Bulgaria

Knock, knock:
Who’s there?
Sofia
Sofia who?
SOFIAT UNION!! I AM THE ONE ASKING THE QUESTIONS!

Of all the places on our itinerary, Bulgaria excited me the least.  Nothing against the country, I’ve met a lot of great people during my previous two visits, but unlike everywhere else on this journey, I’ve been there before.  Sofia was only a short stop as we arrived in the late afternoon and were scheduled to leave by the following morning.  Our hotel was a bit of a spectacle as it rose 19 stories above the ground and happened to be the tallest building in the area.  Strangely, I’ve twice stayed in Bulgarian hotels that were half renovated, and I’ve twice stayed in a non-renovated Soviet side…probably fitting considering my past history with hotels.  After a night of sweating and sort of sleeping in the 15th story room (heat rises right?), we all set off for a walking tour of Sofia.  I had seen everything in the tour just a few months before, so I mostly followed along semi-engaged.  Around lunchtime, we headed off to Plovdiv, a small town 2 hours east of Sofia.  Plovdiv, apparently is the 2nd oldest continually inhabited city of the world and has evolved into a relaxed touristy community with gelato stands, travel information centers and Lacoste stores. With only a 6 or so hours to spend in town, we spent the daylight semi hurriedly walking around and exploring town and the evening once again eating what we could find for cheap.  Awal and I made the gluttonous decision to eat too much for dinner and  regretted it almost immediately. Since each of felt like we were carrying bricks around in our stomachs, we decided to walk it off.  We came upon some sort of city/government  building that possesses a massive marble slab that serves as an entrance.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a football to throw around (one of the items I should have packed…like more t-shirts and some shorts…I still don’t know how after all my travels that I remain a poor packer) so we relived the glory days by running a few football drills.  I wonder what bypassers thought? “Hey, there are two idiots running and jumping around  at town hall…stupid teenagers.”

That’s it for Bulgaria…and that’s soon to be it for Europe!