Central Hotel Forum Sofia

... br><br>She told me that she was on a medical holiday to make herself "pretty." Now I fully realize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I looked at her from head to toe trying to figure out if she had really been made "pretty" or not and where this procedure had taken place. She saw me looking and volunteered, "I think you call it a boob job. I had a boob job." <br><br>Now having never had the procedure myself, I can't even pretend ...

... seats, which was a lovely sensation (I am really starting to have my doubts about European pilots...)<br><br>Once in Bulgaria I was picked up at the airport by someone from Casino Technolgies and taken to my hotel, Hotel Anel, which was extremely nice. After settling in to my room I wrote emails (and updated the damn blog!) and took it pretty easy since I had to be at work in the am.<br>

... spades - and no evidence of salt or grit in sight! The churches were lovely especially the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. We found a little street market selling antiques military badges, old cameras Russian knives etc and the local book market where I picked up a 2009 calendar and an English book to keep me occupied since I had committed the unforgiveable sin of coming away without a book. We also took a wander through the huge Borisova gradina garden ...

... er faehrt, der Hoehepunkt erwartet uns aber an der griechisch-bulgarischen Grenze: Nachdem wir dort eh schon eine Stunde nur rumgestanden haben u.a. weil die Grenzpolizei mit den Paessen der beiden Bulgaren fuer eine Ewigkeit verschwunden ist, setzt sich der Zug endlich wieder in Bewegung... aber zu frueh gefreut. Nach nicht mal einem Kilometer bleiben wir wieder stehen und fahren (aus was fuer Gruenden auch immer) wieder zur Grenze zurueck, wo wir dann wieder ...

... of being overly frivolous by not planning anything ahead, so we arrived at 6 a.m. by train with no accommodation to go to, and train station staff that are surely trained to go out of their way to not help you and make you feel like annoying ****. Maybe we just asked all the wrong people. We did find a place two hours later, and it was warm, clean and the lady at the front desk was incredibly nice, which bolstered us a bit. We planned our two days by ...

... girls Loren, Erin and Catherine, and we had a great time visiting with their whole family. Buddy the golden retriever is still in his puppy stage and was happy to have new people to lick. Scott drove us back home after dinner and then I embarked on this incredibly long-winded history lesson for you all. I forgot to mention that Daniela and I hazarded a trip to a local "Magazine" which is a mini grocery store. We bought the major necessities of Coke, a candy bar ...

... By smartly dressed, I should be precise and say that the local youth style here is vaguely reminiscent of the Zoolander "derelikt" line, but it does look good when everyone is doing it. The meal's presentation was as good as its taste, which in some places is not saying much, but it's the best I've eaten since arriving in Europa. The waitress spoke just enough English to compensate for the fact that I've learned virtually no Bulgarian (apart from ...

... these mountains are lots of natural springs so you can just fill-up your waterbottle at one of the spigots along the way. Had lunch then to Arren's Fortress (with yet another monastery up top) and stopped by a trout farm to get some fish for dinner. I took a nap when we were back in Plovdiv. Met some of the Czech people that had moved into the dorm. Sat around talking to them while waiting for the fish to cook (it ended up taking forever). Also chatted with Kat and a ...

... took me to the haufbren haus (spelling?) which is the site of the famous beer house of octoberfest! (and as a side note, it is also where hitler gave one of his key speeches during his reign...) My housing in munich was rather interesting. Interesting in that, I figured that tourism during this time of the year would be slow... but not that slow! It was a huge hostel, and of course they put me in the highest floor furthest ...

... on the 21st story of an old apartment with elevators that would not make inspection status at home...for example, they sortof stop between floors to let you off and the little circle-lights that tell you what floor you are on don't work. ;-) fun! We met the rest of the family, mini-Victor, Lucy, & Svetlio's friend Niki and headed for our first scrumptious bulgarian meal. While we're chatting about food in Bulgaria, eating seems to be a national pastime in this country ...