Park Moskva Sofia

... hmm that can of coke cost us 2 pound 50 (I though Bulgaria was supposed to be cheap!!) and she couldn't give us some coins. got change in the exchange office then as we went to the pay phone I saw my dad outside. Didn't even need the damn change! hugs kisses hellos then in the car to start the 5 HOUR car journey to Srebarna...argh! On the told the father about the most expensive can of coke in the ...

... time making our decisions at the pastry shop in the bus station. Turkish bus stations are crazy, there are at least 15-20 huge buses there at any given time. Everyone gets off and stands directly in front of their bus and chain smokes until it is time to go (usually 30-40 minutes). It's fun to walk though the smoking crowd to the bathroom where you have to pay to use it! We are soooo sick of paying to use the bathroom. Even at the sites you must pay - you think it would be part ...

... fifty pounds of luggage in a hiking pack while taking mass transportation on a Friday evening. We made it to the train station early so we went to a nice restaurant and grabbed dinner. Around 9:30 pm we boarded our train and tried to find our cabins, but the train clerk had written everything so poorly that we had no idea what train car we were supposed to be on, let alone which cabin. We bounced from car to car for about 15 minutes until we found a conductor who ...

... original church which gave the name to the city. this dates from the 4th century AD and was originally a Roman Basillica. It is remarkably preserved with most of the original Roman brickwork in evidence. It is very simple inside having only a smal iconastasis and is relatively small. I really enjoyed our visit there.We then walked to the St Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral. this is much grander in design and decoration. This was built from 1882- 1912 with a lot of help from the Russians ...

... d invited us for a coffee. He was really sweet, he wouldn`t stop offering us a food. We could travel with him through Croatia, up to Budapest, but frankly saying we had enough of his... music. It was something like a Turkish disco-folklore. You could listen to it for about an hour or two, but we`d been listening to it for almost 24 hours! We got off the lorry in Belgrade, even though you could tell Jaser wished we could haved stayed with him for a bit longer....

... It just made us laugh. The Gap wouldn't make any money here. oh, and shoes must match the shirt. and that wierd maroon hair in Spain, it's all over the place here. What is that? The whole head shaking thing is so hard to get used to. WHy do they do it? You ask if there is a room and they shake their head. First you feel disappointment, then you think, wait, maybe that means yes, so you ask again, you get another shake with a little indian wobble, is it Yes? It ...

... to the hostel, the man who let me in spoke in a midwestern accent, and most others around me at the moment speak with British or Australian accents. No problem. Lots of travelers around, so I'll not be the only one here who does not speak any Bulgarian.  So when I first got in the driver\s car at the airport, for some reason the stereo was playing before he even turned the ignition on or got in the car. It was like it was left on while he went ...

... at eight in the morning having arrived here at 1. I am too afraid to sleep in case I miss my flight but its anothern 16 hours to Auckland so I figure I can kip on the plane. Thinking back I must have spent 4 full days on the road in the last week. At last it is coming to an end, at least for a little while, and I can rest all I want when I get back... After a big night out with the crew eh boys!!!!!! This is Marc signing out on the last stage of my middle east\eastern europe trip.

... this means we have one and a half pieces of chewing gum each and half a bottle of water to provide nutrition until the train arrives at six tonight. We also don't have anywhere to stay when we get to Sofia, but that's not as much of a concern as everyone here's pretty forthcoming with offers and such. Much later...... It's 6pm. We've been on the train for 9 hours and we're only at the Bulgarian border. Our bottle of water got hot and was forced down a couple of hours ago ...

... nix anfangen koennen, und mehrmaligem Grad-noch-die-Tuer offen halten liessen sie mich gehen. Einige Autos spaeter, ich hatte immer wieder eine 8-Truck-Gruppe niederlaendischer Laster ueberholt, kam ich an der Grenze an - aber es gab keine Autos, die mich haetten mitnehmen koennen. Nur ein paar Taxi-Angebote. Aber bei einem der tuerkischen Trucker hatte ich Glueck. Er nahm mich mit - aber der bulgarische Grenzer beschrieb mir, mit nem Laster sei das ...