Bulgarian Daze

Also known as THE HOTTEST WALK EVER.

So, we began the day in our one air conditioned room with a nice, quiet breakfast, planning the day ahead. The plan was to show Mark’s mom the city sights in Sofia. (She will heretofore be known as “Linda”. Ok,ok who am I fooling? That’s her real name. She said I could use it as long as I didn’t say evil things about her. And I know you people out there reading this who know her are laughing right about now, because it is impossible to think of evil things to say about her. “She washes our dishes”. “She hangs our laundry”. “She never whines or complains” Evil, wicked woman!)

Anyways, I planned a good path that would take us in a giant loop and we set out on it a little after noon. Also known as high noon in American Westerns. High noon was no joke. It was about 100 degrees with like 1,000 percent humidity. No really, 1,000. I’m totally not exaggerating. But we persevered. Personally, I just pretended I was in the Arctic and imagined freezing snow all around me, and that the wetness all over my shirt was really the ice melting. Yeah, I know. The visualization didn’t really work for me either.

We first went to Jentski Bazaar where there is an open air market and swap meet like atmosphere. It is also the scene of my pickpocketing, so I thought it momentous enough to treat as a national landmark. We cruised the aisles and then made our way towards the Jewish Synagogue. Linda tried every way possible to get in to see it. At one point I envisioned her climbing over the gates. But she restrained herself. Clearly the place was closed. We read in the bible that you can only get in there if you have a special invitation or you are Jewish and going to a service.

So we moved on….to the mosque and Turkish baths.

(This is the minaret on the mosque.)

(This building houses the baths.)
The baths are under reconstruction, and probably will continue to be for the next decade, since every time I pass by there is never anyone working on it. The building is very pretty and I hope they finish it someday in my lifetime. I would like to see the inside….

We passed by all the government buildings. I admonished Linda to NOT TAKE PHOTOS here. The police get very antsy when people are photographing the government buildings. Just ask Mark who was nearly hauled off after taking a picture of the American Embassy on the very day (5 years ago) when Colin Powell was set to arrive. Some smooth talking by his partners and relinquishing the disposable camera to the police resolved the problem. And so Linda refrained.

Next we went to a very old church that I am never sure of the name and actually went inside.

It had old frescoes that were done in different centuries, so it was cool to see how the art has changed. I also enjoyed the fact that this church is cared for, but not overly preserved. the frescoes were half off the walls and the place looked old. Which it should. It IS old. Sometimes it is nice to see things just as they were, even though they are crumbling.

After said church we headed to the center of town, marked by the yellow brick road. I do not know why they made the whole center out of yellow bricks, maybe a sick joke about the Wixard of Oz, but that is just how it is. Here we saw some fountains and my favorite church–the Russian Orthodox Church.

And holy of all holies, it was open for visitors. So we ventured in. Now the outside of the church is amazing…all shiny and bold. The inside is small and muted, almost all dark colors. but still it was cool to go inside.

And onwards we went to the mecca of Sofia–Nevski Church.

You will remember I wrote about the place when we first arrived? It is pretty astounding. But I will not rehash that place here. Oh no. Instead I will regale you about with a tale about how there were black Mercedes with the windows all dark and one blue siren light in top of them parked outside. Was someone being arrested? Oh no. Just some dignitary (a woman with some pretty skinny bodyguards) cruising around the place…not as exciting as I had hoped. Oh well.

After this we went through the park and saw the memorial to the Russian soldiers who freed the Bulgarians from Turkish rule in the late 1800s, walked past the university, and headed to the open air market near our flat. We needed some fruit and now seemed a good time to get it. You know, since we were sizzling and exhausted…why not shop a bit more???

(See? I LOOK as if I were cool. Well, I am cool. But I mean, I look chilly, don’t I?)
We came back to the flat and sat under the A/C unit until our body temps had lowered a bit. Not enough, but a bit. And then I dragged poor Linda up to Mark’s office. He wanted to show her around and have dinner with her. I know we could have taken a taxi, but I really hate taking the taxis and I enjoy the walk. But it was hot. And we had already walked….A LOT. But we made it.

We had a good dinner at a place near to Mark’s office and headed home. Once again, we took badly needed showers. Then we chilled (get it? get it? chilled??? hahahaha) and went to bed. A hot bed. In a hot room. Ouch.

