I was thinking about taking the bus to Sofia from my next stopping point, Niš, a major transport hub and also the site of the early fourth-century palace built by the Roman emperor Constantine I (”The Great), the first Christian Roman emperor, at Mediana a few km outside the city. But then I read this article from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting on the border hassles that bus passengers often face, and decided that however inconvenient it might be, I should take the train, even though it is much slower and less frequent.

There are two trains a day from Belgrade to Sofia, both stopping in Niš. One stops at 1:50 am, the other at 1:10 pm. I gleaned this information, after a certain amount of coaxing, from the immensely helpful German railway site, www.bahn.de, which covers just about everywhere in Europe and beyond (since the Serbian railway site was not responding).

Since I need to be in Sofia in the morning, I’m going to just stay up until the 1:50 am overnight trains crawls in sometime in the wee hours (supposedly Serbian trains are not always punctual–I’ll update this post to report on that when I get to Sofia). I can’t imagine that the border guards screw around with through trains in the egregious manner documented for buses!

Update: whether I would have faced problems with the bus or not, the train trip was tiring but completely hassle-free. I bought my ticket in the Nis train station, then came back after 1 am. The train was quite late; I think it finally left around 2:30. I purchased a couchette supplement on the train from the conductor for 470 dinars, which helpfully used up all my remaining Bulgarian dinars. The train was not very full, and I got an entire compartment to myself. Reassuringly, there was a sturdy-looking manual latch on the door, which allowed it to open a couple of inches but prevented anyone from entering. I got sheets, a pillow and a blanket, which allowed me to get a pretty decent few hours’ sleep. The passport control both leaving Serbia and entering Bulgaria was extremely slow but completely painless. It took about 3 hours, I think–I don’t remember clearly because by that point I was asleep most of the time. The bathroom stank but was not actually very dirty. No toilet paper, soap, or running water though (but the toilet did flush).

Bottom line: this is a good way to get from Serbia to Bulgaria. The train from Belgrade would probably be even better since it doesn’t leave in the early morning. It’s very slow, but you have a decent chance of arriving in Sofia reasonably rested, and it’s very cheap. I felt completely safe.