Sofia, Bulgaria and the quick escape

Our first morning in Bulgaria  was pretty hard considering how tired we were, without nowhere to go or sleep.

After getting off the bus we found out that the train station wouldn't even be open for another 2 or 3 hours so we tried to sleep for a bit on the hard metal, grated benches (the background of the croissant picture) until security made us leave. It was freezing outside though so we went to the train station and sat in the waiting room with some very poor looking Bulgarians until the ticket office opened. The waiting room was just a 15'x15' room that was closed off from the wind. At one point 3 very old people in Red Cross garb pushed a wheelchair with a pot in the seat inside and gave tea to some of the others in the room. (Bad picture because I was being discreet.)

And here's a short video of the inside of the train station while Wight was in the rest room. Immediately when I walked in I just thought, "eastern Europe".

Then I went to use the DAMES facilities and was blessed with such glorious sights as these.

Soooo, when the ticket window finally opened we found out that the only direct train to Bucharest was a sleeper train for that night and that it would cost extra (instead of free with our passes). We got the tickets and decided to spend the day discovering Sofia. We got onto the public transport system and rode across town. I took this video through the window.



Here are some of the neater pictures and videos.

Here's the main thoroughfare of Sofia.

Wight discovered this weird little store front. It was advertising candy bars, soda, aspirin, phone cards and liquor and they do all their business from ankle level. Crazy.

We stopped in for food at a restaurant listed in one of Wight's guidebooks. It was ala carte style, you just picked up a tray and put items on it until you got to the check out. And let me just mention here (for the first of many times, I'm sure) how AWESOME the exchange rate is in eastern Europe. In February, I got about 1.6 Bulgarian Lev per 1 USD and all the prices on almost everything was super cheap anyways. I got a huge portion of some chicken, mushroom, tomato wrap with cheese sauce and a large piece of the best tiramisu I've ever had for around 5 Lev, or a little under $3.50. 

After lunch we walked more and saw more wild dogs. These two were play fighting and almost ran into Wight.

Then it started getting a lot darker and snowed a little bit so we went to see a cool brewery listed in the guidebook. I'm not totally sure that we found it but we did find a brewery so that was cool enough for us.

This was the menu for the restaurant/brewery. We each had two 500ml beers for a total of almost 1.85 US dollars each (That's under 2 bucks for a beer that's bigger and far more delicious than the 12 ounce bottles of crap that everyone serves in the States). I had the Kmetsko Pivo Red and the Dark, Wight had the Wheat and the Dark I believe. All of them were very good. Also, you can see on the menu that for 28 lev you can buy a meter of beer. For that they literally just bring you a tall, glass cylinder about 5 or 6 inches in diameter and a meter high full of beer and you just pour from that. They had them at the Edelweiss as well. 

As Wight and I headed back to the train station I took a couple more pictures; one of a sweet old alleyway and another of our reflection in a much more modern building.

Since we had ridden the trolley/train/subway/bus thing into the middle of town, it took us a couple hours to get back to the train station. We stopped into one last bar, mostly just to wait for our train somewhere warm, and ordered one drink each. Beer was so cheap, and on par with the most expensive, imported beers in the US, that I couldn't help but drink pretty damn often in Bulgaria and Romania. It was a very modern bar, full of young and older people and everyone was very stylish, especially compared to me. For most of my time in Europe I was wearing unwashed clothes and an over sized snow jacket, haha. But our train was leaving in an hour so we went and got boarded onto the train.

I really, really wish it hadn't been so dark and cramped on the train so I could have taken pictures but I'll try to describe it. The interior was all dark wood and red carpet and curtains. Everything looked like it had been aged about 40 years or more and I overheard someone else walking down an aisle that the train had probably been recommissioned during "the war" (WWII?) for officers before being turned into a passengers night train. The compartments had one tiny, dim, yellow light each that was less useful than a cell phone screen if you wanted to see anything. There were 4 bunks in each compartment and each compartment was 6'x6'x8' or so. There was barely room to do anything but lay flat on your back in your bunk. Wight and I shared a compartment with a silent, middle aged gypsy woman. Think 45 year old Esmerelda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Anyways, I slept alright after a snack of fresh bread, sausage and delicious juice from a tiny grocery store in the train station.

I took that picture the next day in our hostel in Brasov. I looooove the variety of juice in Europe, by the way. It's all so much tastier too. Thicker and more natural I guess; like most food in Europe.


Anyways, our Eurail passes were taken before we went to sleep so that they could be verified at the border checkpoint or something, even though they woke us all up at the border to check out passports anyways. Three times actually. I think we crossed from Bulgaria to Romania then back to Bulgaria before going back into Romania to stay. Weird train routes I suppose. My temporary passport was stamped 3 times that night.