Tomorrow….Rila Monastery: An Adventure in Travel…

p.s. I do have many more photos, but I am going to wait until after my European Extravaganza to upload all the albums into the gallery…check back around the third week in July. There should be LOTS and LOTS of photos. For now, just amuse yourselves with the old ones, or my cheery humor, or American T.V. Ooooohhhh how I miss American T.V. and the Tivo that goes with it….but that’s a story for another day!

As I mentioned previously, Mark’s mom is here on a visit. I know…an American HERE to visit US. Shocking. Who woulda thought it?

So, she arrived on Saturday night and we picked her up at the airport. We were trying to show our hospitality by not just making her find her own way to our flat. Because, you know, we’re good like that. We made it to the flat and heard all about her trip to France. The whole time I am thinking….hmmm…I wonder how Bulgaria will compare to France? A whole week of her eating yummy cheeses and indulging on other local specialties (*wink *wink) ought to really make her enjoy the TWO (yes, only two) kinds of cheese here and copious quantities of cucumbers. But…she seemed up for the adventure.

On Sunday, we set out for our first adventure. We caught the bus to Plovdiv. The last time I was in Plovdiv, it was cold and dreary. Still we liked it, so we knew we would like it this time as well. We saw giant fields of sunflowers on our way:

When we got there, we had to go to the bathroom. Badly. Badly enough to pay money to use this:

Go ahead, see if you can figure out how to use this. Let’s just say your legs will be stronger than ever! These are more common over here than you realize, but I tend to avoid them if at all possible. In this case, it was just not possible.

Then, we took a taxi to the Ploshtad Tsentralna (Center Square) and walked for a bit. Mark and I mistakenly thought we remembered the place. We didn’t really. We walked up to this fortress/high point of prayer that was pretty much just a high place with a lot of graffiti and trash. On our way down we took a wrong turn (I mean really, people, does this surprise you, given our past???) and ended up back where we started. So we figured this would be a good time to eat lunch and orient ourselves using our maps.

By the way, should you ever come to Bulgaria, the best guide is the Lonely Planet one. The information is accurate and useful. I call it my bible. Just a tidbit should you ever hop on a plane to get here.

After lunch we found the real old city and saw all the sights. There were old houses built in the Bulgarian Revival Period style, and churches, and giant cobblestones, and…my favorite….the Roman Amphitheater that is still there and used for concerts nowadays. The last time we were here, we were unable to go into the Amphitheater, but this time we could and we took some fun pictures:

*Look closely at the sides of the gong…there are skulls there….

(Like mother, like son…or is it….like son, like mother???)

By now we had walked quite a bit in the stifling heat and decided it was time to get an ice cream. And ice cream we got. HUGE ice creams, which were delicious, and very filling. We walked down to a big fountain and sat and watched kids play and pigeons mate–I know, TMI–while we chomped away at the ice cream.

Time to head home. We went to the overcrowded bus station and bought tickets back to Sofia. There was confusion, though, because the sign that said Sofia was at Sector 3 and the lady specifically told us not to go to 3, to go to 2. Odd, no? Well, not once we realized that there were two buses to Sofia. One big, air-conditioned bus and one smaller, not so cool bus. Guess which one was ours?? Yup, the “not so cool” one, and I mean that in every way possible. So we sweated our way all the way back to Sofia, came home and took some much needed showers. Really–you can not imagine how badly we all needed showers.

Instead of eating yet more food for dinner, we had snacks instead and played some friendly games. Well…Scrabble was fun, until I WON!!!! YES, I WON!!!!! I never win at the game. It’s like I have a mental block. I am sure Mark’s mom was playing easy and Mark was just having a bad day, but whatever…I WON!!! Here is the proof:

And yes, that scorecard is still hanging on our wall, for me to enjoy for the rest of my time here in BG. And for Mark. I am sure he is enjoying it immensely.

Tomorrow…Mother In Law Diaries Day 3/The Hottest Walk EVER…

Don’t leave the blog.  Really I am still here.  It is just that Mark’s mom and I are KILLING this place.  I mean, touring everything and seeing everything and it leaves me little time and less energy to write at night.  But we have taken some cool pictures and we have funny stories, so stick with me here.

Oh…and it has been close to or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit here with A LOT of humidity and with all the sweating and showering going on, there is barely a moment to write.  But I will.  I promise.  Stick around. 

So….yesterday….I decided to expose Mark’s night crew to the beauty that is Mexican food. You will recall that I brought over a bag of limes and dried cilantro. I had all the ingredients ready to make salsa, except for the hot chile. Mark and I ventured out before our midday walk to his office to find the hot chile, and indeed we found one.

