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.