Rough Day!

This trip has been incredible! It has been full of such great experiences. However, not every day is picture perfect. Today, was one of the hardest days I've had. It all started yesterday morning. We woke up in Dubrovnik, Croatia and boarded a bus. We drove on that bus for 16 hours. The bus was full of people. There were a couple big arguments. It was uncomfortable and hot. It was so hard to sleep. I slept quite a bit, but my neck and my back hurt so bad. We stopped and stretched our legs and used the restroom only once through the journey. Let us not mention the bathroom was a hole in the ground. There was a lot of traffic and windy roads. We drove through Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia. The biggest joke of the whole thing was dealing with the border police and customs of each country. It took so long! Luckily, I maintained my patience. I never thought the moment would come, but we finally made it to Macedonia at 7:00 this morning! We got tickets for the next train to Greece and had only a small wait. While waiting, I looked down at my feet and they were completely swollen! My calves and my ankles almost blended together. My dad and I think it might be from the altitude change or from sitting for so long. We boarded an old train which should've taken 5 hours to get there. There was no air conditioning on the train. I can't even describe how hot it was. On top of that, It was so humid. We laid down and slept for a bit. We woke up and approached customs and the border police. This is when the heat really set in for me. This stop ended up taking 2 hours!! One man from Italy had troubles with his passport. A film of sweat covered my whole body as I baked in this train. My feet were super swollen and I felt so weak. I literally thought that I was going to have a panic attack! I laid down to sleep for a bit and woke up drenched. I've never felt like that. I thought that when the train got moving again, I would feel so much better because of the breeze. Turns out, the breeze was not what I expected. It was air blowing on me that was almost hotter than the heat itself! Next on the agenda...put on a 20 pound pack and speed walk through a train station. I was so close to reaching my breaking point! Luckily, I was able to tough it out! We finally made it into Greece and found a little air conditioning. My dad got me a coke with ice. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! It was the coldest drink I've had in weeks. I've grown so used to room temperature drinks with no ice. So that is how a couple of days have been! Im just praying tomorrow is a better day and grateful I got through today!