Then, Marko Columbus decides we should walk a new way to his office. A way he has walked with his partner in the past…late at night….while they were busy chatting about business happenings. This should have raised red flags with me. Clearly he had not been focusing on learning this new path on those late, late nights.

But I trusted him. And we set out with the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria our finest walking shoes and backpacks. We curved around, looped, walked through trees, up one street, down another, up a large hill, up another large hill, until finally I asked:

“Ummm, Mark??? Do you know where you are?”

“Not exactly”, he replied. “But we are close.”

Mmmm, hmmmm. Sounds just like Columbus when he thought San Salvador was India.

And so we continued our path to circumnavigate the world outer edges of Sofia. And did I tell you how BLAZING HOT it was yesterday (and today, for that matter)? Yeah, so we walked around and around. Mark wanted to go ask for directions. He felt confident that he knew enough Bulgarian to ask. But then I reminded him that he did not know enough to understand what they were telling him.

And so we found the street with the trolley tracks, the one I knew would lead us back to path we always take. We followed it until we got…where? Oh yeah, back to the path we take everyday, only instead of being all the way up the hill, now we were only half way up the hill. So we had yet more hill climbing to do. And then we arrived. Hot, sweaty, stinky….and thirsty.

After drinking a liter of water, I trudged back down the hill to complete my afternoon chores and finish my salsa. I packed it all up and headed…you guessed it!!….back up the hill yet again, all with a slight sneer towards my navigationally-challenged husband.
But the salsa and limes…they were a hit!

So, we have a routine to our daily life here, and it looks something like this…

I wake up around 8:00am.

In the hot, hot, humid sunshine.

By the way, this is unacceptable considering I go to sleep after 2am. But the hardest working guys in all of Bulgaria are building a huge building right next door, and they like to start clanging around at 8:00. I can’t sleep through it. Mark can. He’s like a bear, hibernating for the winter. He even sounds like one with his obnoxious snoring….but that’s another story for another day.

I make myself some coffee or tea.

In the hot, hot, humid sunshine.

And this is how I do it. I boil water in a pot on the stovetop and pour it over a tea bag or a bag of instant coffee that we brought from home (thank God for Folger’s Singles!). Why? Because both our finely made coffee maker and finely made teapot/maker thingy broke and we are not buying another one.

I read the news, do sudoku puzzles or crossword puzzles, or study my Bulgarian until Mark the Bear arises. Usually around 9:30ish.

In the hot, hot humid sunshine.

Then we do our Stress Relief Yoga DVD.

In the hot, hot, humid sunshine.

Yeah. I am making Mark do yoga. He keeps complaining that everything hurts and he is getting old and blah blah blah, so I have decided yoga is the cure for him. He complains the whole time, which kind of ruins my Zen, if you know what I mean. But I can tell that deep down, he sees it is working.

The we eat breakfast, shower, shop whatever.

In the hot, hot, humid sunshine.

We walk the couple of miles uphill (really, I’m not lying, it IS uphill) to Mark’s office. I walk back home–the same couple of miles–with my iPod, where I work on miscellaneous stuff–this blog, school stuff, Mark’s work stuff, travel plans.

In the HOT, HOT, HUMID sunshine. (This is the part where I hope to shed I few pounds, at least from the sweating alone….)
Until dinner….One of us must walk to the other’s location for dinner.

In the rain.

See the problem here?????

The rain comes Every.Single.Day. Usually in the early evening, though sometimes late at night (as was the case last night when Mark was walking home). And folks–especially you Peeps in San Diego–this is no San Diego-“Oh my Gosh we got a whole inch of rain in three days”-type rain storm. Oooohhhh noooooo. No no no. It thunders. LOUD!!!!!!! Right above our building. Then the lightning bolts dart across the sky. And the rain beats down. For several hours. Long enough to flood all the streets in town, making it nearly impossible to cruise around in flip flops (which, of course, I usually wear because there is always HOT, HOT, HIMID SUNSHINE in the morning).

Did I mention that this occurs DAILY??? AS IN EVERY SINGLE DAY????

Really, enough already. I get it. It rains here. I’m not in San Diego anymore. I know, I know. Sheesh, the gods don’t have to keep pounding the idea into me.

Now that I have learned my lesson, can it stop? Please?

For fun, I have been taking a couple of pictures of words on signs around various Bulgarian towns.  The words are the same in English, but it is kind of fun to see the Bulgarian way of writing it (with the Cyrillic alpahbet), or maybe it is just fun for nerds like me…

So, try to guess what the sign says BEFORE you look at the answer.  See how the letters/sounds are different:

(This is the easy one–use the picture to help you!)

