Sofia Central to Istanbul Halkali

We settled in for the journey, cracking open my massive pot of hummus and a decidedly mediocre bottle of rosé!

After an episode of ER, we were ready for some horizontal-time. A couple of hours later, we were awoken by hammering on the door, and ended up shuffling on the platform, passports in hand, at the Bulgarian border. Having left Europe, we hopped back on the train, before repeating the entire charade at 4am for the Turkish border!

Having read online about how late the sleeper often runs, we were shocked to be arriving exactly on time, soaring into Istanbul Halkali just before 10am! Mission complete.