Italians, Americans and a Croatian get into a Carshare

A few weeks ago we ended our 12 nights in Belgrade, Serbia and we got a blablacar to Sofia, Bulgaria. Blablacar is one of many carsharing/carpooling sites that are big in Europe.

There are many times where a car is way faster than the public transit options available, possibly due to connections or the train route, and lack of a bus route. Like when we went from Krakow to Vienna, there weren’t good bus options, so we did a blablacar. So instead of spending two days on a bus, we spent half a day in a stranger’s mercedes.

However, after a bad experience in the winter (from Vienna to Budapest) I decided to make the following rule (that I ended up breaking, but it’s not the only reason the story goes so wrong).

Car share rule #1: Pick a car departing from the same place as you.

The reason the Vienna thing went wrong is because the lady driving from the other side of Germany thought she could be in Vienna by 10 am. So we checked out of the hotel and hours later she was still in traffic in Germany. In her defense it was snowing, and eventually we decided to take the train. A waste of our time, but oh well.

This rule is the difference between a late car and an on time car. Period. It’s a golden rule. People look at the google time and don’t think about traffic, stopping, getting lost, snow, etc…

I’m thinking of adding another rule, which is start in the morning.

 

This time, two Italians traveling from Zagreb to Sofia in a van were supposed to pick us up in Belgrade at 3:15. They left at noon. They also had to pick up a local Croatian passenger.

Given that the google time was 4.5 hours, and they had to pick someone up, get gas, and border crossing takes forever in ex-Yugoslavia… I’m not sure how 3:15 was perceived as possible.

So I check out of the Crowne Plaza (fantastic hotel btw) and they let us wait in the lounge for the extra hour. Which turned into multiple hours.

It’s not their fault though that the border was packed, and they spent 3 hours there.

Either way, they got to the hotel at 8:20pm…

Which unfortunately is when the story begins.

 

5 hours later than we planned, we start driving. We drive for about 45 kilometers until we hit the worst traffic I have ever seen. A traffic jam in the middle of nowhere Serbia. What. The. Heck?

The Italian couple is in the front speaking Italian. The Croatian guy is in the middle and we’re in the back seat. The Croatian was fabulous company and it was good to have conversation, because we moved a few kilometers over the next few hours. Although we eventually disagreed on one fundamental thing.

Also picture that this two lane traffic jam quickly became 3 lanes as tons of people were driving in the shoulder. Which, how annoying is that? And the one police car I saw the entire time didn’t care. But this means that the congestion caused by 2 lanes funneling into one is doubled by another lane needing to also merge.

Anyways…

We’re sitting in traffic and at this point the Croatian decides that we must get a hotel room for the night and wait for the traffic to clear.

Except, as best I can tell, the traffic is 24/7 construction and it will be as bad or worse tomorrow.

Furthermore, we have a hotel booked with Club Carlson points in Sofia and now we’d have to pay. In other words, because I paid slightly more for the blablacar (which ended up being 5 hours late, so it didn’t save me time), I’d also have to skip my hotel and pay even more money.

After 2 hours, so maybe 10:30pm, we get through the Serbian traffic funnel and are on the highway again. BTW, that traffic jam was a toll road… so we paid for that.

But we start driving and immediately the guy is looking for hotels. “Let’s pull off and let me run in and see the price”.

Mind you google time says the ride should take 4.5 hours, and we were an hour’s worth into the drive. Continuing would mean that we don’t get in until 2 am.

 

But think about it from our perspective. I paid more to awkwardly waste an entire day in the lounge, and after 50 miles we would be pulling off and be getting a hotel… when I already have a hotel.

I can think of no greater waste of time and money.

I’m also picturing how the next morning is going to go. I imagine someone saying “Okay, let’s meet at noon so we can sleep in”. Then with these strangers someone is like, actually I haven’t eaten today. Then I imagine us driving around at 2pm an hour away from my original hotel, looking for a restaurant that meets someone’s dietary concerns. Then getting on the road and not getting to Sofia until 8pm the next day, more than 24 hours after I was supposed to leave.

No thanks.

 

So here we are pulling off at every exit looking for a hotel.

“No hotel here”.

“They’re sold out”.

Instead of… you know, actually driving.

“The next town is 20km away and has many hotels” he reports.