*It says: Pelican

And for a little more of a challenge:

*It says: Junior.

I’ll keep my eyes out for a few more of these little “word puzzles”.  I’m just trying to keep your mind active….

…bloody toes, bloody toes.

Yeah…had a little mishap this weekend. I went out on Friday night with some Americans I have met here–we felt the need to hang out as they are all nearing the end of their stay here (as are we)–and this happened:

It was late and very, very dark out. We were walking through a park and I was checking my phone because Mark had left me a text message, when BAM! A concrete block jumped out and took a chunk out of my toe. And yes! There are random concrete blocks and pavers lying around in the parks and even on the sidewalks here. At first I did not even look at it, figuring I had just stubbed my toe. But after a few minutes it wouldn’t stop hurting. So I held up my cell phone light to check it out and sure enough, blood was pouring out, all over my flip flop and onto the ground:

(This is the stain even after good washing.)

We did a quick fix and poured some water on it and I continued on with my night. When I finally had a chance to look at it, a chunk of my flesh was hanging off the bottom, barely attached to my toe. Ouch! It probably could have used a stitch or two, but I opted against that. Instead I wrapped it all up and went to bed.

On Saturday, Mark and I headed out for lunch (we had a great lunch on Vitosha Boulevard–the trendy street in town where we usually hate to eat, but this time it was actually rather pleasant) and then hobbled over to the pharmacy, where, for about $6 USD, I came away with all these goods:

I wasn’t sure about what was in that small brown bottle. There were actually two of those bottles in the package, one with liquid and one with powder. Since we can’t read well enough to understand the directions, we figured you must mix the two and so that’s what we did. It hasn’t turned my feet green or anything yet. I cleaned it, put on that mystery liquid and then bandaged it all up. It seems like the skin flap is starting to reconnect, so that’s good.

But today was a beautiful day here, so Mark and I decided to head up to Vitosha Mountain and take a little picnic. We took the chair lift up there and hiked around for an hour or so (not so pleasant on the toe), and then found a sunny rock to eat lunch and lounge.

After a few hours, we headed back down the mountain, came home, read and took a nap. Oh, and I made some banana bread. Yum!

As for the toe…well, it got a little mud in it, but I went through the whole regimen again and all seems to be well. Anything to stay away from having to visit a medical facility here, really.

Sorry ’bout that…I told you there would be a new album and then…well, then I got tired (it was past midnight here), and then the next day came and then I had a bad internet connection what’s new?, and then, well, then…the dog ate my homework…

But it’s there now. Go check it out! Kanye has some more photos and when I get them from her, I will add them. But there are plenty to see now.

Also, a few notes for y’all. If you leave me a comment, you may have noticed that it will tell you it has to wait for approval from me. Now, I am not trying to be all powerful or anything. It’s just that I have been getting more and more spam, and no matter how many words I blacklist, those crafty devils still manage to find a way to hit my blog with all kinds of inappropriate messages and links. So I check each day and approve ALL the normal comments. Please, don’t be afraid of that little “waiting for approval” message. I LOVE getting comments. Keep ‘em comin’.

Also, I am responding to your comments (if you asked a question, or in the case of my brothers, leave a smart remark and I.just.can’t.let.it.go) in the same comments section where you leave it. So you have to go back to the post where you originally wrote it and check.

Lastly, I must say zdrasti (hello!) to all the people who found my blog on accident and are reading it. I had intended it to be for my students back home and perhaps a few family members and friends. But I have found that there are all kinds of people who are reading this. I appreciate your comments and nice emails and I hope you are enjoying the little stories…and that my unique brand of “humor” does not offend you. I apologize that my pictures and stories do not include more real people, but I am pretty cogniscient of people’s privacy.  (This all hearkens back to a time that I found my name and pitcure on someone else’s website and I had no idea it would be there, and well, it just felt wrong.) So there are no stories or pictures of people who don’t give me permission first.

I have been really amazed that anyone would find this, let alone actually read it. .So….thanks!

Ok, that’s all for now. Ciao, ciao!

Ok ok, here it is…the story of my weekend in Veliko:

We (Kanye and I) began our journey with a rather typical Bulgarian bus ride. We met up in Plovdiv (she was coming from the south, I was coming from the north, Plovdiv is in the middle). We had a small meal and then got on the bus heading for Veliko, a ride that is supposed to take 4.5 hours. We chatted for a bit and then there was one small issue.