And here's where it gets even more fun. The next morning as we were waiting to stop, two official looking men came into our compartment and started telling Wight and I that we hadn't marked our Eurail passes correctly. Instead of writing down the day of departure AND the day of arrival, we had just written down the day of departure and so we needed to pay them 50 Euros each for some reason. We paid (I had to borrow the money until we got to an ATM later that day, thank you again Wight) and they gave us back our tickets after marking them for the arrival day and left before we realized that we had probably just been scammed. Eastern Europe is known for corruption a bit more than other places but it was way too late and we all we could do was get over it. We sure as hell couldn't wait to get off that train though.

Thessaloniki and the scary bus ride to Bulgaria

After a few long nights and fun parties in Athens I had to say goodbye to my new friends. We'll call them K, her daughter B, S and her friend E, CJ and Wight. (Wight isn't his real name but we'll call him that for now.) I'll never forget Athens because of you guys! Wight and I had to decided to travel together as far as Amsterdam or so, and we left AthensStyle for a train to Thessaloniki.

We soon found that because of the strikes going on and riots everywhere in Greece, there were no trains coming into or leaving the country. That sucked quite a bit because we were both using Eurail passes, so instead of a free ride to Sofia, Bulgaria, we would have to pay for a bus or something.

In Thessaloniki we wandered the streets a bit, looked for the bus station, saw more sad-looking wild dogs and a few funny signs, then headed down to the harbor area to see the ocean once more before our trip back into central Europe.

While in the downtown/ocean front area, we were accosted so many times by African street peddlers (basically beggers that trick and finagle you into giving them money) that we had to start being pretty brash with them. They get you by walking up to you, asking how you're doing and where you're from and then giving you a free bracelet. Well, while they tie the bracelet on you, they mention that they're taking donations and basically don't let go of your arm until you give them a few Euros. We didn't want any part of that and tried to keep away from them. They even bothered us while we were eating our delicious gyros and Mythos beer lunch. (Mine was chicken. So good.)

We then took a cab to the general area where we thought the bus station was, based only on shoddy wifi reception and a (presumably) 1990's website written mostly in Greek, that I was getting on my airplane-mode iPhone. Here's a short and terrible video I took while in the cab, trying to show off Thessaloniki, but instead just showing off a corrugated metal fence. Wight is talking to the cabbie.


Yeah. Lame. After the cab ride we found the bus station, which was actually just a tiny, privately owned store front in a strip mall along a side road, and made arrangments to take a charter bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. The bus didn't leave for 6 hours or something so we went looking for a bar or restaurant. We found a small, hip looking bar where some musicians had just started setting up and order a couple beers. For 4 Euros each we got a half liter of beer (I forgot which we ordered) and a bowl of (not fries) chips. Then, after we ordered out second beers, they brought even more chips, and then when we ordered thirds (over an hour had passed) they brought a big, free plate of food just for being good patrons! It was a hot dog-style sausage with creamy, melted cheese all over and small, crispy pretzel bites. Awesome. I tried to take a picture but it was already getting dark out.

After our food and beers, we went back to the bus... place? I lost my ticket stub but I think the trip was scheduled for about 6 or 7 hours. Before that though, Wight and I waited about another 2 hours for the trip to start, with a few others piled into a small waiting room (it was also the reception room that looked out onto the street). When we finally got on the bus they gave us each a bag of weird dried bread chips and a delicious orange and cream filled croissant. We slept for most of trip, but were awake for the stop at the border where they recheck everyone's passport and then let you off to shop at the duty-free mall area for half an hour. I saved my croissant for breakfast and went back to sleep until we arrived.

Yum!

A Week in Greece

Actually I think it ended up being more than a week even though I'd only anticipated spending a few days there.

First off, Athens Style hostel is a pretty cool place, but mostly just because of all the awesome people that work there.

The first two days I just did tourist stuff, which was still pretty cool.

Apparently you're allowed to just sit on the ruins and glare at things. And no one yells at you for it!

I also saw a tiny protest while walking around. It didn't look violent at all but the police were still present.

And then are ancient ruins in the middle of random intersections.

So yeah. After that it rivaled Drink Week in Munich for amount of alcohol consumed and hangovers cured with hair of the dog. But it was so much fun. I won't list names but there were about 6 people there in the hostel that I totally hope I get to party with again someday.

Sweet view from the top of the hostel

And a view of Athens from the side of the hill where the Acropolis sits, where 6 of us got drunk and watched the sun go down

Arms spread wide on the starboard bow

I left Rome pretty early for Bali, Italy to catch a boat to Greece. In Bali, I met a guy who bought me 5 (yeah, five) beers and a pizza before I got on the boat. He was probably disappointed by how well I held my liquor but I was completely sober by the time I got onto the ferry, despite his continuous attempts at distraction. Towards the end of the evening I could tell he was purposely trying to get me to miss the passenger loading, probably so that I'd have to stay the night at his place. Hah. The beer was pretty good though. And the pizza was AMAZING. Best pizza I've ever had and totally worth the increasingly awkward advances of the young dock worker.

