So I don't wanna freak anyone out but....

We somehow ended up in Serbia yesterday.  We didn't realize that until the train guy comes up to ask about the tickets and tells us that our rail pass is not valid.  He was very nice and sold us our ticket there on the train and explained everything to us  Very sweet guy.  Same thing happened at 3am, but that guy wasn't as nice.  He also didn't speak any English until he asked where we were from - we said America and he said "Oh!  Obama!  Bush!"  Which also made us laugh.

They checked our passport 4 times as we went through Serbia - I didn't really freak out about that until this morning because he took our passports away and came back about 15 mins later.  Nothing bad happened but when someone takes off with your passport, it's kinda ulcer-inducing.  So we're in Sofia and totally exhausted after all the trains and travel.

My favorite bits?  On the night train in Germany the party people behind us were totally rocking out to Hatebreed's "I will be heard."  On the train going from Copenhagen to Hamburg, the conductor guy was suprised that we had actually followed the directions on the rail pass ad filled out our train info.  His quote "You would be amazed how many English-speaking people can't read English."  Made us laugh for the whole trip.  We now also know that on a night train, pay for a bed.  The first night train was horribly uncomfortable - my bum was sooo numb!  Although at one point I woke up and my seat - mate was over on the other side - so I took the opportunity to lay down.  Still not a god sleep.  The train in Serbia?  Much more comfy but trust me, you wouldn't want to use the bathroom on that thing!  Oh, and a guy on the train in Serbia had a text-message alert that sounded like when Mario gets bitten by something and dies.

So that's about it - 2 days of train travel and not a whole lot happened.  Lots of sore rear ends and exhaustion.

Totally exausted. Words do not give it enough meaning. We have agreed to take it a little slower going back because it was so tiring. You can tell the difference from the North of Europe to the South by its trains. Northern Scandinaivan trains are cleaner (not as confortable on the night train according to Mandi) and you contiute to see or hear your next destination unlike the trains in the South have NO direction. We had to ask if we reached our destinations and of course most people did not speak English and after listening to a Spanish family on a Northern train who were hoping somone in Budapest spoke Spanish so I did not even try. Unlike Mandi I did not like the Southern trains not as clean and did not feel quite as safe. However, looks can be deceiving so I will stay aware of our surroundings. Getting our passports looked at 4 times as kind of un-nerving but all went well. I am grateful Mandi is my buddy on this trip she is a great navigator and a lot f fun to be with. This is truely an adventure. `