You see, Kanye is a Chinese American teacher from the U.S. And here, in Bulgaria, the people don’t always handle people who “look” different very well. You will remember my long post on MLK Day where I explained how racially intolerant it is here. Kanye expereinces issues related to this all the time. People actually STARE at her. They look at her and when she turns her head toward them, they pretend they were never even looking. Other people skip the staring and go right to the name calling. So…she has it a bit rougher here than, say, I do. Of course, there was a dude on the bus who kept doing this staring/looking away/staring thing. Kanye finally had to tell the dude (in Bulgarian no less) to stop staring at her. Then he acted like he couldn’t hear her, as if he were deaf or something. But at least he quit staring.

Kanye and I then spread out on our own seats, hooked up to our individual iPods and proceeded to try to nap. And it was all going well, until…..

the bus STOPPED. Not for a minute or two. More like an hour or two. We later learned that way, way, waaaaaay up ahead, a truck had dumped out a bunch of crates of something and we all had to wait on the mountainside until it was cleared up. We were stranded on Shipka Pass, which is actually a beautiful, woodsy place not too far from the Valley of Roses. Oh, and it’s historical as well. One of the major revolts to try to end the rule of the Turks was fought here.
And I would have enjoyed the scenery, but for the freak occurence of my feet swelling up. This has NEVER happened to me before. EVER. I felt something weird. My feet kept feeling really hot. HOT. Like on fire, HOT. Which is odd for me because my feet are always ALWAYS cold—just ask Mark. Then my shoes just felt, well….uncomfortable. Finally, I looked down and there were my feet, all swollen. My toes looked like fat sausages and it felt weird to walk.

Of course, my rational thinking told me that this was a result of a lot of traveling in a short time and not enough water. My paranoid thinking said this was some strange ailment, some blood clot perhaps, that was headed to my brain, lung, or heart. (Did I neglect to tell you all that any time I get a small ailment, there is a part of me that thinks it is a sign of impending death?? NO? I never told you that?? It’s my…umm..crazier side.) So I got out of the parked bus and cruised around. My feet started to get a little better. But still…weird.

So this was not beginning to be a great trip. But, soon, the bus got going again and Kanye and I fell fast asleep. SO asleep that the bus driver had to wake us up to get off the bus. Luckily Veliko was the last stop on that particular route, because seriously, we were SO asleep that had the bus kept going, we could have ended up in Turkey.

We rubbed our eyes and crawled out of the bus. Kanye called the hostel where we were going to stay and they actually came to pick us up. Good thing, too, because there was almost no way to find the place otherwise. But it was a great little hostel. When we got there, we made our bunk beds (ahhh, so cute, just like a college dorm), and headed downstairs to check in. We were just trying to decide if we felt like walking down the big hill to get some dinner when the hostel hosts handed us a plate and gave us some shopska salata (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions and cheese), some kyufte (grilled pork meatballs), and kebabche (grilled sausage). These are staple Bulgarian foods, and at that point, perhaps some of the best food we had eaten–we were pretty hungry, and it was so so soooo nice that we didn’t have to walk down to get food.

We ate and crashed in our bunks. The next morning we took a shower in the stinky, stinky bathroom–think of the most pungent onion odor you have EVER smelled–then headed down to have breakfast. I know, I know, free dinner AND free breakfast…MY kind of place. While we were sipping thick, almost solid Bulgarian coffee, a bee stung me on the elbow then died right there on my sweater. I learned I am NOT allergic to bees. Good thing.

According to our guide book, our bible,

the thing to do here is to visit the fortress.

The brief lowdown here is that this used to be the capital of Bulgaria during one of its prior empires (I forget which, I think the 2nd one…) so this fortress was very well fortified. (get it? fortress, fortified. Man, I’m hilarious.) So we hiked over there and saw some magnificent views on the way.

Once there, we cruised all around the place. We rested for a bit on this rock that had an amazing view.

Turns out, the name of this rock is Executioner’s Rock. Umm, yeah, because that’s where they “executed” people in the 11th and 12th centuries. They took them to the rock and shoved them off. So barbaric, so medieval of them, no?

We saw the grounds and Baldwin’s Tower.

