Bystrica was delayed by 35 mins , the scenery more than makes up though , beautiful steep sided Hills heavily forrested following a nice river .Hotel in Banska £43 with breakfast.Made up time later and got in 15 mins late.It passed over a Pass near Telgart Penzione then slow descent to Brezno, some serious Snow covered Mountains round here . A true gem of a line , last Days travel tomorrow.Changed plan was going to Turcianske Tuplice then back down to Zvolen to then get the up clockwise to Horna Stubna then over to Prievidza.Decided to go up To Turcianske Tuplice then wait for connection to Prievidza then round to Nitra and Leopoldov before last train of trip to Bratislava Hlavna.I tried to plan a circuitous route round from Banska Bystrica but it would have involved a Doubling back to Zvolen then long wait for the up train To Horna Stubna clockwise so scrapped it The line between Banska Bystrica and Turcianske Tuplice is amazing.So that ends my 15 Days round Bulgaria Romania Hungary and Slovakia, hope it helps any future intrepid travellers, line to Prievidza was a nice line too, at Turciaske i was stood on wrong platform expecting train to go in a certain direction , but it didnt so i went up to Martin to get the next down Train to Prievidza , it was a sleepy station with announcements in Slovak no Martix Platform signs , i didnt think to go in to Map part of app which shows direction of travel! At Prievidza there was a train to Nove Mesto Bratislava so i jumped on that , no reservation needed on this one , the travel system in Bratislava was super . 2.20 euro for 24 hrs travel on a very good app where you could plan your routes very easily. Electric trolley car to Airport are every 6 mins and take 25 mins No 61 . takes about 10 mins to get through every thing at the airport. The trip in total came to about £1300 for 18 Days .
