Sofia

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I like the name Sofia and after a short time there, the city Sofia came to grow on me as well. Again, I had managed to organise couchsurfing. This time with a relatively well to do IT expert who needs English for her job and thus uses couchsurfing to practice her English. I stayed at her house and she gave me some good suggestions on what to see and do in Sofia. Aside from that I went out on Saturday night and managed to meet some really cool people and have a pretty unforgettable night.

On the Sunday we climbed and took the gondola up the mountain that overlooks Sofia, it was a great view on a beautiful spring's day which saw the snow and icicles up the top of the mountain melting at a rate that I hadn't seen before - causing all sorts of chaos, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

Other than that, I went on a run through Sofia, which I swear is the best way to gain an appreciation of a city in a short time. You obviously cover more ground than walking and in comparison to a guided bus tour for example, you get to see things that you would never see and at a speed that is a lot easier to take in what you are seeing. This was a very nice run in any case.

While in Sofia I also did something that I had never done before. That being, attending a Bulgarian Orthodox Church mass, a Muslim sermom in a mosque, a catholic mass and I also got to the doorway of a synagogue before being refused entry (all tourists who are not Jewish are) . Not a bad effort for a few hours of work.

And of course I ate very well in Sofia, sampling about as much Bulgarian food as was possible over the 2 and a half days I was there. It is a good thing that this was my last stop in eastern europe, because I am sure if I had spent another month there I would be double the size I now am.

Three things that I learnt in Sofia were - when you nod your head it means no and when you shake it it means yes - Bulgarians read the clock back to front - they also use the Cyrillic alphabet.

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