Stefani Apartment Sofia

... gets a box and this usually works well.

The other reason that gift distribution is awkward is that you can't help feeling that surely there must be something more that can be done for these communities to improve their quality of life. To see where thinking like that gets you visit www.trusselltrust.org...

Despite a bit of a shock when Sophia's finger decided it wanted to be squashed in the van door, we have had a good day and ...

... nothing ever smelt before!

What a place. The room was massive and beautiful! Booking on some of these websites can be fantastic value for money. We were paying less than 50€ a night and the floor even had carpet! We really felt like it was a scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee!!!

Whilst I registered our passports at Reception so the Police knew we were in town (!) Murray and Bronwyn thought about not letting me into the room ...

... said they are usually sound people and good for a laugh. "Ok then" I smiled, swigging down the rest of my pint. This would be fun. We left the Happy Bar and Grill and soon, after much bickering between Graham the Californian and Dave the Pennsylvanian, came to Daves "English pub". It's the only English pub I've ever been to with an Irish tricolour flag and the words "Irish pub" above the door. "Lemme buy you a beer Tom" Graham cooed as I found myself sitting between ...

Tricia and I took the day to walk around the interesting parts of Sofia. We grabbed a cab over to the big church (Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral) and walked back towards the hotel. We found the little tables of trinkets for sale quite interesting though honestly I can't imagine there are that many nazi and russian artifacts still for sale. I half ...

... sit in the crazy station I was so knackered I had to. I spent three hours drinking coffee and beer, eating chocolate and watching gipsy kids begging/selling stuff/playing with the stray dogs. Oh and watching this guy who was the spitting image of Jonathan have a hilarious conversation. For 2 and a half hours. With himself. I got my luggage back suprisingly complete and went to find my sleeper. Which wasn't there. So I found the train guard and asked him where the ...

Sofia was a very interesting city, what is the most interesting about this city, as most Eastern European cities, is the history of the Soviet Union, and the similarities of many of these cities who were affected by communism and how it has stripped much identity and culture from the land. We all hopped off our train and walked straight into the city center. The crew was going to leave several hours later that same night to go to Transylvania, I wanted to ...

... highlight was to bake pulla (Finnish pastries) and birthday cake at one most helpfull baba's place. It is nice that i have good memories of the last weeks but, to be honest, I would have gone nuts of that partying had lasted a bit longer. :). I remember that when i left from Hungary and also from the Netherlands, it felt as if somebody had ripped off everything I had. Leaving Macedonia was different and i hope it is better so. Too much melancholy and ...

... were selling, including a Nazi issue gold plated Leica camera that pained me to have to turn down. It would have been my prized possession. Alas.... Afterwards we walked around a bit more, saw some squares and more cool buildings. Then I got a hot dog which came in like a falafel bun, and was delicious. Afterwards we went to the fruit market for a little then went to the Bulgarian culture center near the statue to commemorate the Russian military freeing them ...

... a 4 person tour, made it very interesting. I think that was my first mosque entry, but definitely not my last. One small thing I found especially interesting was a very large neon sign on the side of an important building. The sign simply said a number, nothing else, roughly 115 if I remember correctly. Of course I asked my guide what it was and, much to my surprise and intrigue, it is the number of days until Bulgaria ...

... I am at least savvy enough to know that the only reasonable use of any local liquor, anywhere, is as disinfectant or, possibly, paint thinner. My travels in Europe are over for now, and I have a week to screw my head back on before flying to Peru. I plan to spend the week unpacking, packing, re-unpacking, repacking, and intermittently running around the house demanding to know what my parents have done with my socks, shampoo, vital documents, etc. Business as usual in Virginia!