Back in Sofia

We just came back from Thesaloniki, Greece this morning with the night train. For just 350km. it took it 9 hours to arrive in Sofia mostly due to border delays. Bogi got really tired so he is staying in Sofia but I paln to embark on another shorter trip around Turkey for the remaining days of my InterRail ticket – another 5-6 days. The travel itinerary was changed dramtically in the last few days – instead of going from Brindisi, Italy with a ferry to Patra, Greece in the last moment we resolved on going to Albania instead. Albania was a really crazy place! It’s hard to imagine that it’s a country on the European continent. However we escaped from the country within 24 hours – I did fear staying in Tiranna overnight so we took whatever bus available (more like a furgon-taxi) to the border city of Korcha with Greece and then to Thesaloniki.
Now the rough plan is to go to Turkey and embark on a route involving Istanbul – Ankra – Nis – Konya – Aifun – Izmir – Bursa – Istanbul. I have no idea if it’s possible to make it within 5 days traveling only with the local trains but I’m about to understand very soon
Will resume my economic overview of the development in Bulgaria and makes sense most to me when I come back at around January 11th, 2004.