The beers:

My boat:

On board:

So yeah, I paid for a couple hours of internet on board and then ate some cranberries and watched The Benchwarmers with Greek subtitles. It was fun. I think I was just so happy to hear American voices again that I laughed far louder than was necessary at the jokes, but the other Greeks around me were laughing pretty hard too so I didn't feel bad.

After the movie, I fell asleep on a couch in the bar area because I didn't have a cabin ticket (a lot of the other deck-only passengers did the same). Someone woke me up when we landed in Igoumenitsa at 6am but I was mostly just annoyed by that since my stop was the next one at around noon. I went into the "airplane seating" area, which is just a dark room full of airplane style, slighty reclining seats, and slept a few more hours in there since most people had gotten off. Then at around 10 I woke up and just wandered the boat until we landed. It was pretty cool when we got in close to all the Greek islands.

When we landed I was quite well rested and ready to get to Athens. Unfortunately, the guy on dock who was in charge of directing people where to go, told me and two others to wait for a bus to the bus station where we could catch a bus to Athens. I hate buses btw, but that's a different story (mostly because they aren't free like trains are for me). So, we all waited for about 40 minutes, and then one of the guys waiting with me went inside and came back out and said that the buses don't run on Sunday. Thanks dock worker guy. Jerk face.

So we three walked to the bus station. They barely spoke English but helped me figure out where to go and helped me buy my ticket to Athens as well. Very nice of them.

So I got on the bus at 3pm, fell asleep a few times, and arrived in Athens around 6pm.

There's some kind of Mardi Gras-esque holiday going on all month leading up to Lent and the riot police are keeping a close eye on it all apparently.

I wandered the allyways for a few hours looking for a hostel, and I think I'm lucky it was a holiday because there were happy, drunk people everywhere dressed up and on their way out or home. That probably kept the muggers away from me and targeting them. So I finally got to a hostel, called AthensStyle (a very nice Greek couple in their late 30's helped me find one) and crashed.

Pizza and the Colosseum

I don't really like riding Italian trains. Somehow, they're always packed and they always make me pay an 18 Euro "supplement" to ride them even though I have a Eurail pass (Kelley's leftover one, as mine was stolen). Austrian trains however, are the shit. They always have compartment cars, which I love and they're far less crowded. The dining areas are also very reasonably priced and the staff usually aren't rude.

The only redeeming quality of Italian trains? This:

If you don't get it, go play more video games. And sorry about the lack of quality; I don't have my camera or my laptop with photoshop anymore. I'll fix up the pictures when I get home.

So, after a couple train rides, I arrived in Rome pretty late at night. Arriving in a new city is always the most difficult part for me because I don't have a map yet, I don't have hostel reservations, and I'm carrying a pretty heavy backpack. So, on average, when I get to a new city, I spend about 2-4 hours wandering until I find somewhere to stay. It's usually pretty scary too. Once I find a hostel though, I'm fine. They give you free maps, wifi, somewhere to lock up your stuff, options for food, etc.

So I settled in at the Alessandro Downtown hostel. It wasn't bad, just a few minor annoyances like advertising free pizza and then telling everyone at the last minute that it's over at their other uptown hostel. Whatevs, bro.

So I went to bed after some peanut butter crackers, and had a Clif bar for breakfast the next morning. Then I went for a walk, because I prefer it to public transit, to the Colosseum.

So so cool. I learned a lot from the museum area inside too. I'm sure it's all on Wikipedia or something but it's more fun to learn when you're there I guess. Oh, and there's this:

Someone had to ruin it for everyone, Ezio. I guess one too many guards were pulled to their deaths.

After that, I basically just wandered Rome for the rest of the day.

All day it was nice and sunny and warm and good; until I got to the Vatican. As soon as I could see it, the sun went behind the clouds and everything got dreary and darkish.

(Static noise inc)



I think that sun thing is a bad sign right? I waited a while to see if the sun would come out and got some pizza and a beer from one of the wheeled vendors right outside the gate to the Vatican.

It was weird. More like a fried panini than a pizza, but it was pretty good. I do love mushrooms and pizza on all occasions.

Then I went and stood in line to go into the Sistine Chapel and all that, but oh, bummer, I couldn't go in. Apparently the Pope is on high alert for pocket knife wielding assassins, so I was denied entry. Just one more thing Ezio has ruined for me this week, but he's still my favorite Italian.

So of course after I left the Vatican, it was suddenly sunny and warm again. Whatevs. Oh, and at pretty much every major tourist attraction in Rome, there are guys dressed as Gladiators hanging around and charging you a few Euros for pictures.

After wandering for a while, getting lost for a bit, and eating a delicious hazlenut candy bar from a vending machine, I went back to the hostel and went to bed.