[on the move]

Skopje is now the last stop on the Belgrade-Salonika rail line, as access to/from Greece is still shut, and the Belgrade-Skopje service is scheduled to take 9 hours. So with an 8am departure on gameday from Belgrade's version of Heuston Station, it was time to head South for just 23 Euro.

Unlike what the Serbian Railways website advertises, 2nd Class was the only class available. The problems began as soon as I boarded. The train is split in half. One half to Skopje, the other half towards Sofia and eventually Istanbul. After going to the carriage on the platform indicated, I discover I'm in the Sofia carriage. The Skopje carriages were on the next platform. The Skopje side of the train leaves it's platform and shunts back to the indicated platform to meet up with the rest of the train. Now in the right carriage, the train leaves Belgrade at a snails pace 20 minutes late already. By the time we reach Rakovica, the first of many stops, we are 40 minutes late. The pace picks up after that, but stops for red signal lights often, and one of the crew at one point had to physically leave the cab and go to the phonebox at the side of the track to get clearance to continue.

The journey is only 440 kilometres, but the train can only drive at 80 kph maximum, there is no restaurant or functioning toilet on the train, so it's not TGV standard, and more delays continue until we reach Nis 6 hours in. We're 2 hours late arriving in Nis where many passengers alight, and the train is split into the 2 separate directions. As our carriage trundles down to Skopje, missing the game ko becomes more of a concern, but the scenery dramatically improves, with the stunning rises of the Balkan mountains on either side, as we go through Vranje and Bujanovac. If you're going to take a longer look at the beauty however, do it from the train carriage, as the area is one of the most unsafe areas of the Balkans with landmines and other ordnance rife.

The first of 2 passport checks are at Presevo in Serbia and Tabanovci, a rail station less than 100 yards inside Macedonia. The checks are more detailed in Macedonia, but after 15-20 minutes at both borders, we are sent on our way. Travel Insurance is mandatory while visiting Macedonia, but is requested by the authorities on an ad-hoc basis. I wasn't asked to produce mine. From there, it's a largely trouble-free hour ride into Skopje. The train had no further delays, so took 11 hours in total instead of 9, but thankfully not long enough to miss the game.

With the train arriving 2 hours late, the cab drivers were getting restless. But they don't wait for passengers, they come to see you on the platform, and I am immediately accosted by 4 different demanding drivers, all wanting to know where I'm going. With my accommodation quite far from the station, there's no option but to take one. I wasn't ripped off tbh, but it wasn't a comfortable experience in the station.

Within Macedonia itself, rail options are somewhat limited, and make Irish Rail look a wide and extensive network. For 4 hours in the morning, no train leaves Skopje station at all. So most people travel on buses. Despite being the capital city, Skopje is the Macedonian version of Limerick, so I tried to head down to Gostivar and Ohrid on other days, but the transport schedules didn't suit. Then again, the draw for the WC qualifiers is next month, and we usually get one team from the previous qualifiers, so who knows, we may have another trek to Macedonia in front of us soon.