It is finally happening peeps the beginning of the Europe trip posts! Hopefully I am able to recount the whole trip without throwing in the towel... I shall hope for the best :)
Our whole purpose in taking a trip to Bulgaria was to celebrate Ki's graduation. He has always wanted to go back & take me to see his mission so we decided to go! We first went to Sofia, followed by Plovdiv, then Burgas.
The Long Trip:
Getting to Bulgaria from SLC proved to be a very very long day. We flew from SLC to NYC, NYC to Rome, Rome to Milan, then finally Milan to Bulgaria. Four flights with layovers is terrible. Why did we choose to do it that way? Well, it was a combination of it being the cheapest way and our unorganized trip planning that took us that route. Needless to say, by the time we finally got to Bulgaria I was completely exhausted! I was so relieved Ki spoke the language and could handle figuring out where we were going to spend the night and how we were going to get there. I am incapable of making productive decisions while sleep deprived, and I probably would have collapsed and cried if I had to do it by myself :P
From the airport after Ki finally located a cab driver that was willing to take us to our hostel for a reasonable price we were on our way! The cab driver was impressed that an American could speak Bulgarian so well and they ended up in a discussion about how Ki learned Bulgarian for his mission. (Or so Ki informed me... I obviously couldn't understand anything being said, which proved to be annoying by the end of the trip in BG... if only learning a language wasn't so time consuming.) When we got to the hostel we crashed in bed and it felt SO good.
1st Day in Sofia:
We actually woke up a lot easier then I expected. It probably had something to do with the excitement of being in a foreign country ;) I had my first experience with the Bulgarian (maybe it is european) shower. It was just a shower head attached to a hose, which was attached to a faucet in the middle of the bathroom! It took some getting used to, but it was definitely part of the adventure.
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| By the time we showered and got ready we were famished. Ki just could not wait to eat a dooner, so we had them for breakfast. |
The 1st day in Sofia consisted mostly of walking all over Sofia taking a million pictures of monastery's and other buildings.
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| Sofia Capitol Building |
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| Street in Sofia |
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Monastery
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| Another monastery :) |
We also made a stop at Ki's old mission home, visited with some members, talked with the new Austrian mission president, visited the pazar, and ate dinner with President & Sister Bennett (Ki's old mission pres.)
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Ki with some members. L to R Plomen, ?, Ki, & Diana.
Plomen was so sweet! He told me I was as majestic as a deer and took like a gazillion pictures of me.. haha it was kinda awkward, but it was sweet of him to keep telling me I was be -a -utiful in his broken english :)
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| The Pazar (Street Market) was my favorite! I got a HUGE delicious bag of raspberries for the equivalent of 30 cents USD. I wish that was possible in the States. |
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| Dinner with President & Sister Bennett, as well as one of Ki's old mission companions Mike Hansen. I had shobska salata for the first time and it was delish! |
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| The Bulgarian Tow Truck - Ki calls it " The Spider" it just picks up the cars by their tires and takes them away! |
We finished out the day by just collapsing at the movie theater in Sofia's mall to watch a movie since jet lag was starting to wear on us. That my friends concludes day one... just 16 more to go ;) haha well I am tired and need to go to bed. I will finish day 2-5 in Bulgaria next week. Stay tuned! Or don't :) the decision is yours. This is my journal of sorts, so I have to document our once in a lifetime trip since we most likely will never get the chance to go back.
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