Grand Sofia Hotel

... in what a big leg of the journey this is: 24 hours, 4 countries (Austria/Hungary/Serbia/Bulgaria), 2 passport stamps, and endless train configeration changes until it was just our sleeper carriage and 2 'commuter' waggons. One lasting impression is the station masters waving us through every hit and miss town along the Bulgarian section. All immaculately turned out in blazers and caps, it seems as though ...

... delays at the Bulgarian border, and soon we were on our way to the capital, Sofia. We'd decided not to visit Cappadocia before coming to Turkey, though it's a bit of a regret now. However, the warmth of the people has really made us want to return, so that will give us an even stronger incentive to make the trip! En route to Sofia, we enjoyed the lovely countryside, with occasional sheperd. It was also a good chance to practice reading the Cyrillic text, which would eventually get pretty ...

Aastavahetus oli meil planeeritud ühes mõnusa interjööriga restos. Nime ei mäleta ja mis sellest ikkagi oleks kasu, sest see oli nende viimane üritus enne pankrotti. Et kuhugi kohta saada, tuleb tellida pakettmenüü. Nende menüü oli vist 6-käiguline ja sisaldas isegi hanemaksa pasteeti. Kell 9 oli paras alustada. Meid oli 9 hinge - 6 eestlast, 2 iisraellast ja 1 sveitslane. Õhtu vaieldamatuks hitiks kujunes rakia, mis on ...

... They even made our beds... We were in bed within an hour of leaving. Next stop, border crossings. Bang, bang! A rapping on the door, suggested we were coming to the border. 3am... To our horror we had to get off the train. We hurried to the door and were one of the first off. On our way to the office, a lady from the train was screaming (think she was attacked or mugged) and the cops were off. That was a little unsettling... We then headed to the office ...

As you will probably notice..(no updates) I was pretty busy this last weeks ın Sofia. In the last weeks I managed to feel more at home here and start my activities as volunteer in the biketour organization. Besides this I started Bulgarian language lessons and tried to get in contact with people of the Sofıan Rhythms of Resistance band. All was pretty chaotic and took ...

... had seen a sign that predicted a two and a half hour journey, and we kept positive by telling ourselves that we could make it in two. But after two hours in a peat bog, even the most hardened traveller must eventually say "What the hell am I doing?" When we encountered a particularly pond-like strech of moss-covered mischief, I asked Rich, "What should we do?" Rich scratched his head, looked at the half a foot of standing water ahead ...

... that i just skip Bucharest altogether and hop the next train to Sophia with them. I'm really glad i did too, because even being accompanied by 3 guys (they referenced british pride a few times, why not, it works), i still thought that Bucharest vaguely resembled some kind of Communist hellhole and we were likely to be mugged by the locals and then eaten by stray dogs. Anyway ...

... at it on the menu) and the waiter repeated "spopska", but out came soup. We think it was tripe soup...yum. Steph tried it and said she didn't think it was chicken (the only soups were tripe, chicken and vegetable). She made me try it despite my protests. Definately not chicken. Blecgh! Again had some problems with the nodding of the head for "yes" when the waiter would come to clear our plates and ask if we were done, we'd say "yes" and unconsciously nod our heads at ...

Kedze sa u nas cez vikend ochladilo, jedinym logickym tahom mi pripadalo zdekovat sa na juh. A co tak pre zmenu do Sofie, kde som este nikdy nebol. A spociatku to aj vychadzalo, lebo hned po prilete tu bolo prijemne teple pocasie, ale k veceru ma uz studeny vzdych zo stredu Europy dobehol a v noci sa aj rozprsalo. :-( No ale este pred tym som sa stihol trochu sa potulat po ...

... built by Bulgaria's legendary minister of culture and it was these huge pillars with bells around which there was a spiraling park which had bells from many different countries in the world, each designed and sent from that country. Afterwards we went back to the city. Walked passed the national theater building, the square where the mausoleum of what Ina calls "our equivalent of Lenin" and stopped at the book market. Then we walked to the Aleksander Nevski square ...