7 lessons I learned traveling by bus, boat and train in Europe

This summer, I went on an adventure trip. After the worst of the outbreak, I was ready to return to my worldly explorations. I flew to Paris to visit friends and some of my host family, whom I hadn’t been able to see in person for 3 years. When I started deciding where to go next, I felt that flying anywhere would be difficult, stressful, and lose my bag.

One of the benefits of traveling full-time is having time to slow down. So instead of braving the chaos of air travel, I set out to explore the Balkans by land. My plan was to go from France to Turkey and return to Scotland in mid-September to meet my mother. I traveled by bus, boat and train for 2 months. Here’s what I learned.

1. Technological changes from one country to the next

I connected with the Flixbus app. It was very simple; Choose a destination, book a ticket and go… almost anywhere I want to travel.

The hard part was figuring out where the bus left. Most places I’ve been to don’t have a bus station. Instead, there was a sign on the road where people lined up to board the bus. But as I traveled south, it was like traveling back in time. I found out that my app was useless in Bosnia because the drivers wouldn’t check us using their phones. Instead, I had to print my ticket and enter at the ticket window in the bus station. (And sometimes I had to pay a site tax of about 50 cents on the dollar.) This can be difficult when you don’t have a printer. Fortunately, wherever I stayed was able to print my ticket.

2. Service and boarding are adjustable.

Traveling in Western Europe, even if I reserved a specific seat in advance, the reservation was unreliable because the seat numbers on the app often did not match the actual bus configuration. In the Balkans, seat selections seemed more reliable. I expected the opposite.

But one train ride in the Balkans made me yearn for other rituals. I took a train to Sarajevo in Mostar, Bosnia. The train station was made of cold, gray, stone blocks. There were only two ticket windows. Neither agent spoke any English. I was able to buy my ticket, and somehow, with simple sign language, I found out that I needed track 1. As I walked away from the ticket window, I realized that there were no signs of track numbers.

I went back to the window, and they pointed to a staircase. I asked where the elevator was. They shook their heads. There is no elevator. Three levels. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country where the government does not invest money in infrastructure. One of the disadvantages is that this makes many services inaccessible to the elderly and disabled.

There was no seating for the train, and the platform was overcrowded. I quickly realized why everyone was running and that it was a survival exercise crowding the nearest door. It was annoying because there were a lot of seats, and as it turned out, it was completely unnecessary.

3. Paths vary, and for some paths may lead to prayer.

While most of the roads the buses drive on are more or less paved and wide, traveling from Bosnia to Montenegro was a surefire way to travel.

We were in a regular sized Greyhound bus like any other in America. The heavy rain last night caused rocks to fall on the main road, blocking the road. The driver turned back and started another way. The pavement became less, and we were on one of those roads where the views take your breath away – but it’s not the same as if you were on a small road on the edge of a cliff, down a long drop to the ground.

Our drivers (there were two) waited until the cars were off the road to pass. The road was so narrow that the cars had to drive up and down the side of the mountain to get off the road. We would have given up and turned back, but the line of traffic behind us made that impossible. We reached a turn on the road where I wanted to get off the bus; There was no way the bus could turn around and stay that way. I tried to shut down the energy of the passengers who seemed to enjoy this crazy ride. In my opinion, when the bus made its turn without going down the cliff, all the passengers of the bus applauded. I’m not sure if we’re congratulating the drivers or checking to see if we’re still alive, but traveling on scary roads is part of the adventure.

4. Immigration is nothing like the airport

If you’re used to flying, you know you’ll have to show your passport to board your flight and stand in line to get stamped or scanned in the country you’ve landed in. Crossing the bus border through the Balkans is less of an experience and less of an inconvenience the further south you go.

In Croatia and Slovenia we get off the bus, line up to get passport stamped, cross the border to the next immigration officer (always one agent in a booth) and get an entry stamp. The officer giving us our entry stamp in Croatia was very slow. When I finally reached the booth, I understood why. She was very playful. He wanted to know all about New York and tell me about his favorite country. I have never met such a nice and chatty immigration officer.

But things changed after I reached the border with Montenegro. Instead of getting off the bus, we gave the driver our passports. I’m not sure how he knew he had everyone but we passed to the front of the bus and he passed me off to someone else who I assumed was an immigration officer. I wondered if I would ever see my passport again. Then we waited. And he waited. Finally, a man came back to the bus and gave a pile of passports to the driver, who gave them to the person in the first row. That would have been fine if the driver hadn’t driven off before making sure we all got our passports back. This happened in Albania too, so I thought that was the way they do things, and I hope and pray that my passport is still there.

5. Language barriers are difficult

As someone who speaks six languages, it always frustrates me to live in a country where all I know is “hello”, “please” and “thank you”.

Apart from the train station staff in Bosnia, the bus drivers do not speak English. When I went to Albania, I sat down. In the Balkans, people from the former Yugoslavia all speak basically the same language. So when we went through the passport exercise, my friend was able to meet the driver, and she was able to go through all our passports. But I couldn’t yell, “Driver, please stop! I don’t have my passport yet!” which made me more than a little uncomfortable.

6. Bus travel is safer and more reliable than I thought.

While this winter seems to be plagued with baggage delays, flight cancellations and train strikes, all the buses I’ve taken have arrived on time. I was disappointed that my bags were not tagged like in South America, but my luggage always arrived. (And in that case I used Apple accounts!)

Crazy road swings aside, the drivers all seemed fine, and for long drives, there are two drivers, each ensuring a comfortable stay at the wheel.

7. Reviews are not always correct

When I was in Sarajevo, I met a lovely man from Italy. It was because of him that I learned that there is a ferry from Dubrovnik to Italy. I found that taking the ferry would save me a lot of time, and, to be honest, I was tired of riding buses by then. I saw that the ferry left Albania, so I made my way from Durres.

I checked the reviews of the two main boat companies. They were terrible! They talked about poor communication, people sleeping on the floor were a fire hazard, and left me debating my travel choices.

Despite the reviews, the experience was beautiful. Mostly because the sea was smooth as silk overnight, but also because I booked my own cabin and even as I walked around I saw a few people sleeping on the floor. All in all, this was an amazing trip.

Although my mode of transportation was not the most convenient, they gave me a taste of each country’s road and sea views, how immigration is handled, and more than a few funny memories to look back on. Even better, I didn’t have to pay any baggage fees the entire summer!