Hi everyone,

I am traveling from Budapest to Athens next week. I have a Eurail pass and therefore I would prefer to take the train. I understand that International trains out of Greece are suspended at the moment.

How should I plan my trip to minimize travel time and maximize the use of my Eurail pass?

Check for cheap flight first, taking a train to Athens might end up being more expensive.

The only option i can think of, is going by train to Skopje ( Former Republic of Macedonia), take a bus to Thessaloniki and continue from there by train to Athens.

Symeonidis Tours based in Thessaloniki offers a bus connection, here is the link : http://tinyurl.com/c4ysufd

You can do almost all by train:
Budapest dp 13.05 - Beograd 20.52/21.50 - Sofia 8.02/10.00 - Kulata (Grek border) ar 16.20
Cross the border on foot and take a Greek taxi to Strymon railway station (a few km). Board there the 20.13 train to Thessaloniki ar 22.08. If you don't want to stay 3 hrs at this boring railway station in the middle of nothing, you may go by taxi up to Sidirokastro (a bit farther away) and stay in this small town until 20.09. Connecting train from Thessaloniki dp 23.00 to Athens ar 5.01

I suppose you know that there is a lot to see along or not far away from this itinerary, like Rila monastery, Melnik, Thessaloniki

Timetable links:
https://www.bahn.de/i/view/DEU/en/index.shtml
http://tickets.trainose.gr/dromologi...3-03-11;trip=1

The bus from Skopje to Thessaloniki costs about 20 Euro, so i don't think that crossing the Bulgarian-Greek borders border on foot, taking a taxi and waiting 3 hours in the middle of no where makes any sense.