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I Changed my 3rd plan: Thess, Bucharest , Belgrade, Thess

I left from Thessaloniki Friday at 00:09 26th to Bucharest and I arrived there at 19:30. Despite my intention to travel at 27th to Istanbul I changed my mind yesterday to go to Belgrade. I got the train from Gare du Nord at 21:40 to Belgrade. The Wagon was full of passengers and this impressed me. The half of these got off to Timisoara ( we arrived to Timisoara 04:35 next day 27th) and the others to Belgrade (10:40 next day). After thought, I explained to myself that yesterday it was Friday night and these passengers were students and employees got to their homes. Romanians got off the train to Timisoara. Serbians to Belgrade that work to Bucharest. Romania from 2007 is in European Union and many Serbians go there for business which is connected to EU.

Now from Belgrade I will end my 3rd attempt "crossing the Balkans countries by train" to Thessaloniki, Greece ( 22:20).

As I said in my last report Romania is the new leader on the Balkan Flexipass train ticket. Romania tries to have a European profile but needs more effort for it. Concerning this, Greece is in EU 27 years but the European profile of Greece is not so obvious. Firstly, for political reasons (corruption) and secondly because Greece didn't has borders with the EU, except from sea.(From 2007 there is land connections with Bulgaria and in extent with Romania and the rest Europe). Therefore I realized that there are common things in many tasks between Greeks and Balkans (Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Turkish) for example the way of leaving. Despite the Balkan peninsula is a part of Europe, it is different from the rest Europe and in this period wants to make a modern "European profile".

Finally, I could say that The Balkan area is "an old" part of Europe very important to Europe and in nowadays tries to become the "new part" of Europe.

Belgrade 270908

PS. The map on the title link is:
Map from "Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel: Europe" Volume 1, 1899.

Photos from 2nd attempt. Plan for the 3rd attempt. Thess Belgrade Istanbul Thess 11 12 13 14 0908

IMG_0129.Pompan is Serbian from Nis and he is train driver, he is 46 yrs old. He is married for 22 yrs and he has two children.

IMG_1163. Andreas, from Cyprus, he studies Maths in U.K. He flew from Nicosia to Athens and from there he got the train to Belgrade through Thessaloniki. His Final stop is UK but first he will stop in Novi Sad, Budapest, and Amsterdam.

IMG_1180. Serbians employees work to the national rail company for more than 16 years. They locked the carriage from Thessaloniki to Tabanovce (borders between FYROM and Serbia) and we couldn’t go to the next carriage. After many questions they answered rude that is for passengers’ protection .Radovan is the name from the guy on the right.

IMG_1192. Marta, from Cordoba, Andalucia. She traveled with her friend by train to Europe. They have interail train ticket. From Barcelona flight to Rome and from there they got train to Brindisi and boat to Patras Greece. From Patras they wanted to pass across Greece and Serbia and to get to Amsterdam.

IMG_1329. Erhan, a Turkish student 23 yrs old. He bought an interail train ticket to go to Montpelleir for erasmus program to Montpellier University. He studies Economic science.

IMG_1413. Mr Hambos Greek from Russia. He passed the Black sea by boat (СОУИ- Russia) to Trabzon (Turkey) and from there to Istanbul by bus. His last stop was Athens.

IMG_1383. Taka is Japanese, he lives in Tokyo. He flight from Tokyo to Ankara and by train to Istanbul. He has interail train ticket and he wants to travel around Europe by train. This was his second time in Greece. His next stop is Athens.

Serbian landscape is full of wheat fields. Close to the railway lines there are enterprises selling second hand cars and cars’ spares. The villages and the people look poor. Energy areas one can see not only in Serbia but also in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece.

Vegetable gardens are common in Serbia and Bulgaria. Religious buildings there are in any Balkan country and more specific: Mosques in FYROM and Turkey, Orthodox Christian Churches in Serbia and Greece. Also is interesting the new colourful buildings that create new cities close to Istanbul Turkey.

