An adventure...

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So I got the plane this morning and when I got to Sofia, I managed to fight off the persistent taxi drivers by informing them that however cheap it was to get to the city centre, the bus was cheaper, and they didn't really have anything to say to that! The bus was an adventure, to say the least (think not validating your ticket despite knowing it has to be done and getting both fined and chucked off the bus!), and I walked unnecessarily far to get the the hostel, but on the bright side, I made a couple of friends along the way and probably saw most of Sofia, and it will make a great story one day! Funnily enough, despite not showering or sleeping since early yesterday morning, on top of the incidents between the airport and the hostel, this has been one of my best days so far! I don't think I'm interested enough in cultural things to enjoy myself without the odd near-disaster to add some excitement, it's actually one of the things I was looking forward to most!

I really like what I've seen of Sofia so far. People are really friendly and helpful when they're not fining me and chucking me off buses (it was at a bus stop, by the way, so I just had to wait like 5 minutes for the next bus, and it really wasn't that much of a problem!). It's just more exciting than the other places I've been, because it's completely unfamiliar- outside of the airport, everything seems to be in Bulgarian, in the Cyrillic alphabet and I haven't seen anything translated to English. A couple of people have asked me where I'm from and they've been really keen to practise their English on me, although it seems like most people don't speak English. This guy was insisting on helping me find my hostel (even though I knew I was actually in the right road!) in return for me letting him speak English to me, as if he had caused me a huge amount of trouble. In the end he actually phoned them for me- he didn't seem to believe that I wasn't completely lost because the hostel moved recently, and he was sure it wasn't in the road we were in, and was very surprised when I found it while he was on the phone!

This is the first place where I've actually spoken to local people outside of shops - everywhere else I've been has been overrun with tourists. Also, something that surprised me today and yesterday was beggars. I didn't come across any until Vienna, where there were loads, and I only saw one today. Vienna was the first place I didn't feel safe. I think it's because I went to the train station on the first night to figure out how to get to the airport, and there were a load of beggars outside. Plus, I saw police everywhere I went, actually arresting people, not just sitting around in their cars like everywhere else I've been. And I had more near-death experiences crossing the roads in Vienna than anywhere else!

I'm off to get some food, and then I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the day, I'm meeting my tour group tomorrow afternoon, and we're going to be in the middle of nowhere a lot, so I might not be able to get to a computer for about a week.

Ciao! (I don't know what goodbye is in Bulgarian, but ciao seems to be universal in Europe at least!)

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