Holiday Inn Sofia

... its place. So whilst some buildings glorify the communist past, other bear the scars of the same time, and still other suggest the power of new ideologies. Whist the glass and steel still looks incongruous you get the impression that it won't be long before they dominate.

The people too seem divided between those embracing new business models and other seemingly intent on developing their own ...

... a really nice guy that just wanted to talk. We spoke about the former Yugolslovia, which I noticed is typical conversation in this region. He was very knowledgeable. To top that all off he bought me a beer. I cant get over how friendly people have been with me. Thats why I love these smaller towns. Got my train to Sofia, Bulgaria and its funny ...

... taga olev termaalvete saun, on üks paljudest vaatamisväärsustest. Sauna on renoveeritud juba 90-ndate algusest ja lõppu ei ole veel ikka näha. Põikasime sisse turuhalli ja seal keskel oli üks väike baar. Meie kohustuslik ost oli väike õlu ja siis pukkidel istudes oli hea ümbritsevat jälgida. Parajasti algas moe demm ja see oli enne otsas kui see alatagi jõudis. Neli "modelli" tegid igaüks 3 sammu ja kogu moos. Hakkasime nuputama, et mida nad müüvad. L ...

... last walk around the town. On the bus, we arrived in Sofia 3 hours later. We jumped a taxi into town and he had no idea so we ended up god knows were. Eventually, with a little luck and intuition we found where we were. That day, half of Scotland it seemed were venturing back from Macidonia (World Cup Qualifier) to get there cheap flights home. With a few full hostels passing us over, ones not even there anymore, we stumbled on a stream of places, just down ...

... propaganda... Here the call out... (feel free to joın me this summer (!) or just spread this information to everyone who is interested): Roll up! Roll up! It's the great Ecotopia Biketour 2008 extravaganza! Where? Bulgaria and Turkey When? 2nd July - 14th August *** Registration now open at http://www.ecotopiabiketour.net *** Ecotopia Biketour is a mobile community ...

... remember if there was a place within walking distance. We tried to flag down passing cars, of which there were only four. After an hour of this a car finally stopped. Of the two men and a woman, one of the men spoke English. We explained that we were stuck, and we asked if there were any way to get a taxi. The man said that there was no way to do that this high up on the mountain, but that they could take two of us in the car ...

... match. Last night when Tania and I got to our hostel I asked the hostel guy what was happening in Sofia on a Sunday night. Immediate response was - the game. It seems that after 40 years, "Levki" and "TSK" (big Bulgarian football teams with a real hate-on for each other) were going to be playing a championship match. How much were tickets I asked. "Between 3 and 10 Lev," ($2.25-$7.50 Cdn) he responded. So we went. Security was fierce. Tonnes of ...

... a bunch of people up playing drinking games and they were being loud so I figured there was no point going to bed and stayed up with them (Mark and Helen from VT and Plovdiv were there). Moved out of Hostel Sofia to Hostel Mostel which was much nicer. Apparently it's booked up for the next month. It worries me that a Sofia hostel is booked for the next month 'cuz that probably means hostels in Croatia will be booked. Might be time for me to start planning... I wandered ...

... churches. There are usually no pews but just chairs around the walls. They have loads of different pictures of various saints that you can kiss and say a little prayer to. People write notes and stick them behind the pictures or leave money. The walls are usually painted and have huge carved facings that shut off the main front nave thing where the priests go and hide. Oil lamps that hang down. They're lovely. Sofia has a really nice ...

... as a mark of rememberance. Well you can tell the families that have had a rough trott lately, they have posters all over the place. So Bulgaria feels like one big graveyard, you just seem to be looking at pictures of dead people all day long.....how depressing!!!! Another surprise was the toilets.... Back home when you "drop off the kids" you let them go for a swim, but not in Bulgaria. The custom here is to drop them off at the "beach", once ...