In my third trip I will focus on the people. Now I know that is difficult to define what is Balkan. So from now on, my main aim is to find what routes the passengers use to get to their destination. Some of them use interail train ticket or Balkan Flexipass train ticket. For this reason now I am interesting more to see from where these people are coming and where they are going. From my last trip to Istanbul from Belgrade I realised that a lot of Romania people use Balkan Flexipass train ticket. The Greek rail company replied to me that this ticket has established in 01 01 1997 and since 2007 the leader country was Greece but from 2008 leader is Romania. In this trird attempt I will follow this route: Thessaloniki – Bucharest – Istanbul – Thessaloniki .

Plan for the 2nd attempt.Thessaloniki/Belgrade/Istanbul/Thessaloniki

In this second trip I will try to find out "The Balkans". I will focus on:

People's behaviour( costumes, attitudes)/Religion/Landsscape ( rural, Urban).

Furthermore, I want to find out the reasons that they travel from one country to the other ( Balkan)-Business, Religious. What is the most common route for the Balkans? West to East or North to South? Is there any Metropolitan center for the Balkan Penisula? Religious or civil?

These are my aims.

1st.Major Project "Balkan Flexipass ticket"

Balkan_20080830_0294.jpg .The train is fumigating when passes the Romania’s borders, Giurgiu Nord

Balkan_20080830_0295.JPG. Gas Pipeline , Romania

Balkan_20080830_0297.JPG.Victor and marios, Thessaloniki Bucharest

Balkan_20080830_0299.JPG. Alexandru, Bachelor in Management. University of Sheffield in Thessaloniki

Balkan_20080830_0300.JPG. Ruse, is the last stop in Bulgaria’s border. Is a big city with interesing history.

Balkan_20080831_0302.JPG. Sorella Romanian travesty, From Bucharest to Giurgiu Nord Without ticket and passport. At the Romania’s border she had been forced to get off the train

For someone that doesn’t know or remember my idea for the major project is to travel by train across The Balkan countries. I decided to do that because I live in one of these countries and I wanted to find out similarities, firstly between people, secondly between landscapes and finally between cities. From my first research I found out that there is a train ticket that called «Balkan Flexipass train ticket and you can use it to the following countries: Serbia, FYROM, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece. Since there is this ticket I felt that might be a good link about the Balkan project. I wondered that some people might use this ticket to travel around Balkan for financial reasons or for travelling or for other purposes and I wanted to look for that.

But how can I avoid making a photo travelling project?

And is this really my major project?

In the beginning I sent a letter to the Hellenic railway company asking information about Balkan Flexipass train ticket but since now I haven’t any reply.Despite this negative fact, on 30th of August at 00:09 from Thessaloniki I took the train to Bucharest, the trip lasted 19 hours. I did the first trip as a test for having my own opinion about this situation and to find out ways to do this project. I spent my trip with three Romanian guys who they were going back to their homes. Alexandrou was student in Thessaloniki and the reason for his last visit in Thessaloniki was for the graduation ceremony.Victor is an Economical immigrant who works in Chalkidiki (close to Thessaloniki) in a resort hotel (Sani Resort Hotel). He works to Sani resort hotel six years now (from April to August). And finally the last one is Marios a peligram who spent two weeks in Holy Mount Athos .

During my first trip I realised that it’s not so difficult to take photos of the passengers since you spent a lot of time with them. In this carriage there are 7 or 8 cabins with 4 people in average. I am looking for a story but …..Where is the story? I know that Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbians are visiting often Thessaloniki for the reasons that I mentioned above but I don’t feel that I need to buy this train ticket for recording this situation.

I wonder if it’s better to stay next to the train cashier desk and looking for people who are buying this Balkan Flexipass ticket and asking them to make their portrait. This it might links to the big Balkan community which is located in Thessaloniki.

I want to combine these two ways, the portraits and the train’s photos. Because from the portraits I can have the anthropology issue and from the train’s photo the landscapes and the situation of the trip. I don’t know if this could work into so short period (One Month). I would be pleased if you could give me any comment.