Crazy train trips

Well it seems it should be easy to go from one capital city of one country to the capital city of the neighboring country easily! But that is not the case with going from Serbia to Bosnia. There was only one traine and one bus that went daily from Sarajevo to Belgrade. But there were serveral buses from the bus station in the srbuan town outside of sarajevo but no one could help us with the tickets. So we took an 8 hour training the heat of the day from Sarajevo to Belgrade. This train looked straight out of communist yugoskavia. There was no ac, the bathrooms were pretty nasty. But it was cheap and really the only option we had. They called it the Belgrade Special and it swear I felt like years passed. We had several border checks because not only did we go from Bosnia to Serbia we crossed into the Serbian republic in bosnia (very confusing) and even into Croatia again!
So we arrived in Belgrade later then usual and tried to book our next train ticket for a night train to Istanbul but it was not for when it was supposed to be because the timetables are out of date. But Belgrade was lovely, it looked very austro-Hungarian with grand buildings. But many of them were decaying and Micah felt there was seediness there we had not felt before.
The high point was we had dinner at an amazing place called Little Bay. It looked like a mini opera hall on the inside! Our dinner was a sampling of chicken, veal and beef all with different sauces, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies and mashed squash! All this cost with rolls and drinks was $15! I also figured out this place had wifi so I sent my parents an email! After that we walked around, explored (hard because they do not believe in street signs and those that were ther were in that funky sarilick, Russian writing), went a couple super cool bars.
The next day we got up very early (it was a Sunday and nothing was open) and we left our hostel for the train. We eventually found a place to get water (we had a feeling this train would not have food or it would be really pricey) and a bakery. We got an apple crousant, two soft pretzel things, and two local favorite called borak, which is heavy puff pastry with flavorful meat inside). So there were two other people on our sleeping train (it was supposed to be 22 hours). So I went to another empty cabin so Micah and I both could lie down and sleep. It was very hot but somehow not as bad as the day before. Our conductor even offered me some water at some point. I slept like a baby even without ac. My allergies were going crazy so I took benedryl and I was out! Micah and I chatted and played cards. I was even able to read! The night was wild though because there were more cars added in Sofia Bulgaria (Bulgaria looked just like central Virginia to me).
So the border guy from Bulgaria came in at like 12:30 for the passports and said "welcome to new York". Then we all had to get off at 1 am at the Turkish border, buy a visa and get a stamp (it was not that bad, we went to bed early). Then the conductor woke us up at 6:30 to tell us the last hour had to be by bus. Turns out that Istanbul train station is being redone. But the bus had ac so it was good!