Blind in Bulgaria

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6/20/09
For those of you who were guessing where Cyrillic lettering originated, the answer is Bulgaria, and that is where we are. One responder correctly pointed out that the lettering was actually invented by two Greeks; however, our sources say that it was done so in Bulgaria and adopted into the Bulgarian language.
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Jon and Stephanie (we took over the blogging this time)
We didn't orginally plan to stop here, yet the train to Montenagro was 36 hours and the train to Bulgaria was a more tolerable 12hrs. This train was different from previous train experiences. A pre-communist era second class train travels these paths with the orignal carpet in tact (sort of). We went through three border crossings (Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria) all between 3-4:30am. The first required dragging our selves out of bed to get our passport stamped (Lily was carried). The other two consisted of non-English speaking boarder guards knocking on our door, and moving on when they realized we didn't speak anything but English.
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When we arrived at the train station in Sophia Bulgaria, we were prepared for pick pockets based on our book's warning. Instead we were ripped off by the first cab driver we encountered. The drive of 5 minutes was accompanied by a fee 10x appropriate charge. He had no choice, yet to settle for all my Bulgarian Levre that I had in my pocket (approximately $20). Our first (and hopefully last) scam of the trip.
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We are enjoying Bulgaria immensely, but it has been much more challenging then Turkey or Greece. There just aren't many English speaking tourists that come here. We would be in good shape if we knew some Russian, and even better shape if we could read Cyrillic lettering. We did rent a car (to avoid cabbies), and missed several exits off the highway that either had no signs posted or no lettering that we recognized. Oddly, we have learned that we are approaching larger towns/cities on the highway when we start seeing advertisements for McDonalds (Thank you Micky D).
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We knew we were finally off the "beaten path" when we stayed the first night at a hotel in Rila Bulgaria that spoke few to no words of English, yet were able to communicate that they never had an American stay with them. No other tourists were in the hotel for the two nights of our stay. The hotel was relatively new appearing. They did know a coulple of English words including Vodka, Oozo, and Jack Daniels, and were quick to generously share some Rila Vodka with us the first night. Eating at restuarants has also been a challenge. It's easiest when there are pictures on the menu or we can point at food plates. One meal at the hotel consisted of a mystery casserole that tasted good, but we won't know what to ask for to order it again.
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The mountain scenery in Rila and the Rila Monestary were pretty. The mountains are what we really came to Bulgaria for and so far we haven't been disappointed.
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We also visited Plovdiv, a town in the middle of the country. It stands out in Bulgaria because of its dense concentration of art. We were surprised to find such a cute town that is present in what otherwise is a bare communist country.
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Bulgaria use to be a communist country until the fall of communism. The leading political party then shifted to a socialist party. Yet the housing is what we always imagined appartments in Russia would look like. We feel solidly back in Europe with head scarves and burkas out, and designer jeans, low cut tops, and high heels back.
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Will continue the Bulgaria Blog in part 2.

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Photos

Train Compartment
Yes, we even slept some.

Austin found the Leva
Austin has found the value of the Leva (currency) in Bulgaria

Mystery Dinner
It tasted good, but I won't know how to order it again.