Nadin Apartment Sofia

... work we didn't get it set up to work abroad...oops. go outside to find the father...he's not there. ask where to get change and get pointed to a small exchange office. decided that we'd just get a drink at the cafe and get changethat way, picked up a can of coke and went to pay for it....5 LEV. gave a 10 and got a 5LEV note back. but we need change please....go to the bank we don't give change ...

... as there was a wedding at the hotel restaurant. Afterwards we checked the washing!, collapsed into bed and woke up full of energy for a full day of sightseeing. The Cathedral in Sofia is incredible and not very old (restored in early 1900's). We managed to gatecrash a both a wedding and a christening at churches and found the city very interesting. Bronwyn was particularly taken by the guards outside the Presidential Palace especially when they got a ...

... Really good pussy!" Graham interjected, I was starting to have serious doubts about whether this was the kind of man I'd trust to build a power station ("**** up in a brewery" springs to mind) Dave ignored his friend and continued; "And the pussy!, man they're so friendly, like they'll do anything!, let me show you!". Oh God, this wasn't going to be good. Part of me felt like turning around and telling him to stop referring to girls as "pussy", but the other half was ...

... which of course Tricia loved. We tried to feed the birds but there weren't any. We stopped at the Presidental palace to watch the changing of the guards. Interesting throw back to a gone by era it seemed. We also headed into the palace to find an ancient roman ruin and a 4th century church. Interestingly its still used as a church today.

... Bulgaria for a school reunion. She translated and said that basically the car hadn't arrived, and it may arrive or it may not arrive! She was a very nice woman, she offered to put me up for the night in Belgrade if we didn't get our sleeper! There was a couchette car but the guard said it was all full. Then I saw a whole load of Serbians/Bulgarians get on and then, possibly emboldened by my two beers, I thought sod this if they're getting on to the couchette so am ...

... church of St. Alexander. The way toward the church was a market on the sidewalks with people selling swag from WWII and the German Democratic Republic (the old communist East block). Sophia was bone chilling, while we were all shivering from the cold and nip of melancholy floating in the air, we went to a coffee shop to warm our bodies and our spirits before most of the crew left to Romania, while I stayed with two others who were flying out from Sophia ...

... this, plenty of people ...

... all the time and eat tapas. well what i've realized is i don't know those people's stories. maybe they are like me now, where i've been living here for a while and just want a break, something different (american food and some irish beer.) or maybe spanish was hard for them and it is just a relief to be with other english speakers. that's me now, bulgarian is going really well, i enjoy speaking it and i think i'm making real progress, but it was just great to spend 2 days speaking ...

... reservation. At lease they still had rooms - at a slightly higher price - but what choice did I have? So I stayed there, and sent the agency a nasty e-mail, to which they apologized, but so what? Thus, every day I took a bus and a tram into town (not bad really and very cheap) and a cab back (also relatively cheap - $4), but it meant that I was pretty much committed for the whole day once I went into town. Sofia itself was nice. A much more classical ...

... as a legitimate bus company. For example, at the border crossing (when you are in no-mans-land between the two countries) you can buy duty free goods. Each passenger was handed 2 cartons of cigarettes and various other commodities (like paint, car parts, ketchup and sex toys) at the border for when the routine inspection took place by the border guards. We were only given cigarettes because obviously as Australian travellers we would not be ...