Freezing our butts off!

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Finding our hostel in Sofia was a bit of a scavenger hunt. The Hostel Mostel was listed in our Lonely Planet and was on our map of Sofia. We thought it would be a piece of cake to find. The spot listed as the Hostel Mostel was easy to find, but there wern't any hostels near the dot on the map. We must have looked somewhat flustered as we were standing on the sidewalk, because a German fellow came up to us to help us decipher the cyrillic road signs. With the German's help we were able to find a large building with a Hostel Mostel sign on it. However, once we got close to the sign we realized it was a sign explaining how the hostel had moved. There was a big map explaining how to find the new location, and once we did find the hostel it was worth it. There was a huge common room with free computers and a giant flat screen TV to watch movies or cable. It was a good thing the hostel was so cool because outside it was really cold. We aren't really outfitted for winter weather and with temperatures dipping to around -10 we weren't staying out for long.

For the most part in Sofia we just cruised around looking for stuff that interested us. The first day we were there we found a computer shop that sold rubber computer keyboards. We have been looking for one since Alex spilled absinthe on our new laptop back in Bern, Switzerland. We were stoked because it was only 8 euros! After that we grabbed some coffees to warm up and then headed back to the hostel to play with our new keyboard.

Day two was pretty laid back. We headed for the 'Ladies Market' and bought stuff for a greek salad and some rabbit hair mittens for me. We are starting to master the art of taking half a day to shop for a meal in a farmer's market. Scrutinizing every tomato, cucumber and olive! We ended up with a whole pack full of veg for less than 7 euros! Then we took our bag of veggies and headed for the movie theater, looking for a way to enjoy ourselves in relative warmth. We saw the latest Dicaprio middle east movie. We don't know the name of the flick because it was written on all the posters in cyrillic. We were just glad the subtitles for the Arabic portions of the film were in English as well as Bulgarian. Otherwise it might have been a bit difficult to follow.

On the last day we were catching the 10 pm bus to Istanbul. So we just hung around the hostel avoiding the chill and watching old movies until it was time to head for the bus station. A bit anti-climatic... Sorry. Istanbul should be good though, so stay tuned!

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Photos

Sofia
Sunset in Eastern Europe.

Sofia
Who's veg is better?

Sofia
Shop shop shopping in the Lady's market. Not sure why they call it the Lady's market, most of the vendors are men!

Sofia
Beer in the theater!

Sofia
Another mosque.