Sofia...

I love being a tourist in Eastern Europe, where tourists are few and far between. The West of Europe is wonderful, but in the East everything is just a bit more fun. Barely anyone here speaks English and the language uses the cyrillic alphabet making reading or guessing words impossible. I went into a shop today and tried on a skirt, I step out of the changing room and the one lady working there start talking and shifting the skirt around while I am wearing it. Out of now where another lady appears to help. Apparently there is more than one way to wear the skirt. Then the ladies begin nodding their heads and saying something that sounds like "very good" or "very nice". I bought the skirt because I liked it, but also because of the cute ladies at the shop.
Sofia is smoggy and hot, but beautiful in its own way. Most everything is in disrepair and 40 year old trolly skreech around town on barely staying on their tracks (kind of like the wild mouse ride at Playland). Also, when they are about to leave a stop the trollies ring a bell like the beginning of a ride at Playland.
We are staying at a wonderful little hostel near the centre of the city. For 10 Euros a night (about $15 Canadian) we have a bed in a 8 bed dorm, breakfast, and a dinner of pasta and tomato sauce with a glass of beer...it is a pretty sweet deal.
Yesterday we went to an orthodox monastery up in the hills. We took a taxi and it was a crazy road trip today about two hours out of the city to see this famous monestry up in the hills (nearly mountains) up a winding road with a driver that did not speak Engish and just drove like a crazy man. We almost died a couple of times, driving around corners in the middle of the road to see a truck coming straight for us. Same as in Africa, the uphill blind pass is fairly common proceedure. The monesty was very interesting, been there since the 900's. The mountains in Bulgaria are beautiful, similar to BC, just in Bulgaria.
We are off to Istanbul tomorrow for new adventures.