Smokin Pig Sofia

... hmm that can of coke cost us 2 pound 50 (I though Bulgaria was supposed to be cheap!!) and she couldn't give us some coins. got change in the exchange office then as we went to the pay phone I saw my dad outside. Didn't even need the damn change! hugs kisses hellos then in the car to start the 5 HOUR car journey to Srebarna...argh! On the told the father about the most expensive can of coke in the ...

... that it's a good idea to smuggle a bnuch of cigarettes into Bulgaria. Well, apparently, there were 10 ppl in on it, running around the cart, hiding cigarettes everywhere. It all started off with this 60 year old guy, hiding cigarettes between the doors of the train. Then, get this, the lady gets up on the seats, unscrews a panel and throws like over 5000 cigarettes up there. She put up 36 bricks of cigarettes. That's 400x 36...that's a lot. Needless to say, she ...

... agency near the market) didn't exactly work for Megan either. So we thought we were heading straight towards the Alexander Cathedral, but in reality we ended up making a squiggly line all over Sofia and totally blew past the Cathedral. But we did find a gorgeous theatre along the way, as well as some really nice parks. One of the defining features of the city was in fact the number of parks they had everywhere. After walking a bit of ways we decided that maybe we should ...

... the centre of which sits a cathedral of the same name. Also, to my delight, there was a sign directing me to an Irish pub just down the road. Sadly I didn't have time for that yet, I had stuff to see, food to eat and a facebook status to change. I walked to Tsar Osvoboditel street and took a few photos of the Party Building, guarded by two bored looking soldiers who bore more than a passing resemblance to Viktor Krum from the fourth Harry Potter book. A politician ...

... was the next bus, and promised to drive me to the station. I was filled with gratitude. On the station, I thanked and wished them well. I thought that the kindnes in people was a disappearing quality, fortunately they proved me wrong. Anyway, I had to take the bus to Burgas, as it was 20:30 and I wasn't keen on the idea of hitchiking at night. Few hours later, the bus stoped in Burgas, near the place I was in. It was a well-spent day full of unexpected twists and twirls.

... Slav. Sure enough the train arrived 3 hours late, during which time I had had to sit among the sorry outcasts of Bulgarian society who evidently congregated each evening in the station. The station itself was a truly horrific throwback to the Soviet era, vast and cavernous and freezing cold, and with uncomfortable wooden benches which had even the outcasts grimacing. Among them was an impish young man in battered clothes who entertained himself by throwing peanuts ...

... of the travelling I've been able to make. And for sure I will pack my bags at least for a shorter while also in the future. :) To stop this semi-philosophical jargon I tell something about the last weeks in Struga. They were funny and weird days with not enough sleep. Everyday at work we went in front of the mirror with Marie to see how tired we were. And yeah, tired we really were. Because of the intependence day of Finland (6.12), my birthday ...

... amazxing to see. Afterwards we walked by some fountains and saw the royal guards who had cool dress wear, as they usually do. Then we headed to the metro where u can see part of the wall that still remains from the creation of the city over 1000 years ago, it was pretty cool. After that we walked down the main road and saw some more government buildings and the tour leader told us about Communism in Bulgaria. It was very interesting to hear from someone ...

... picked us up and we went back to the hotel. Tonight we were to buy our own dinner but we were still so full from lunch that we thought we'd give it some time. At about 9pm a few of use decided to go to the restaurant next door and just order an appetizer... except it looked so good... so for 3 people we ordered 2 appetizers, 2 mains and 2 desserts for a total of E15... the food was so good. But now we really couldn't move... so it was straight to bed.

... bits of paper, etc. Like so many other countries, Bulgaria seems to have adopted the consumerist ways of the West before it could develop appropriate ways of dealing with the waste. On Sunday we made our way back to Sofia. For reasons that we still can't explain, Alex and I were unable to procure seats on the bus, so we found more creative means of making the three-hour trip. The long and short of it is that we spent the evening with two twentysomething windsurfers on their way ...