After the 18 odd degrees we left behind in Rome (and sunshine), there was the tiniest bit of culture (climate?) shock when we arrived into Sofia Airport. Everything bar the runways themselves were buried in deep snow! The ride in the approved airport taxi into town had it’s fair share of laughs (tears?) as he tried the standard rort-the-tourist routine... 12.70 lev fare... so we rounded it to 15 and went to pay with a 20... (equivalent to €10) - oh no... couldn’t possibly change such a big note... Luckily the kebab joint near where he tried to drop us could. Then after consulting with some helpful locals whilst James did the change transaction, we found that he was dropping us at least 500 metres from where we needed to be - via snow covered pavements and a massive boulevard that we would have had to cross via stairs down to an underpass. Back in the cab. Eventually got to the correct destination - mind you, initially it was a bit like Oakland... when we got there, there wasn’t any there there. We had a hint when one of our friendly locals said he cleaned AirBNB places... and there was definitely nowhere good to stay on ‘that’ street. As it turned out it was a fairly horrendous looking side street and we pulled up to a vacant lot... (WT???) Oh... OK - there was the AirBNB host’s mum who led us past a fairly decrepit building, via an alley to, whoa... an even more decrepit building (would it even survive the night? would we?) Then we went in. And the stairwell lights weren’t working (though apparently they had been when she came out to meet us). Out came the iPhone torch... And then we reached the front door of the apartment... and ‘lo, like the glow from the infamous briefcase in the movie Pulp Fiction, the door opened and angels chorused and blessed light poured out (whoops... didn’t really need to see the stairwell after-all). But the apartment was a different country and so, so beautiful. Even a relatively comfortable bed and cleaned to within an inch of its life - truly a night of contrasts. Getting there turned out to be not just half the fun, but all the fun I needed for the day, so it was cheese and crackers from our cabin bag stash for dinner and an early night as we looked out the kitchen window to see the Golden Arches of McDonalds and the bright lights of one of Sofia’s main streets (obviously just not our one). We spent three nights in our little apartment (and the building was still standing when we left). We hunted and gathered great eats from the nearby Billa supermarket in the very upmarket Mall of Sofia. We even jumped the metro and visited our next housesit hosts and their super little dog on the Sunday night before we moved in on the Monday (5 March). During our first few days we bonded with the little dude which was no hardship at all and took a couple of walks in one of the huge parks in the neighbourhood. Chillin’ Sofia style before we kicked it up a notch and started to explore... And that, is Sofia so far.