Art Hostel Sofia

... my birthday at midnight with three Turkish guys who happened to sit next to me on the plane. They were coming back from diving in Mozambique. I mentioned that in 10 minutes it's my birthday. One of them got a small cake from first class, and at 12 midnight Bulgarian time they all sang "Happy Birthday". We kept drinking whiskey (they give free drinks on Turkish Airlines) until 4:00 am. The flight attendants ...

... and talking with the Turkish truck drivers. Decided spending any more time there would be useless. Walked back onto the boulevard into Sofia, asked for directions from a woman who spoke to English so she got on the bus and took me to the train station. Checked connections to Belgrade but were too expensive, and more importantly too late in the evening. Got a bus back into the centre, looking ...

... tried to wipe several people out who walked across without looking at what was coming! Luckily laughing and shouting is universal so people moved out the way pretty quick. We exhausted ourselves doing that for several hours snacking on cokes and chocolate bars when our energy levels got low, before heading back down around 3 when the sun disappeared behind the mountain top. Back at the room we got warmed up and changed ready for ...

... two and three feet thick. There are two glass viewing areas cut into the floor where you can see the ruins of the pre-Hun church down below. There is also a burial crypt in the below-ground ruins, but the area was closed for renovation. After St Sophia Cathedral, we stopped briefly by a Russian Orthodox church. It was interesting to note the difference in architecture between the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches, but other than that, this church was ...

... and worth taking a look at. The interior looks something like the Haggia Sofia in Constantinople, but photos are probited indoors and I didn't want to get kicked out (which has happened to me before for taking photos in churches. I was kicked out of Mont Martyre in Paris once). The floors are marble and the walls alabaster. There are stone carvings around the nave but they are unusual, being just more than a century old. Unusual to me namely because ...

... way, but she wanted to go way up the hill. We kept going up and up until reaching Cota 1400, the spot where the first cable-car stops. Phew! We had a beer up there and saw the sun start to set. Started on our way down the hill when people in front of us came racing back saying they were attacked by wolves (it was actually just wild dogs). That was reason enough for us to turn around to the hotel at Cota 1400 and call for a taxi. While waiting for the taxi, we saw some ...

... listen to. on my first day in bulgaria a friend explained to me that the lyrics are all about love triangles I happen to like Chalga music because the singers always have big boobies and sing in really Eastern modes that you can never hear in the U.S. it's really cool music, like a cross between pop and eastern folk music. Then as time went by and my ear started to tune in a little better to the bulgarian language, I heard the lyrics myself: "I hate you ...

... the first thing that we did when we got into the hostel was have a shower. The first people that we happen to met was a group of 3 Aussie guys. We got on so well that they asked us if would like to hire a car with them to go up into the mountains to go hiking - this was after about an hour or so of meeting them but we all just clicked. Our partners in crime were Connor, Jessie and Tom. So basically over the next few days we hung out with them. After ...