Sofia, Bulgaria

Currently I am kicking it the coolest hostel I have found while on this trip. You get a fantastic breakfast, pasta dinner, and free internet all for the bottom basement price of 9 USD. To round out my description, it's the antithesis of the horrid hostels I stayed at in Sarajevo and Belgrade.

I was nervous about taking the train from Bucharest to Sofia because of the crazy stories I heard from people coming in the opposite direction. One guy said he was "mugged" on the trip. (I put the word in quotations because the guy telling me the story had a flair for drama. Mugging usually implies a use of force. Apparently two guys popped their heads in his compartment and said "give us money." Personally, I wouldn't have classified the event as a "mugging" though it still sounded quite intimidating.) Another girl told me there were lots of illegals in her compartment that were bribing the conductor and border guards. I also heard your bags were ransacked at the border unless you paid a 5 euro bribe. Needless to say, after all the horror stories I was a little freaked out.

I decided the best course of action was to drink a cup of coffee before I headed out, which made me unbelievably jittery. I thought it would help me stay awake. (It did not. It just gave me really tripped out dreams.) Anyway, I left the light on in my compartment and hid my bag under the seat. For the most part, the border crossing went smoothly. My bag wasn't searched and they didn't hassle me too much.

I actually arrived in Sofia three hours late. We spent forever at the border crossings (lots of bribes to collect), then made a few arbitrary long stops, so it took quite some time. At some point in the evening, I awoke to discover the man from the compartment next to me standing over me as he peered into the mirror on the wall. I sat up and asked, "Can I help you?" He wordlessly moved away. The whole even seemed so impossibly strange, I don't know if it really occurred, or if I dreamed it into life.

When I arrived in Sofia, I went out to eat with a guy who was also on my train, though we didn't meet until disembarked in the city. I tried some "Edible Boletus", which is some sort of mushroom. I found it to be entirely inedible, but at least I tried something new.

Yesterday I didn't do much, and today I've done even less. It's noon, so I still have some time. I am planning on going to a museum later. I caught most of the "must-sees" yesterday, and I even got free ice cream for lunch. (I think the girls that worked at the restaurant felt sorry for me because I was eating by myself.)

Sometimes it makes me want to giggle when I think about all the distance I have covered on this trip. It's so incongruous with my upbringing, it's downright amusing. The Z family was never that great at long-distance hauls; when we were younger, my brother and I would pack a small library for a short four hour drive. In fact, I was a sophomore in college before I made a car trip longer than eight hours in duration. Now I don't even bat an eye at thirteen hour bus rides.