All Of Monday’s Reasons - 27
27. Thessaloniki, Briefly, Then North
Map
Claus and I got off the train in Thessaloniki and caught a bus with the girls to the campsite they had been to twice before. When we got there I ordered a separate pitch away from their tent, which they thought was rude, despite their having said nothing to me all evening except for a few Danish puns about carpentry.
Maybe they were dirty jokes which had gotten lost in translation. Shit - that’s a depressing thought that has just dawned on me seventeen years later. That’s why they agreed to go with Claus, the Euro-weenie. They totally liked me! Maybe - and if so: “Fuck.”
Anyway, before I went to bed I had a shower and went with Claus and the girls to the canteen on the site. The noodles bolognese, chips and beer came to more than I had planned and realized when I sat down that I wouldn’t have enough money to pay for the site when we left in the morning. At least it gave us something to take about during the meal.
Five minutes into my dinner I said, “Um, I think I’ve got a problem.”
They kept on talking in Danish.
“Girls? Ah, excuse me. Girls? I might need you to lend me some money.”
It turned out they weren’t leaving on the same train as me (and apparently Claus), so I wouldn’t be able to pay them back. Claus forked out about three dollars and they ended up paying one dollar between them. They gave me the money and I paid the campsite owner that evening because I had to wake up at five in the morning to catch the early train through Yugoslavia to Vienna.
While I did so, they were figuring out ways of how I could get the dollar back to them. The best they could come up with was for me to pay Claus who would give them the money when he saw them back in Copenhagen in a month’s time.
They weren’t best pleased about lending me the money and they didn’t talk to me for the rest of the evening, not even in Danish.
I felt bad for a short while and then got angry because I had just helped Benson out for a hell of a lot more money than they would believe. And arranging for me to give Claus the money so they could get a dollar each back in a month’s time? Jesus Christ.
I also knew that at that time the next day I would be laughing at the whole incident.
I was woken up before dawn by Claus who watched me roll up my tent and pack my things away. He was all packed up.
“We’re going to miss the bus,” he said.
We had to catch a bus to the station.
“We’re not going to miss the bus,” I said.
“We’re going to have to run.”
When my things were packed away I said, “I’ll just get a drink.”
“No!” warned Claus, “We’ll miss the bus.”
“We won’t miss the bus.”
I went to get a drink and filled up my water bottle.
“We’re really going to have to run now.”
“Well, you can run if you want.” I knew he wouldn’t without me. “Personally, I’ll walk and I’ll make the bus, too.”
He walked with me and we reached the stop ten minutes before the bus arrived on time. I decided in the bus to change some money at the station and buy some food in Belgrade, where my train stopped for an hour on the way to Vienna.
When we got to the station I got in the long line for the change office while Claus watched our bags on the platform. After about three quarters of an hour he ran up to me without our bags.
“Cliff! The train’s going to leave!”
“We’ve got an hour till the train leaves.”
“No! It’s leaving now! Hurry, the whistle has blown!”
He ran off.
I was one person from having my travellers’ cheques cashed, but for some reason I ran after Claus. He hurtled himself towards the platform. The train left as we arrived.
“Oh, shit!!! We’ve missed it!” he said.
I looked on the side of the train. A plaque in big printed letters read: THESSALONIKI-ATHENS
“Claus, you-” he was watched in despair as carriages on the wrong train rolled past us and our previously abandoned bags.
“Claus!” I would have lost my temper if I hadn’t felt sorry for him. “Claus, it says Athens on the side of the train!”
“What?”
“Thessaloniki-Athens. Right there.” I pointed to the notice on the side of a passing car.
“Besides,” I said, “this is a Greek train. Only twenty miles of the Vienna run is in Greece. It’ll be a Yugoslavian, German or Austrian train.”
“Oh.” He looked down like a dog that knew it had done something bad and feared the worst.
“Maybe this is it,” he pointed to a train on the platform behind us.
“No,” I said, “because our train leaves from this platform. And it doesn’t leave for another-” I looked at my watch, “-fifty minutes. And that train-” I pointed to the platform behind us -”has Thessaloniki-Belgrade written on the side. That means it goes to-” I paused and rolled my eyes upward in an exaggerated thinking action, “-Belgrade.”
“I don’t know..” he said doubtfully. “I think I better ask a guard.”
He walked off towards a porter.
“Claus, you don’t need to-”
I gave up. I wondered how he could have been on the road three and a half weeks and it had not clicked that the train always finished its journey where it said on the signs outside the cars. People like him must give railway officials endless headaches.
He came back.
“No,” he said, “it goes to Belgrade.”
I said “goes to Belgrade” at the same time as him, which he probably thought was an amazing coincidence which meant that we were paranormally attuned and would be lifelong friends thereafter. Think again, Claus.
I went back to the change office where the queue was twice as long when I had left it, meaning I would have faced at least an hour-long wait. The train was due in three-quarters of an hour so I cursed Claus in my head and returned to the platform.
I had no money and no Danish girls to borrow any off and I was in Thessaloniki without breakfast.
“We’re going to have to wait until Belgrade to eat,” I said.
He nodded reluctantly. He realised it was his fault we would go hungry.
———
February 27th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
God, I feel really really irritated with Claus now! I know it was 17 years ago, but REALLY!
February 27th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Claus gets worse. Yugoslavia on the brink of war was less irritating than him. Oh - and just fucking wait until Vienna.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Uhoh.