Storyline: Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017
There are some 119 km of railroad between Vidin, Bulgaria and Craiova, Romania. Of this, it’s about 30 km from Vidin to Golenţi railway station near Calafat, on new tracks built across the New Europe Bridge (also know as Danube 2 bridge). The bridge was opened in 2013 and the first passenger train between Vidin and Golenţi ran in May 2014.
The train we boarded had two carriages with a toilet pod between them. Looked clean and spacious. Even the toilets were not that bad, although not to western standards either. There were very few passengers.
Not sure of the price difference between first and second class, but the little first-class area separated by a glass divider didn’t seem to be something worth paying for.
We sped up through the suburbs of Vidin, passing some residential areas followed by industrial ones. We crossed the Danube at about 120km/h and almost missed the photo opportunity from the train.
We expected to stop in Calafat, however the railway bypasses Calafat and stops shortly after at Golenţi railway station in the middle of the fields. Seemed like the only inhabitants there were the stray dogs. Since all this happened quite fast, we wondered why it would take us another 3 and a half hours to make the rest of the trip. Little did we know that the fast part was only to Golenţi. Our passports were checked here by Romanian customs, the train conductor had her paperwork done, after which we slowly pulled out of the station.
From there on it was a real fun and a treat, to watch the train moving at an old lady’s walking pace, swinging and swaying on the old rusty rails, with large gaps between each section. We felt that we could had gotten off the train, walked by it and then gotten on again.
Thunk-THUNK, thunk-THUNK, thunk-THUNK and a swing from left to right and from right to left… , bump, click… a horn blowing and a curse by the operator thrown at the cowherd leading his cows across the tracks. Although we did not understand a word of Romanian we could hear her shouting – “Get off the track you, stupid idiot”. And then a tractor crossing the rails between fields…
We wondered how a train could even move on these drunken rails that have probably not seen repair since the old communist times.
The scenery was of vast agricultural land, cultivated with sunflowers and more sunflowers…
and burned wheat fields (they burn the stubble after the wheat is harvested).
An occasional pony cart picking hay…
and garbage, lots of garbage, mostly non-biodegradable strewn at trackside. Isn’t it a common problem in the less developed world?
Perhaps not more so than in the developed world, but there the worst of it is kept out of sight.
Ruins from the past communist times.
Some lovely scenery once your eyes move further from the immediate embankment.
We managed to take some photos from the cleanish windows. We took images of most of the train stations and the nearby signal huts. These were our first photos from a train. Eh, excluding a few from the high-speed trains of Western Europe.
The train stopped for a minute or less on every single shingle. There were not many passengers getting on and off. The overall area until Craiova looked very rural and sparsely populated.
Close to four hours later we pulled in the Craiova railway station. This was our first destination in Romania.
… more photos…
Photos taken from a train window are often blurred, but they give an impression of the reality outside. We took the train from Vidin Bulgaria to Craiova Romania on July 28, 2017. The train crossed the Danube in the blink of an eye, so we couldn’t snap much of the river.
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