Woke up and visited the inside of the blue mosque. So incredible! You have to take your shoes off because of the Turkish-type carpets covering the whole thing! Wow! Hopped on the train at 10:00am and that brings us to-------------à

11:30pm

Oh boy oh boy! I’ve never been so afraid as I am right now. It could be nothing but to me right now one half hour away from Yugoslavia I fear showing my red, white + blue nationality to police. I’ve never had luck with them anyway… We’re coming from Turkey and in Bulgaria right now wondering  if we can get visas to get through Yugoslavia. We just want to get to Budapest alive because it’s faster to Switzerland from there. It’s strange to feel this way because I’ve never looked upon my life as sacred to me until something like this happens. I know I won’t make it past 25 but come on!

Everyone is saying that if we cannot get passports they will just send us back to Sophia (Bulgaria) for a traveler’s visa from the embassy. We’re just tourist/ dumb travelers and we don’t want anything to do with what’s going on in Yugo. We just want to use the tracks that go through it. We’re on a 28 hour train from Istanbul to Budapest that left this morning at 10 o’clock. We paid 92 dollars for this fucking ride and I don’t want to come back this way again. I’m just such a different fucking person that everyone else and I don’t know if I like it anymore. I hate the looks, I hate the comments. I’m proud to be myself unlike many others, but sometimes I just wish that I could be myself but not stick out like the sore thumb of society. Now I just want to be home with Rachel and stay within my own realms for a while. But the experience was nice- it’s just not for me. I just want to get out of Yugo- if I can even get in. Jay is the only person that knows I’m here so at least someone knows. Well, we’re getting close- I’ll write the results later. Ta- Ta! Oh boy oh boy! I’ve never been so afraid as I am right now…

3:00am

Okay. This is not cool. We get to the border- Americans free. Swiss is a no go. Rachel cannot get a visa. Period. We wait at the station in Yugoslavia for, well, let’s just say a long time. Rachel gets her passport taken away. She is told to go back to Sofia (Bulgaria) without us. I don’t think so.