The story of this tower goes something like this: Lord Baldwin of Flanders was captured by the Bulgarians and they kept him in this tower until they decided to execute him. Well, at least he had a nice view for his last earthly moments:

While walking around the uneven, crumbly cobblestone paths, we happened upon a lady walking in front of us:

Look more closely:

Yeah. Those are heels. HIGH heels. On cobblestones. Oddly enough this happens often here in Bulgaria. Women wear these heels and then trip on the cobblestones. You’d think they would figure it out, but really they don’t. Just the day after I saw this lady, I saw another lady near our flat actually fall down while just standing in place. She shifted her weight, the stiletto moved a centimeter left, into a crevice in the cobble, and she bit it. Sad but funny. Funny but sad??

After the fortress, we were hungry. So we did the Bulgarian thing and sat in a restaurant for 3 hours, ate and talked. Then we thought we would go on this hike that goes through the woods. We started up the path that we understood to lead to the hike. We found a playground in the middle of nowhere and played for a bit (this is pretty typical of what the playgrounds here look like):

Then we continued on the path, but after about 10 minutes or so, we ended up in yet another village, as if we had just completed one giant circle. Plus there were storm clouds and thunder. So we gave up on the hike and headed down through the village. We found some bizarre statues–one giant, mis-proportioned one and one grahic one of Levski (will talk about Levski later…basically national hero who was hung for planning a revolt):

After this second walk, we found a cafe and sat in it for a while. A WHILE! We consulted our bibles to see what else there was to do. Nothing, really. We had already decided we were museumed out–they all look the same after the first dozen. So that left….nothing. We had coffee and tea, then walked around town for a bit and found a place to eat dinner.

At night they light the fortress up. It is their claim to fame, but really, it is kind of a sad 70s disco show. Seems like they should just let history lie asleep at night. But we saw it on our way up to the hostel. And we were exhausted by then. So again, off to bed we went.

We got up early on Sunday morning and we each took a different bus back to our respective cities.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but really, it was probably one of the best places I have visited here in this country. The truth of the matter is that there is almost no place that has more than a day’s worth of sites here. The country is small and the sites are spread across it. This city was quaint and clean and the people were nice and hospitable. They actually had some customer service skills and we didn’t feel too terribly foreign there. And there was hardly any trash or graffiti. Nice. I would definitely go again if I had the chance.

So, Veliko Turnovo gets a thumbs up!

**See more pictures in the gallery on the right (remember…it is the picture of the yellow church on the right hand side of the blog here).

So, I know I should be uploading pictures of my recent trip to Veliko Turnovo and I should be writing to you about the whole weekend, but…..

I have been busy playing travel agent. I am planning a tour of Europe and trying to arrange all the budget aifares from budget airlines and budget lodging from budget hotels and hostels has been taking up all my time. Seriously. Who has time to do this in real life?

But I got some smokin’ deals. I am heading to Croatia, Prague (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), London (England), and Bratislava (Slovakia). I was originally going to just do Croatia, Prague and Vienna with my friend Kanye. SkyEurope has opened up a new route between Sofia and Vienna and you can get airfares for like 20-30 euro ($28-$50USD), so we are taking advantage of it. But then….well….then I saw this crazy airfare deal from Ryan Air, who is trying to steal all the UK business, for like $200 round trip airfare to London on a weekend no less! So I threw that in at the end of the trip. I’ve never been to London and my brother and sister-in-law love it there, so I figured Hey! What the heck! You only live once! the trip will be like my own little Amazing Race.

This is a trip on a budget. I saved my money from all that substitute teaching. I was going to use it to help buy a new car when I return home to the States, but I can always drive the beater vintage Honda for a little bit longer. Don’t you agree? I will be mostly staying in hostels, which are basically like college dorm rooms you share with a couple of strangers. Oh, and you share the bathroom, too. I know, I know, not ideal, but it allows me to see more.
So my summer is shaping up to be quite travel-ful:

End of June: Bulgaria and Black Sea with Mark and The Mother In Law (hahaha. I know she is reading this, so I have to tease. )
Beginning-Middle of July: See above (by my lonesome)
Mid-August: Spain (we have free air miles and a lodging connection, so wooohoooo!)
Later August (on the way home): Victoria, BC Canada–to visit Mark’s partner.

2 days after we arrive home: Report to work
I’m also hoping to throw a weekend trip to Istanbul in there, which is pretty cheap coming from Sofia on the overnight train.

Pretty cool, ey? Now you can see why I haven’t gotten around to telling you about the weekend. I just have to find a place to stay in London for cheap, and then my agency will be closed. Perhaps with all this practice, I really COULD win The Amazing Race.