Central Park Sofia

... be the world's leading authority on the subject, but common sense tells me that a hostel is probably not the best post op convalescense facility. First off, she is in a room with five guys in the top bunk to make matters worse. Seems to me going up and down that ladder would hurt a little. Second, I just wouldn't want everyone knowing all my personal business such as that. <br><br>She never did offer to show me the actual results other than ...

Après trois jours passés dans les montagnes Serbes a faire du camping sauvage dans de magnifiques paysages a proximité d'une source ayant des propriétés curative pour la vue, nous avons mis le cap sur Sofia ou deux collocataires (Julietta et Peter) nous attendais les bras grand ouverts pour nous faire partager la vie des jeunes dans Sofia.<br>Nous avons passé la premiere partie de la soirée chez eux avec quelques uns de leurs amis, pour ensuite aller boire un verre ...

... was really pretty with the snow still on the ground. For lunch we wandered along to a local Bulgarian restaurant and had a lovely supposedly traditional lunch - it certainly tasted great but not being Bulgarian not sure how traditional it truly was! We had homemade bread with a cheesy dip and salt and we each had a stew type dish of lamb and beef I think (forgive me it's been a while now and my diary keeping wasn't that good!) Dinner that night............

... bleiben. Aber IRGENDWANN mit ner Menge Verspaetung kommen wir tatsaechlich in Sofia an. Natuerlich werden wir direkt von einer Menge Leute angequatscht, ob wir ein Zimmer, ein Tzxi, Hilfe, was auch immer brauchen... und nateurlich dafuer das noetige Kleingeld haben. Wir haben allerdings zu dem Zeitpunkt erstens noch ueberhaupt kein Geld und zweitens wollen wir uns nicht weiter anquatschen lassen. Mein erster Gang zur Bahnhofstoilette entwickelt sich dann aber auch ...

... what we saw outside with indoor moments. See something outside, have a coffee, walk to that building, drink a hot chocolate, and so on. Budapest is divided, simply enough, by the Danube river into Buda and Pest. Ha! In Buda, the west side of the Danube we braved the winds on Varhegy, aka Castle Hill, where the Royal Palace stands along with museums, expensive and trendy restaurants and Matthias Church which, although meant to be magnificent to see, was ...

... One other side note was seeing an Israeli military band at the first church we visited today. We never could figure out why they were there, but there were lots of guys in suits with dark sunglasses and bulges under their arms standing around several black limos. The band guys had the Israeli military insignia on their uniforms and had stars of David on their music holders. Maybe they heard we were coming??? We took some pictures, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.

... which means thank-you). The downside was that many inside smoked, as that still is trendy and cheap here. But it was a minor downside. We liked it so much that we decided to come back another day, and that meant that we had to spend one more in Bulgaria. I had no idea that this city was so beautiful. Nor had I any idea that my eyes would follow so many passers by. Nor did I expect to crave a 'bolognese' pizza I had often for lunch. Visiting Bulgaria is ...

... new people that had shown up. Unfortunately, a couple of the not so nice people from Veliko Turnovo had made it here too. The following day was another daytrip, this one further south to the recently discovered site of Perperikon. I got to ride upfront for the trip down there. This time it was me, Kat, Stephanie, Matt, Mark and Amber. Amber and Mark were both in VT and so-so friendly (definately not warm and welcoming but not mean either). Matt is an American studying in ...

... the main office (did someone call ahead to warn them about me?) Needless to say, I spent the better part of the 3 nights in the hostel in a room built for 10... all by myself! (actually it was pretty neat) The hostel was its very own ghost town. Saturday Cory and I went to Castel Norsweinstein (wow.. bad spelling) which is the one that was built by king lewdvig II (aka mad king lewdvig.. but mum's the word.) It is the castle ...

... whatever reason, it seems meals last at a minimum of two hours, while some take up to four hours to complete. Over the last few days we have acclimated ourselves to this style of eating by learning to take on bite, aproximately every two minutes. It's a taxing stategy, but works okay when you get used to it! And Rakia, Bulgarian brandy, makes it all go down with ease. We piled into Svetlio's car and drove around town with Svetlio as he worked for a construction company ...