Stuck in the Middle of Nowhere

Last weekend I went out to a town in northern Bulgaria called Isparih to help out with a kids basketball tournament that was put on by a fellow volunteer. The tournament was a huge success, but it was my first time out in that region and my simple trip out to the town turned in to a 15 hour adventure. Riding trains here can be difficult sometimes because when the trains pull into a station there is no announcement informing people which station it is. I had to make several transfers but since I had never been up that way before I didn't know exactly which station I was supposed to change at. We pulled in to one station that I though was the right one, and I even asked a guy and he said it was the one I wanted, but turns out it wasn't. I had gotten off one station too early. Unfortunately, the train that I had just gotten off was the last one of the night, and there were no buses that ran then either. I asked the station attendent how far it was to the next town where my train transfer was, and he said only 6-7 kilometers.

"Cool, no problem, I can hike that in about an hour," I replied.

"No you cant, there is no road," answered the attendant in a monotone voice. Well, scratch that plan.

I had resigned myself to the fact that i would now be spending the night in this crappy town, and then inquired where the local market was since it was now 9pm and I had not eaten since before noon.

"Sorry, market is closed" was the reply I received. Great, no train, no bus, no market, no nothing. This town sucked. The train station attendant was kind enough to let me in to the switching house where they had a fire going and it was warmer while I called my friend in Isparih to let him know that I would not be making it in that night. He said he had a friend that could drive out and pick me up since I was only some 40 kilometers from his place. Sweet, good news. So I hung out with the train guys in the station house taking about politics, the economy, and life in Bulgaria while I waited for my friend to arrive. It took him two and a half hours to make it the 40 kilometers! Turns out there really were no good roads to this place. That is the last time I make that mistake again.