Best Western Hotel Expo Sofia

... very day (the Italian prime minister came for a political visit and we saw him while he watched a military parade). The country is cheap though and we only spent 7 euros for 2 people for an entire day. <br><br>Special thanks to Bernhard for letting us use his shower before we got on the evening bus to Istanbul. We are not necessarily looking forward to the 2nd night on the bus in a row, but we are hardcore backpackers and that's the way a world trip should start!! ;)

Modern five star hotel in Sofia offering luxury Sofia accommodation for leisure and business travel, weekend deals and city breaks, state-of-the-art conference centre in Sofia and the ultimate spa in Sofia.<br>

Up bright and early once again to work out the local tram and different bus station to find our way to Mt Vitosha to go skiing! Another bright and sunny day and again was easy to work out the tram system and get our tickets and we then managed to find the bus station (by following the locals) and get our ticket on the correct bus which was thankfully heated! It took about an hour or so on uncleared roads to make the summit of the mountain ...

... couldn't get any worse! I sat outside the hotel and booted up the laptop (comes in handy at times) and used the hotel's wi-fi to find me a room at a hostel nearby. I walked to the hostel, dropped off my bags and headed out to change some money and get something to eat. Gigou, the house owner told me before I change money I should ask them exactly how much I should get for the amount being changed because they have a history of cheating people ...

&#1052;&#1085;&#1086;&#1075;&#1086; &#1086;&#1090;&#1076;&#1072;&#1074;&#10 85;&#1072; &#1075;&#1086; &#1087;&#1083;&#1072;&#1085;&#1080;&#10 88;&#1072;&#1093;&#1084;&#1077; &#1080; &#1077;&#1090;&#1086;, &#1095;&#1077; &#1042;&#1077;&#1083;&#1080;&#1082;&#10 76;&#1077;&#1085;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;& #1090;&#1077; &#1087;&#1088;&#1072;&#1079;&#1085;&#10 80;&#1094;&#1080; &#1076;&#1086;&#1080;&#1076;&#1086;&#10 93;&#1072;... &#1057;&#1098;&#1073;&#1088 ...

... life. In addition to the painted Biblical events, there were paintings of saints filling in about every square inch of the walls and ceiling. At the very top of the main cathedral dome, there is a painting of God the Father looking down from the clouds on everything below. He is literally facing straight down looking at the floor or whoever is underneath. This painting looked very like the paintings of Zeus or maybe Poseidon from Greek Mythology. One interesting ...

... nothing like Pristinë. Soviet Bulgaria seems to have better preserved Sofia's pre-communist architecture than most other formerly soviet cities I have seen (before I started writing this blog), with the exception of perhaps Prague and Budapest. Of course there are soviet relics, but they fit in better than others I have seen. Sofia also is the only city to have a yellow brick road that I know of. But there were no crazy flying monkeys, wizards or tin ...

... out more of the town but there wasn't much exciting to see. A lot of people in these countries wear "Iron Maiden" and other hard rock band shirts. I saw posters for live shows by Whitesnake, Twisted Sister and other bands I thought faded away 10-15 years ago. Butt-rock lives in Eastern Europe! Watched the World Cup final back at the hostel with the people there. I survived Bucharest without getting attacked by any stray dogs! (there are supposed to be lots of stray dogs ...

... and the locals are twice as nice to you if you try to speak to them in Bulgarian rather than in the queen's english. Obicham bulgarskiat ezik. the lucky fulbrighter in one formerly charming 150 year old mexana (tavern and inn) in Bansko, the Dedo Pene Inn I saw this very american looking blond blue eyed girl speaking bulgarian with the owner of the hotel. I said "where did you learn bulgarian?" and she said she had been in bulgaria for four months. bulgarian ...

... would be interesting. Was really interesting driving through the countryside even more so after getting lost a number of times as we got to see a lot of little towns that we wouldn't have otherwise. Some you could see were very poor areas. But the getting lost thing only made the trip more interesting. As a result we didn't to our destination till quite late so then we were on a mission to get up the mountain as quickly as possible as we wanted to get ...