Great. Now I picture us driving around looking for the right hotel for another hour.

Why didn’t I take the bus?!

Quick reminder. Carsharing has been awesome 99% of the time for us. Often quicker, cheaper, and way nicer than a bus. But never get a ride that doesn’t start in your town. And the further away they are starting from you… the worse.

 

We find a hotel and he reports that the interstate hotel is 60 Euros… which is 60 Euros more than the hotel I have.

At this point I honestly can’t tell what the Italian couple wants. You can tell the driver, Angelo, is a great person who feels responsible for appeasing his passengers. Clearly the guy asking about a hotel every 10 minutes… wants a hotel.

I forgot to mention that the Italian couple already has a hotel booked and the Croatian doesn’t. So everyone except him has the economic incentive to keep going, and he probably is going to pay more looking for a hotel at 2am. He’s just going to join one of us.

 

So does the Italian couple want to stop or keep going? I can’t tell. They know the one guy wants to stop… and so after the 60 Euro report, they ask me. I say that at this point we are 101 miles away (according to mapswith me (an app)) and I already have a hotel… so it isn’t my preference to stop but if Angelo is sleepy we should stop.

 

Angelo says he wants to keep going and we do. Although, equally, we don’t really know if he wants to stop or if he’s trying to appease me. At least the second time I felt that way.

Because around 1am nearing the Bulgaria border he pulls over because he’s really sleepy and needs to slap himself or something. He pulled in at the next gas station and got a drink.

The Croatian guy wakes up and starts looking for hotels again. We pull over. Sold out. Pull over.

This time he reports that it’s 30 Euros but he strongly recommends we see the rooms as it looks sketchy in the front. But he’s fine with it.

Angelo asks me and I say the same thing. Not my preference, we’re now less than 50 miles from my hotel in Sofia, but I’m not the one driving.

Given that he was so sleepy, I was insecure we were only pushing on for me, so I reiterated how I don’t want to keep going for me and ultimately I want everyone (including us) to be safe.

“Don’t worry Drew! I’m fine.”

 

Soon we reach a border.

I’ve never seen anything like it. Not in Asia, not in Europe, not anywhere. Cars at 2 am backed up and not moving. 6 lanes were open and yet no one was moving.

Some people’s cars were having everything removed and people were being pat down.

We are 3 EU passports and 2 American… if we we’re at the front it would take 2 seconds, but we’re at the back.

It takes an hour to check out of Serbia (which makes no sense to me) and a good while later to check into Bulagaria.

 

30 minutes of driving later we reach Sofia at 5am.

Oops, the clock changes and it now says 6am.

6 am. 6 hours ago, I was saying it’s only 100 miles (160 km) and now we are finding our hotels (which are near eachother).

 

Brutal. And while I was cynical at first, especially because I felt like the time estimates for Belgrade were unrealistic, at the end I just felt terrible.

I don’t know exactly when we went to bed but breakfast went until 11am and this was my first stay at a Club Carlson hotel since reaching “Concierage” status which took 75 nights in 2015 in my account alone.

But I woke up the next morning super tired but naturally, expecting to go get breakfast. Better to be tired than get in the habit of sleeping in.

Turns out it was 1 pm.

 

We decided to go see Sofia that evening despite wasting a day and needing to work. Sofia is so much fun and walking around wore us out- amazing that despite sleeping ’til 1, we could be tired.

 

Feeling bad I sent Angelo a message apologizing for wanting to keep going so late, and that I had no idea such a short distance would take so long. At the time I wanted to keep going we were on the highway, but the highway didn’t last… yeah. But man, I felt bad he was getting to his hotel at 6am instead of stopping at midnight.

Of course, he gave a no problem answer and they invited us to join them for dinner. Seemed odd since we didn’t know them at all, but turns out they are just super nice and social people.

 

4.5 hours google time.

Yea, don’t trust google in Serbia.

As frustrating as it is to waste so much time, I was incredibly grateful to be in the hotel and in a cool city.

Although, it’s kind of back to work for me as the 12 days in Belgrade got me half way though the new project.  Just a long few weeks I guess.

 

Like any negative post, it doesn’t always reflect my feelings about the product or place, just the situation. Like the Indian Train ride video… I love India and had a bad experience with the train.

Same. I love car-sharing and hate the Serbian roads. No one’s fault.