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Previously in Atlantic Abroad                  For more, see the
complete Atlantic Abroad Index.     • Night Train to Istanbul
July 15, 1998      On a recent reporting trip to the Balkans I
arrived at the train station in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, a little
early for the 10:55 p.m. train to Istanbul, only to learn that
the train would be departing more than two hours late. The
kiosks were closed. A café was open, with chairs outside in the
freezing March night, offering stale wafers and instant coffee
in thin paper cups. Rock music blared from a transistor radio by
a rusty cash register. I retreated into the station hall where
homeless Gypsies had taken refuge, and seated myself atop a
radiator that provided a little warmth.      The train finally
came at 1:20 a.m. It had no tap water or heating. I fell into a
fitful sleep as the cars rattled southeastward into the night,
until a Bulgarian immigration official knocked on the door of my
compartment to st