Vitosha Park Hotel Sofia

... 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!! ;)

... Brian felt really sick that day for some reason so it wasn't fun when we arrived and the conductor said he didn't have sits for us, that we would have to stand for the first 2 hours! We met some other travelers in the same situation. We couldn't understand how this happened - don't they do this everyday? So we stood and basically it was a first come, first serve basis for getting a seat. Brian stuck his head out the window the whole way (the only moving air). I stayed in ...

... with such natural beauty and lovely people presents this front to the world. It wasn't untill I met Boyana, my couch surfing host, that I felt like the country actually wanted visitors. Four days later finds a contented little Ben sitting atop a child's climbing frame, strumming aimlessly on a Bulgarian banjo. My stay in Bulgaria could not have been better. Boyana, or Bo, turned out to be a bit of a legend. Not ...

Well, we were finally off to another country since arriving in Greece and man were we excited about it! It was fall break and our first real time off from school and we couldn't wait to take advantage of the chance to get away from ACT. Jared and I booked tickets for the night train to Sofia, Bulgaria for Thursday at 12:33 and were on our way. When we arrived at the train station, we were running a little late because we decided to walk to save money from a cab fare. We asked ...

... ask for assistance. These things continue to sadden me - surely the nation that preserved the legacy of St Cyrill and Methodius through the centuries can do better than this... No, no, it's not all bad of course! I can't tell you how many wonderful people I met when I went to Sopot and visited some small villages around Ruse. Warm and welcoming, they would go out of their way to help me find directions or give me a ride into town, or show me where the local doctor is ...

... same few blocks at first then gradually widening my search. I was getting increasingly flustered and frustrated, as the night was drawing in, I could not read the street signs, and I was unable to call the hostel because my mobile wouldn´t work. A couple of times I asked passing locals if they knew my hostel and asked if I could use their phone to call it. I was struggling to make myself understood, however, and things were further complicated by the fact that - much to ...

... i could not find the passports anywhere in the mean time Tash is checking all of our stuff to make sure they did not fall into our bags - i told Tash to go and check the carriage again herself and to ask the passport control man if he still had them - she was gone for ages and all i could think was my god if this train goes i will have all of the stuff and Tash would have the passport and no bra - but as the train pulled away i saw ...

... been an Orthodox Christian country (which is in line with the Byzantine heritage centered in Constantinpole, today's Istanbul), there are a lot of beautiful orthodox churches all over town. Aside from Orthodox Christians, with 12% of its population Turkish, there is also a sizable Muslim population. One 500-year old mosque, Banya Boshi Mosque, lies just north of the center and across the street from fancy TSUM Department ...

... English?" "OK" Vinny follows suit, then to the poor, buck-toothed, sweating patsy next to me. "Serbian", he says. The custom guy actually grins. They take the guy off the train with his bags, shout a lot, and then we have to wait. The guy did get back on the train, and he still had both bags with him.... Strangely though, one of them seemed a little lighter be around five cartons of cigarettes. Still, all's well that ends well, that's my motto. A couple of hours later ...

... suit, but found severe repression and resistance from it's government...and the surrounding governments too. Mass exodus of Albanians to Italy and Greece were turned back...Albanians fleeing Serbian persecution in Kosovo sought refuge in Albania... Finally, democracy took hold...but...not without a series of devasting "missteps"... The banking industry collapsed under a series of "pyramid schemes" and widespread corruption ...