Slovenian Railway Carriages
We are now on board a train from Ljubljana to Beograd (Belgrade).
This is an 9 hour sector, and we had hoped that the train may have been somewhat better than that provided for the last sector, from Villach to Ljubljana – alas, this was not to be!
The trip south from Ljubljana to the border with Croatia was very pleasant.
As we moved down from the mountainous regions of central Slovenia towards the southern part of the country, the scenery changed, although we followed the path of a rived for much of the way.
This river altered during our trip from being a very fast flowing stream with many rapids (presumably much of the water flowing based on ongoing snow melt from the alpine parts), to a much more sedate river wandering slowly (and no doubt more deeply) through some of the towns.
We have just traversed the border between Slovenia and Croatia, and are now reminded about what border crossings were like in the days before the European Union came into being.
A stop of some 25 minutes while the locomotive was changed was followed by the boarding of the train by three policemen (with handguns) demanding to see and stamp our passports, and another railway official (with very ornate gold braided cap) who requested our tickets once again (and added his on notation onto the ticket).
The train then proceeded another kilometre or so, at which time another group of policemen (in a different uniform) entered the train and again required that passports be supplied, and again stamped).
Following this, we have been allowed to proceed into Croatia, and continue our journey.
All we can now do is to wait until we move from Croatia into Serbia, and see if the performance is repeated once again.
This has reminded us of the need to collect some Serbian currency before we attempt to hire a taxi for a trip to the hotel.
The trip down into Croatia has been less scenic to date. We are approaching Zagreb, and have noted that the amount of graffiti on buildings, rail wagons, etc has been quite marked.
The area surrounding Zagreb is not what we would call scintillating. The buildings surrounding the rail track do seem to still have the look of a region that hasn’t progressed a very long way from its totalitarian past.
As we have moved further south from Zagreb, we’ve moved from the industrial to a much more agricultural zone, with areas of both braod acre and more intensive cultivation. There has been a significant amount of canola, some corn, market gardens with strawberries, although the soil doesn’t serem as fertile as we noticed further north.
We’ve had yet another passport check – this time at a place called Sid.
That may have been the nearest station between Croatia and Serbia, but we’re yet to discover if this is the case. The weather has been very kind for this time of the year, with blue skies, reasonably warm temperatures and no sign of rain.
Of the villages and towns we have passed through so far, there doesn’t appear to be a great evidence of wealth amongst the populations. Most houses are either single story or very basic double story structures. The motor vehicles have for the most part been significantly older than we noticed in Ljubljana, and the public buildings have not been in any way ornate.
The transfer from Croatia into Serbia has now taken place, and the result has been a further check and stamping of passports at a station on the border.
We did come across a most enterprising individual who, realising that the trip is of some 9 hours duration without the opportunity to seek any sort of refreshment, arranges to climb aboard and to offer beer and cold mineral water to passengers. Although the asking price was high, the cold drinks were well received, and we were happy to pay the asking price. This also offered us a way of converting some Euros into the local Serbian currency.
We are on our third locomotive and train crew, but unfortunately, the carriages have remained the same for the whole trip.
