We left the rafting center around 8:30 am and headed for Sofia. The GPS said it would be about a 9 hour drive, with two border crossings and a time change (losing an hour). So we had made the decision to stay about halfway in a hotel and break it up into two days. Because 9 hours over here means about double that!! This is due mostly to the fact that the major roads go right through the heart of the small towns and it's just one after another. With the speed limit being about 30 mph, it makes for slow going. There are also cows and tractors and horse drawn carts to get around. Definitely not something you see often on US highways! :)

We got across the border from Bosnia into Serbia with just a minimal wait. It's always stressful crossing the border and we have to make certain we get our documents back. At the Serbian border, the guard didn't give us back one of our rental car documents. We asked him for it and he seemed like he wasn't able to find it, but then handed it over to us. The rental car agency said every once in a while they will do this! Geez!

We stopped for the night at a place I'd found online, a huge hotel with an onsite restaurant, $50 for a room with breakfast and parking included. Said you could also have dinner for 7€ each. We were surprised at how big the room was! Enormous is more accurate, with a small kitchen and living room! However, it was a little freaky since we were the only people there!!! Here's this beautiful, clean and spacious hotel, and not a soul there other than us. We both felt like we'd stepped into a twilight zone episode. Cue the music! It was especially strange at dinner, when the hotel receptionist became the hostess/waitress. We wondered if she was also cooking! LOL

We got back on the road early and made it to Sofia with nary an issue. Lots of corn growing in Serbia, but once we were in Bulgaria, it was massive fields of sunflowers! I tried to get a picture of one field that we passed by.

We got the car returned and now will just wait to see if we get any speeding tickets. They have automatic cameras over here and I thought I saw it flash at least twice. :(

Our apartment in Sofia is called The Orange Flower--take a look at the pictures and you'll see where it gets its name! I've never seen so much orange, lime green, white and yellow! It's a really nice place in a great location, but no living room or balcony. Oh well--the ac works really well, and so does the elevator.

We will stay in a hotel at the airport tomorrow (Monday ), since we have to leave for the flight at 4:30 am. UGH. Tuesday will be a LONG day but we will be in Prague that evening, if all goes according to plan.