Crystal Palace Sofia

... Skopje to Sofia was not bad at all and was the best busride I've had to date in the Balkans. Only six of us on board...Didn't make a million stops...The temperature was just right. It doesn't get any better than that. Sofia is a big city that sprawls out from a pretty lively core. It's not going to win city of year for any type of beauty but it sure is a GREAT laid back place to just wander around. It's flat, on a grid system and I have taught ...

<br>Albania was my last big stop before going home.<br><br>I'd decided long ago that I'd try to make it to Istanbul, and then fly home. The challenge of hitchhiking to Istanbul, via Albania, would reinstate my traveling confidence. I could go home, see family, see friends, eat my mom's baked chicken and green peas and mashed potatoes, make money, and fly back to Istanbul, if I chose, and continue on towards Iran. It was a decision Allah could be proud of.<br><br>My ...

... hadn't bothered to learn Bulgarian. On the way there on the train the ticket lady came along &amp; there was obviously an issue with our tickets but she couldn't speak English &amp; she just kept yelling at us over &amp; over again. It went on for about an hour &amp; from what we could gather she was trying to get us kicked off the train at the next stop but the police officer in the next cabin was so lazy he didn't want to ...

... ich von ihrem Geschrei verstehe, in das mittlerweile noch 2 weitere Frauen eingestimmt haben, ist, dass sie jetzt die Polizei ruft, damit ich bestraft werde. Das kreischt sie jedes Mal, wenn ich mich auch nur bewege um Fred Bescheid zu sagen, der draussen auf mich weiter. Zum Glueck ist ihr Geschrei aber kaum zu ueberhoeren, weshalb Fred von selbst auf die Idee kommt, mal nachzuschauen, was da Sache ist und noch groesseres Glueck, dass er einen Geldautomaten ...

... walking through a small field of crops. We ended up walking into town and saw a gypsee man in horse pulled cart. Some people kept pigs, goats, and horses. We also saw a shepherd herding his sheep in a field. We had a nice lunch just outside of town and tried some traditional food. We had roasted pepper with a fried cheese inside and a ...

Some travel days are worse than others, and today was one of those days that suck. We arrived in Macedonia around noon. Leaving Kosovo was easy; we took a bus from Pristinë's second "bus station." It is a spot on the highway where half of the road is closed, and buses stop. People go there because it is a lot closer than the main bus station and served by a lot of the Pristinë city buses. But as far as it goes as a bus station, it is a curb. From there we caught ...

... it was all buried under dirt. What's kinda cool is that they're still excavating so new stuff is being discovered every day. The Romans built some fortresses up in the area too but no one thought there was anything else. Had a quick lunch after exploring the site then went to the Kardjali rock formations. They looked a little like Cappadocia in Turkey. Just a quick visit there then off to the museum in town for a rushed tour. Long drive back to Plovdiv and I was ...

Four days in and I'm beginning to settle back into the travelling lifestyle. By which I mean, I went out and got drunk with a bunch of almost strangers last night. Quite apart from that, I have actually been out and done some sightseeing in the past couple of days. Sofia itself is nothing special, seems a bit of an odd collection of buildings haphazardly thrown together. Not the best place to wander aimlessly around. The beer is cheap, though :) Most of the best bits of ...

... music, good vibe...only problem, no people!!!!! So we left and headed to a hiphop club, the sort of place that, at home, would have no people whiter than Michael Jackson. After watching peolpe down what appeared to be 4-8 shots, we learned that Bulgarian apparently do shots that are like sweet drinks at home, so we made like locals, did a few, and danced the evening away. We woke up bright and early the next day (12:00PM) to find that we missed breakfast (thank god). We ...