Bulgaria

Monday, Aug. 3, 2009--Skopje to Sofia

What a horrible night. First, it was so hot that I tossed and turned unable to get comfortable. At the same time, I was so tense worrying about the noise that the crowd would be making as they returned to the hostel after a night of drinking and partying would be a problem. I slept eventually, but I am tired today. Therefore, I know that I didn't sleep well. Fortunately, the returning group was quiet (or at least with my ear plugs they were quiet enough that they did not disturb me).

Last night, I spent a long time visiting with Lionel, a 30-year-old Frenchman staying at the hostel. He is more mature than the others here and had no plans to go partying. I bought a watermelon, and he and the lady running the hostel and I enjoyed it on the patio while visiting. Lionel is a former actor who is currently involved in construction of homes (plastering and painting) in a rural area outside Lyon. He said he just needed a change of pace for a while. Eventually, he said he would like to be able to buy one of the old French farm houses and adapt it to be a theater for experimental works. We had been eying and smiling at each other in passing since arriving at the hostel, and with our visit really seemed to bond. He told me of another traveler he met one year from Austin and the fact that the two of them had also had that form of instant rapport.

Therefore, this morning, Lionel and I were both up around 6:30 to have breakfast before going to the bus station. He had not slept well either due to the heat. But he has a bright and cheerful attitude about life, so it was fun to have his company as we whispered over breakfast (toast, feta cheese, tomatoes, jam, and granola cereal with milk) and then walked to the station together.

Lionel's bus was scheduled for 10:00, while mine was for 8:30. But there was another bus leaving for his destination at 8:00. He asked inside about changing his ticket, and they told him there would be a fee. I encouraged him to ask the driver if he could just take the earlier bus. When he did, there was no problem. Therefore, I waved goodbye to him as his bus pulled out and then went to the platform nearby to board my bus.

A pleasant surprise was that an Australian couple, Sean and Louise--a young man and a woman who are living in London and teaching there temporaril--whom I had met in my travels a week or so ago, were also on the bus and heading to Sofia. Our seats were just across the aisle from each other. Therefore, I had another nice visit while making the trip. In fact, they split up for comfort (since the bus was only about 1/3 full), and I visited with each of them separately for about an hour each asking them about their teaching jobs (not great, since they teach lower-class and often immigrant children who have little interest in learning), their travels (which have been extensive while on holidays from school), etc. Also on the bus were an American man and two Dutch men who had been staying at my hostel.

The bus trip went smoother than the others I have had recently. First, the air conditioning worked! It was so nice and comfortable. And second, crossing the border went very smoothly. That's partially due to the fact that only 1/3 of the bus was full and meant there were fewer passports to process. We made it to Sofia in a little under the 5 hours that the trip was scheduled to be.

It was very obvious that we had crossed a border. Immediately, there was a different look to the buildings. Bulgaria is obviously poorer than either Macedonia or Albania (which was a bit of a surprise to me). The exteriors of the houses are in quite bad shape with crumbling plaster and often lacking in paint. Roofs, for some reason, do not have strong enough framework to support the tiles, and tend to have a wavy look where the tiles have weighted down their support. The countryside was different, too, with the hills looking more green and having more forest on them.

I had planned to rent a room in a private home. Most former Communist countries have many elderly people who cannot live off their small pensions, so they rent out a room to have extra money. My guidebook had given the address of an agency which coordinated these and had photos to see of the rooms available. I've often gone to such agencies in other cities and wrote just today to one in a city I will be visiting later this week. Unfortunately, when I got to the site where the agency should have been located, there was an empty lot that was boarded up. My guidebook is about 3 years old, and the grounds look as if they have been like they are at least that long. I, therefore, had to pull out my guidebook and see what else was near. Under the hotels listed in the "mid-range" pricewise, was the Hotel Iskar only one block away. I went there, and they had a single room available--clean, bright, well furnished, nice bed and linens, nice clean bath, cable TV., etc. All it lacks is a fan or a/c, unfortunately. Anyway, I splurged and am staying there for $36.50 per night. What a difference it is from the environment of the hostel!

Although tired from lack of sleep last night, I forced myself to go out exploring some. My hotel is really right in the center of town. Just two blocks away is the TsUM Market which was one of the two major shopping buildings in town in communist times. Today, it feels like a market building but is filled with a combination of market stalls and small individually-owned shops. Two more blocks from there is the TsUM Central Department Store, the big department store from old days which is now filled with exclusive international shops. I walked south of town into what is currently the main shopping/entertainment area of the city. Here in the center and south of the center, the city looks nice. Buildings are in good condition, and life looks successful for people. But most of Sofia does not look that way. North of where my hotel is, the shops and the shoppers look poor, the buildings are shabby, etc.

While out, I passed a small supermarket, so I went inside. I bought a bottle of mavrud wine (a Bulgarian special grape), slices of ham, cheese, sesame seed buns, cookies, and water. I took those back to my hotel for dinner, since I didn't want to go to a restaurant.

I enjoyed the pleasure of watching BBC and CNN for about 2 hours. Then I went to bed for the evening. Although my room is nice, it was still warm. Wish they believed in fans in this part of the world!

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009--Sofia

I slept well and long last night. It continued to be warm, however, until maybe 2:00 or so. Then the air finally became cool and I needed use use my cover sheet.

Before leaving the room, I finished the other half of the ham, cheese, and bread that I did not eat last night and watched the news again. There seems to be a front headed our way. The good news is that it should help lower the temperatures. The bad news is that there will be rain associated with it. During the almost 3 months I have been traveling, I have not had rain interfere for a single day! It either rained at night when I was in my room, or at a time of the day when I was not out. I remember using my umbrella only once for a few sprinkles. I hope there won't be days of rain when this front passes.

There are some really majestic and beautiful buildings in the center of Sofia. I wandered with my camera this morning. Just a block from my hotel is a nice mosque and a building that used to house a baths that is ornate looking. All the government buildings are impressive, and there are many of them. In addition, there are many wonderful churches here.

Two interesting things about Sofia are the areas for drinking water and the basement shops. All over Sofia are springs that have been developed to feed multiple spouts for the public to come and fill their water bottles with water to drink. Just two blocks from my hotel is one where people are filling water bottles from at least 15 spouts that run constantly. The basement shops are something that developed in communist days apparently. People opened the window down at sidewalk level that let light into their basement and started selling products out of them. Therefore, along some streets in town even today, you can see people on the sidewalk bending over and negotiating a purchase through a small window down by their feet--for cigarettes, for instance.

Speaking of cigarettes, it is amazing how much smoke their is everywhere. My guidebook explains it by saying the only people in Bulgaria who don't smoke are those who are waiting until they are old enough to do so!