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Published: April 13th 2007
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My exit from Greece took longer than expected. After a 4am rise to make my plane out of Crete, my flight was cancelled due to bad weather. A bit of fog that cleared in an hour. And it didn't seem to matter to my airline that all the other airlines were still taking off. Chaos followed as everyone rushed to the ticketing desk to try and get the next flight out of there. Human nature at it's worst. My only option was to fly out the next morning. So I headed back into Hania and returned the next morning. The weather was fine and my plane took off to Athens where I had a five hour stop over before my flight to Sofia, Bulgaria. Shortly after my arrival my body decided to give me the runs. An airport isn't the most convenient place for this. Ten minutes before my flight was due to depart it was cancelled because of mechanical problems. More chaos. I chose to get a refund and booked with a different airline. The next morning I finally arrived in Sofia.
Not having researched Bulgaria I didn't know what to expect. An interesting place and by no
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A church means backward. I was also suprised at how many people spoke english. The majority doesn't speak english but I was expecting next to no-one would. Arriving at my hostel I found a note on the door informing me that they had moved location. A quick walk around the corner and I was there. It was very international with guests from all around the world. I went for a walk around the city that afternoon with three Danish guys and a Swede. We visited some amazing churches and saw some beautiful old buildings. Vitosha mountain is only 25kms from the capital and is a stunning site viewed from any of the city's park areas. We balanced all this sight-seeing with a few relaxing beers at a near by bar. The hostel gives everyone a free beer every night. My theory is it gives people the taste for beer and makes them get out of the hostel in search of more grog. It worked on me. My second night there a bunch of us planned a big night out. We went to a couple of bars close by, then ventured further out to a place called "student town". Four big night clubs
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Inside a church right next to each other. At the first club we visited the Danish boys led the way and got us all dancing our little hearts out. We made use of the podiums and annoyed all the other patrons. I don't remember much of the second club, only that the bar girls were dancing on top of the bar. We made it home about 5am.
A quiet day and night followed. By the next night I was ready for more. We had a couple of new arrivals at the hostel, some French Canadians. It was the birthday of one of them so we had to celebrate. After starting with some 1.5 Litre bottles of beer (which cost about 90c Australian) we hit the town again. This time I decided I may aswell just not go to sleep at all. So I stayed awake through the night for my flight to London. I was reluctant to say goodbye to Sofia. I had such a great time there and met so many fantastic people. But on the other hand I was looking forward to seeing a familiar face in London.
On the train from the airport to Matt's place, I found
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Mount Vitosha it amusing passing all the little houses in a row with their skinny little backyards - straight out of a British TV show. Easter Friday i arrived exhausted to Fulham. The girls who live with Matt also had a big night the night before but managed to wake long enough to let me in. Beer at the pub - like everything in London - is expensive, but it's pretty cheap at the bottle-o, as long as you don't mind drinking cans of Fosters. We stayed home Friday night and had a few beers.
Saturday was the day of the 153rd annual Cambridge Vs Oxford boat race. A rowing race along the Thames. We took a bag of cans and found our spot on the river. The drinking laws are a lot more relaxed over here. It was quite funny walking past the police in the street, holding a beer and not getting a second look. The pub we were at didn't care either that we brought outside beers into the pub. The day is more about having a party than watching the boats. They are a fleeting blur in an event that lasts all day and all night. Rather
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The view from the balcony of the hostel than pay 3 pound for a beer at the pub, Matt and I went on a beer run to the bottle-o for more supplies when our bag of cans ran out. A top night.
The next day we had a big Easter Sunday Lunch. I contributed my world famous potato salad and savoury eggs. After having lunch at about 4pm we settled in to watch Australia beat England in the world cup cricket. Easter Monday I was invited by one of the girls to a walking tour of the City of London. It was cool to see such famous places in the flesh. Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. I think it will be interesting the next time i play Monopoly, having visited some of the places on the board. I took it easy for the rest of the week and organised my next trip - Barcelona ! I leave tomorrow for two weeks in Spain followed by two weeks in Portugal. Today I went to the Camden markets. A cool place filled with punks, goths and freaks. Endless nooks and crannies of shops filled with bizzare things.
I'm hoping Spain will be the start of
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I've got to dance, dance, dance the sun season for me. I'm keen to get out of my jeans and into some quick-dry's.
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maryann
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hey there dane, thanks for all your blogs! so jealous!! love the photos too. Have fun in spain and let us know how the siestas go! maryann!