I left Nis in the early afternoon having spent the morning packing and writing. I decided to go by train since it was te only mode of transport that didn't leave at some ridiculous hour of the morning or in the middle of the night. As with my train journey to Nis the train was pretty empty so I had a carriage to myself. The journey was starting to look uneventful until just near the Serbian border a family decided that they would take the opportunity of choosing not only my train but also my carriage for transporting what seemed to be the contents of their garden. All of a sudden large branches and potted plants were poked through the carriage and earth was spilling all over the floor. I tried to look as inquisitive as possible in the hope that they might actually notice me. When they did they just gabbled away in Serbian and made rude signs to let me know I should move. I tried in my best Serbian to explain that I was here first and that they should move, but alas without success. In the end I just hauled my rucksack and used it as a kind of bludgeoning tool warning them in English to move out of the way. The good thing about a 20kg rucksack is that it is very effective at sweeping people out of the way if used correctly.

We got to the border and had to wait a few hours while the police checked passports and searched the train. The botanists in the carriage next door somehow persuaded the border police to let them through, though I am sure it cost them. The idiot border guards managed to stamp my passport in the page opposite my Azerbaijani visa which basically will probably mean I have problems on the Azerbaijani border. It is amazing that my passport has 40 pages of which 30-odd are blank and yet the officials fdo their best to cram all the stamps onto the first page.

Nevertheless I arrived in Sofia as the sun was setting and made my way to the rather aptly named "Be my guest" hostel. I'd booked this over the internet and it's a really friendly and new place, but with almost no-one staying here. Still the owner was incredibly friendly and we sat around drinking Bulgarian beer and chatting into the small hours.