Lc Sheraton Sofia Hotel

... very day (the Italian prime minister came for a political visit and we saw him while he watched a military parade). The country is cheap though and we only spent 7 euros for 2 people for an entire day.

Special thanks to Bernhard for letting us use his shower before we got on the evening bus to Istanbul. We are not necessarily looking forward to the 2nd night on the bus in a row, but we are hardcore backpackers and that's the way a world trip should start!! ;)

... happens to pay. Yes, I'm sure Sonal will be thrilled to hear that my steady stream of Dave Chung specials were of the same vein to me as a bad round of Civ2, but so it goes.

As it works out for this trip, it's not cutting into my sightseeing significantly, as most of my composition is done during downtime on buses, trains, and airports. The main area that's suffering is my reading time; I probably would have finished
David ...

... are learned, not given. At least they've got nude women on TV after midnight in Sofia, so capitalism accomplished something. Thank God for small miracles. By now I've got pretty good at reading Cyrillic, so that helps keep the belly full. Some words are almost the same. Except for the broken leg MAPKET is easily recognizable as 'market', pronounced exactly the same. I assume it's a loan word, so it should. From there things ...

... of Bulgaria. We ended up walking for a bit down the street in front of the station, but after a little while I decided that we needed to ask directions or get in a cab because we had no idea where we were going. Jared didn't want to ask for directions, so we walked back to the train station and got in a cab. We showed the driver the address to the hostel and he agreed to take us. Now, Jared absolutely hates taking cabs because he thinks every single one of them is out to rip ...

... staying at a hostel. Altogether we are off to a good start! I will just quickly say that Sofia is just as deserted as Plovdiv. We were the only visitors to most places... and we got hefty student discounts without question... Even in front of the famous Alexander Nevsky (sp?) Church, there was nothing resembling a crowd... It's a surprisingly pleasant city- not the gray and grimy former-Soviet city ...

Dear all, now I have officially finished my EVS-period in Macedonia. I left Struga on Saturday evening by bus to Sofia and here I'm I now, in this big city hosted by the dearest Boriana ( whom many of you know). Sofia is preparing for Bulgara's entry to EU and here seems to be lots of energy inthe air. Boriana told that most of the people expect situation to change for better overnight. That's a pity. But it is extremely nice to be a real city. :) Well ...

... whiff of it was enough to make you want to hold it and not drink any liquid for the entire 14 hours. But, just so I'm not unfair to Bulgarian trains, I should mention that we have seen much worse since our trip started a month ago. The décor in the car was exactly what you would picture for a 1960's style with communist/industrial flair. Formica counter, plastic wood-patterned paneling, lots of metal and things with sharp edges sticking out that we kept bumping ...

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... this is - but I can't help loving that smell). I love looking up the weather on the internet and seeing the word "smoke" as the forecast for the evening due to all the coal. I love going out for a meal and drinking the local "rakia" (very similar to turpentine) with my "shopska" salad and complimenting my main course with a fabulous bottle of regional red wine for the equivalent of $3. So I apologize to anyone who got the wrong impression of my life here.