As you no doubt remember, I changed my itinerary so I could ride the famous Belgrade to Bar Railway. It’s nearly 300 miles from Belgrade to Bar, or from Bar to Belgrade, and traverses 254 tunnels and 435 bridges. Allegedly. What I discovered is quite different. I discovered ‘darkness.’ Yep. That Belgrade to Bar train is only running at night, I guess because it’s winter-ish and who wants to travel in the winter-ish?
The train left Belgrade’s new train station, Belgrade Centar Railway Station, at 8:20pm. Sunset was at 5:30pm. It arrived in Bar, Montenegro, at 8:20am. Sunrise was at 7:12am. That’s maybe 1.5 hours of enough light to see something.
I saw a couple of the tunnels (oh, by the way, they are dark inside) and a couple of the bridges. I saw those majestic Montenegro mountains from a distance. I didn’t meet any French detectives. No one was murdered. I could be wrong: it was dark.
I booked a private sleeper car, essentially buying out a 3-bunk cabin, so I could have privacy and get some sleep. Never been in a sleeper car before. Exciting. Exciting but not super comfortable. I was able to raise up the middle bunk, giving me more room on the bottom to sit up. The mattress was actually nice and comfy, but the train would shake, rattle and roll. After a couple of hours of trying to sleep, I discovered that the train, more often than not, leaned to the right. I swapped my pillow to the left end of the bed, putting my head slight up hill, more often than not. Sweet sleep! Not really. The train still was shaking, rattling and rolling, but a fitful night of sleep is still sleep. I need a nap.
Want free advice? Take a train in the summer!
