I was booked to leave Skopje for Sofia by the evening bus at 5.30 pm. The reservation was made through FlixBus. I had the boarding pass as well as the payment receipt. Therefore, I was shocked when I received an email from FlixBus on the 1st evening that my reservation was cancelled as I did not have the required documents to enter a Schengen country!
How ridiculous that argument was is borne out by the fact that I had travelled from Sofia to Skopje using a FlixBus reservation, where the multiple entry Schengen Visa was scrutinised at two borders, namely Bulgaria at the time of exit and North Macedonia at the time of entry on the 30th of September. FlixBus also sent me a refund voucher of a piffling amount as compared to the original fare. This completely put the spanner in the works, so to say, of my leftover program in Skopje. It also jeopardised my return to India too. I spoke with my son in UK and requested him to take up the matter with the FlixBus customer care centre in the UK. I sent him the details of my reservation as well as my visa document.
When he spoke to the customer care centre, they told him that there were typos in visa details I had entered when I had made the original details and that had triggered the cancellation. I told my son that FlixBus had never asked for the visa details at the time of booking and hence, their claim of typos is incorrect and totally baseless. When he spoke to FlixBus with these facts they changed tack and mentioned that the cancellation was due to operational reasons!
They confirmed that an email for a full refund would be issued within a day and the full amount would be refunded into my account within 14 working days. Can you imagine a German-based company indulging in such fraudulent business, putting passengers to immeasurable agony and discomfort?
The fallout of the uncalled for and fraudulent cancellation was that I had to curtail my tourist activities in Skopje, find another bus reservation to travel from Skopje to Sofia and also book a hotel in Sofia. Curtailing the itinerary in Skopje was hurtful as I had planned a detailed tour of the Old Bazaar as well as visit the Mother Teresa Memorial House. As for finding a bus reservation was concerned, I could only find a morning service from Skopje to Sofia in the 3rd. I made the reservation through Gjirafa, instead of FlixBus with who I had burnt my schedule. This change in program meant that I had to travel more than 10 hours earlier from Skopje and spend more than ten idle hours in Sofia with nothing to do there. A complete waste of time coupled with unnecessary stress and anxiety. In fact, to say the truth, I was on edge till I got into the bus this morning at 7 am in Skopje.
I had expected the bus to be fully occupied as it was the weekend. People travel freely between Sofia and Skopje. Therefore, I was surprised that a few seats were empty when we left the Skopje Central Bus Station. In about an hour and three quarters we were at the North Macedonia border crossing. It was incredibly cold at this place. In a short while we crossed the Bulgarian border too after passport control and Customs check. By 12.15 pm the mini bus docked at the Sofia Central Bus Station platform, which is beside the Sofia Central Railway Station.
It was a ten-minute walk to the Millenia Hotel, where I had made reservation for the overnight stay. The lady at the check-in counter told me that I would have to wait till 2 pm to occupy the room, or pay extra for the early occupation! Since I didn't have anything specific to do in Sofia for the rest of the day, I waited in the lobby till I was told at 13.45 that the room is ready. The decently sized room with attached bathroom was neat and clean.
I checked out what I could do in the neighbourhood and came up with nothing. Therefore, after some bit of final packing I decided to explore the Central Railway Station and also check out the metro connectivity from the hotel to the airport. The Central Railway Station is the main passenger railway station of Sofia as well as the largest railway station in the country. The original railway station building was opened for traffic on 1 August 1888. It underwent many expansions and renovations prior to the most recent one in 2016. One can travelnto international destinations like Bucharest and Istanbul from the Sofia Central Railway Station. Many more international destinations were connected prior to the Covid pandemic such as Belgrade and Thesaaloniki.
In the rotunda plaza outside the main entrance of the Central Railway Station is the Mother and Child monument, also called the "Serdica" sculptural complex. It features a central crowned female figure holding a child to symbolize Sofia and its future. It was designed and erected in 1976 during the brutalist development of the station area.
The Sofia Blue Line metro has a station at the Central Railway Station. I went there and spoke to a counter clerk about the early morning metro connectivity to the airport. She told me that services would start at 5.10 am and that I could change at Serdica station for the yellow line to the Sofia airport. She also told me that I could buy my ticket from the machine as the ticket counter would be open only after 7 am.
When I got to the hotel I checked with the hotel reception, just to be doubly sure. She told me that the it would be better to take another metro station which was less than 300 meters from the hotel. That was better news. I went to the metro station and checked it out. The counter clerk told me that the service on Sunday would begin at 5 am and have a headway of 12-15 minutes till 6.30 am. That suited me fine as my flight from Sofia airport to Istanbul was scheduled for only 9.25 am.
It was time for the last drink in Bulgaria signalling the end to successful visits to the 74th and 75th countries. Skopsko is a pale lager beer brewed in North Macedonia by the Heineken stable.
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