Sofia Walking Marathon

I woke up early just like I planned - very proud of myself for that. We ate a little breakfast, drank tea, and went out the door. He was going to work, so we walked to his work for ten minutes or so, then I was shown the tram that would take me to the city centre.

I got out to see a bunch of people filling up water bottles. The water was steaming, so it was warm:




I walked around the city center, which was surprisingly big and pretty!!














This is traffic control police! They have a little booth thing to look at intersections!



The famous Cathedral in Sofia:



I was able to go inside for free, so I sat in the very quiet place and looked around. It was dark, and had a musty feel, but it was so huge! Loads of little candles, and pictures all over the walls. Pictures were not allowed inside and I thought it was best not to.












hehehe I saw this and thought of Floh:








As you can see, I walked ALL DAY. I walked for hours and hours and hours... I stopped once at a coffee place to write postcards, but mostly walked around. Tsvetan texted to meet up at the brige at a certain time, so I got there early because I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there. I wasn't sure what to do so I continued walking around. I was starting to feel tired when I saw something happening ahead of me...








There was this big tent! Fire! Stilts! Totally unexpected! It was a Christmas tent thing, so there were girls dressed in santa suits letting people into the tent. It was free, so I went in. Someone was making pottery on the wheel, so I was mesmerized by that for a while.



I noticed people were all holding cups too, so I went to where I saw cups. They were giving out mulled wine! I got a nice hot spicy wine and watched the band that was playing. They had candy, and tables where food was served, and the band was playing Christmas music :) I was quite happy to find this random tent!!

Before I knew it I had to go meet Tsvetan at the bridge. We met up and went for tea at this little hidden tea house with some of his friends. I was hungry so I also had dinner here, which was excellent :) We had some wine, talked for a while, and took the tram back to the house :)

Travels to Sofia

I woke up hung over. I had talked to the guy driving me home on the way back, and he had offered to drive me back to Skopje to catch a bus to Sofia. He showed up at the hostel at 10am with coffee while I wallowed in my hangover. The coffee helped a little but I needed food. We got some mini croissants on the way out, plus a couple postcards before I forgot!


almost forgot to see the Bill Clinton statue... didn't even look that much like him.

The border had a line-up, but it was sunny and nice out, so we just ate some croissants in the car :) I wasn't sure when the next bus to Sofia was exactly, but I knew there was a bus later at 4pm so there was no way I would be stuck overnight. No stress :)

I arrived in Skopje and we had to ask some people how to get to the bus station. I ended up getting a nice little tour of Skopje while we were mildly lost!! When we found it the bus was leaving in 20 minutes so that was perfect timing too! I got rid of most of my Macedonian money, threw my bag in the bus, and took off!!

The border people stopped me here for the first time. They said my passport didn't look like me, which is true, but there was nothing for me to do except say that it is me. They ended up believing me in the end of course, but it was new being asked how long I've had my nose ring for etc. Someone on the bus had to translate the conversation, and afterward he said they were probably picking on me because I was traveling alone in Eastern Europe. But it was the first and only time anyone had even asked me if I was a tourist.

I arrived in Sofia and met up with my new host, Tsvetan. We took the bus back to his house where we made some yummy food, drank a beer, and talked for quite a while. It seemed like ages ago that I was getting into a car hungover in Kosovo! I had my own room at this house too, and I was feeling refreshed :) I decided to get up early the next day and go for a proper walk, so I went to bed early.

Pristina by Night

The next day I woke up feeling the beer a little. I ate my leftover pizza and recovered though. It was nice sitting around :) Unfortunately, Krenar's landlord was coming over the next morning, so I was going to have to stay in a hostel this night! I packed up all my stuff, and Krenar was kind enough to drive me to the place and everything! I got my own room there for next to nothing, and vegged on the computer for a bit. I met a few people hanging out at the hostel, and decided to go see a french movie with a german guy, for free, at a cinema downtown before the party that was going on tonight. It was a bit of a walk down to the cinema, but he knew the way an it was mostly downhill.

The movie was good, kind of a normal thriller type movie. It was nice to hear French though since I like the way it sounds quite a bit :) Next was to Zanzibar where they had live music! This was a total surprise to me and the German guy (forget the name), and my friends had not shown up yet so we watched the music until they made their way in.

They had been pre drinking at the house again, and it was apparent they had succeeded at getting pre-drunk.

Now I should explain something. I arrived at a Muslim holiday similar to Christmas (can't remember how to spell it though), so Friday night was a party because of that... now Saturday was Albanian Flag Day (kind of like Canada Day for Canada) and since Kosovo is fairly Albanian (speak Albanian etc.) this was a big party day too!!! I came to Pristina at the perfect time :D

They had Albanian Flags all over, Krenar and company had brought one out and we were jumping around dressed in red and black waving the flag above our heads! It was a very lively place that night - I was dancing, drinking wine, listening to live music, trying to learn Albanian songs (I failed - too much wine for that), and waving that flag. It was a crazy night...

One of the people partying with us offered to drive me back to the hostel afterward. It was incredibly kind, but I wasn't sure if he was sober enough to drive. I said no you're probably too drunk, but then he proceeded to show me that this was not the case by performing the police tests on the sidewalk. He seemed okay, so I let him drive the five minutes up the road saving me an unpleasant and solitary walk uphill. I pounded down some water and went to bed!

Pristina Explored!

I was going to explore the city, so I caught a ride down with Krenar to the centre where I found somewhere to eat right away. I walked around and, as usual, got very lost.










Somehow I ended up near where I started. I was completely surprised when I started recognizing things again! I got a text and met up with Krenar and more people for their break. It was a cool little coffee shop - we had some coffee, and then others had to take off for their work. A couple of us were standing outside deciding what to do before tonight's concert, when one of them invited me to come to his work.

He worked at the TV Station, and he told me I could watch them do the news live! The only other time I had been somewhere they do the news was when I was in the Ukulele Ensemble in grade 6 (shuttup I know) and we performed in the news station. This was way cooler. We were early for the news, so we sat in the restaurant and had dinner and drinks :) Next he gave me a tour of the building, so I saw the desk and camera where the news anchors sat, plus offices, cutting rooms, stage-type places for different shows, etc.




I got a little pass thing, and I got to watch people do their thing in the TV control room! Everything was in Albanian, so I didn't understand what people were saying, but it was interesting seeing how things worked. I had a good time!

Berat sent me to the house in a taxi where he ripped me off for 2 euro by claiming to have no change. Ah well. It had to happen sometime and it was not much money. People started to show up at the house for pre drinks, then by around 11pm we left for the concert :)









It was a good show - the music was really good and the atmosphere was fun :)