Здравейте
Which obviously means 'HELLO' in Bulgarian. It's a weird word, it kind of sounds like 'dobbra-dem.' It took me the whole weekend to get it to sound even the slightest bit correct. Weird language, great place!

My original desire to go to Bulgaria stemmed from my undying obsession with Harry Potter (ILY Harry). So I decided to treat myself and book the trip for Easter, as I didn't have to work. But then I discovered that it wasn't actually Easter in Bulgaria during that time, something about them being Orthodox and Easter being a month later.. ah well! The flights were already booked and I just hoped the Easter Bunny would still find me in Germany. I quickly discovered Bulgaria has a lot more to offer than a world of endless Viktor Krums.

I arrived at around 10pm on Friday the 29th, and went straight to my hostel in Sofia. This is one of the best hostels I've ever stayed in. It's run only by locals, who know exactly what to see and do in and around Sofia. The breakfast AND dinners are free, and it's so easy to meet new people. I decided to get a good night sleep and prepare for my trip to the Rila Monastery the next day.

The funny thing about hostels is, it's almost impossible to get a good night's sleep unless you've had a few too many local brews. I was well aware of this by now, and I had even considered joining the pub crawl which had left a few minutes before I got there, but I decided to be sensible for once. The guy behind me was snoring, I was coughing and although I finally fell to sleep around 1am, I was woken again at 5am by not one, not two, but THREE people snoring. They kind of had a rhythm going too, so it was like there was no time when snoring wasn't happening. I know people can't help it, but you gotta admit it's one of the most annoying habits in the world.

The next day I woke up, haha just kidding, I didn't really sleep in the first place! And went down for some all you can eat breakfast before my day trip. I had yoghurt, toast, muesli, juice, hot chocolate. So much amazing food! And for free, you really can't go wrong.

Our trip to the Monastery was in a Land Cruiser far older than me, and one of the first things the bus driver Ian said to us was 'there's only seatbelts in the front seat.' So I quickly jumped in there with another guy and spent the whole way there talking to Ian, who was from across the ditch in NZ. He was really cool and had some awesome stories, and he was living in Bulgaria on a UK passport. People who have EU citizinship are so lucky! I really want to look into getting a German one, but unfortunately it's not as easy as if Dad was born in the UK or basically any other European country. If there's one things I know about Germany, it's that they love their rules!

The Monastery itself was at the bottom of the Rila Mountains, so we started by walking a few hundred metres up there first, into this tiny little church where, like in most churches, we weren't allowed to take any photos. But it was very beautifully decorated with lots of nice paintings and scriptures.

Next we went into the cave of St Ivan of Rila, who was the first ever Bulgarian hermit and lived in that cave for most of his life. Surrounding the cave were thousands of pieces of paper jammed into the rocks, which were actually wishes from travellers and so on. Apparently if you leave a wish in there for him, it will come true! I didn't have any wishes handy so I didn't get to try it this time. Inside the cave it was dark, damp, obviously with no electricity or creature comforts, and it was tiny! I couldn't even spend a night in there let alone years of my life. Props to you, St Ivan. To get out of the cave you actually had to climb through a gap in the rocks, which was again tiny. The legend goes that if you cannot fit through the gap, you have sinned too much. I know what you're all thinking, no way did she fit...well suckers, I made it alright. Looks like I still have some room to sin.

We went back down to a restaurant next to the Monastery, food wasn't that great but the Bulgarian beer tasted pretty good. We then went into the Monastery which actually still has monks living in it to this day, I think 8 of them. It was a beautiful white building with incredible architecture, paintings and history. The only thing I didn't like were the toilets, I usually work my way around filthy public toilets but this time it just couldn't be done. Gross.

We made it back to the hostel around 6:30, which was enough time for a shower before a quick nap, dinner and the pub crawl which I was determined to go on this time, if for no other reason than to get some sleep at the end of it. I got to talking to Patrick, the British guy who was sleeping below me. We both agreed how annoying the snoring was, and he actually dubbed it a 'Snorchestra' because of the annoying rhythm and timing. It was funny you kinda had to be there. Patrick and I had a couple of beers together and we decided to start the pub crawl a bit later by meeting with the hostel at their first pub. In this time I met Cisco, an American guy from Florida who also happened to be an amazing singer. Patrick played the guitar while he did some improv, it was really beautiful singing and guitar playing and I'm very happy I was there to see it! The pub crawl was pretty good, met a really cool German girl named Sonja and spent the night with her. But we ended up at this over crowded swing kinda club and called it a night. Actually I had McDonald's that night/morning for the second time since I've been in Europe. I'm surprised I haven't eaten it more, considering what an addict I was back home. But I'm not complaining, feeling pretty healthy and active these days.

Anywho moving along..so Sunday I woke up with a pretty sore head, but forced myself out of bed to take the free walking tour of Sofia. I was a few minutes late but luckily they hadn't left yet, so I joined up with Sonja and we had a really entertaining tour guide. It was actually the first time I've ever done a walking tour, I'm definitely going to make a habit out of it from now on. It was informative and fun and I didn't have to do anything at all. Now that's my type of tour. After the tour Sonja and I and a few other guys from the tour went and had lunch, I hadn't eaten or drank anything yet so I had 4 glasses of coke (mmm, healthy!) and some kind of pork thing which was nice, but I will say that Bulgarian restaurants hate to garnish! Well at least in my experience, there was just the food on the plate and that's it. No effort involved with presentation. But ah well, it was cheap and yummy so it fits my standards.

That night, we were going to go on the pub crawl run by the same group as the walking tour. But it cost money, and everyone but me was too stingy to pay for it. So we went on the free one with the hostel again. This time we didn't go to that swing bar so I was happy J Before the pub crawl we met with some friends of friends at another hostel, and one of the locals with them took us to a bar called 'The Apartment.' This was one of the coolest bars I've ever been in! It was literally an apartment, with a bunch of cosy rooms all differently decorated, and the food and wine was all hand made by them. Very cool. Then on the pub crawl we also went to an underground bar with no electricity, there were candles everywhere. Also really cool! I went back to the hostel pretty late, and I had a 8:50a.m. flights (woo hoo). Luckily I had thought ahead and packed my bags, so I slept in the common room because it was actually way comfier and quieter than my room, and I asked the receptionist to wake me up at 7. And she did, and all I wanted to do was stay asleep! But I somehow dragged myself out of bed, hauled my arse in a taxi and made it to the airport in plenty of time to spare. I slept through the whole flight and landed in Germany in the morning sometime. I bought the kiddies some Easter presents and made my way home, with Deutsche Bahn. For the first time EVER I actually had some luck with them; the first lady discounted me $6, probably because I'm ridiculously good looking but I didn't ask. The second guy let me pay by credit for my $8 ticket to Merzig, where I live, cos I had run out of cash completely.

I FINALLY got back home around 4:30ish, and my host family wasn't there. So I thought 'no problem' because they usually leave a key for me under the door mat. Not this time! Recently they gave me my OWN key, for the back door, which I had accidentally left at home. So it was my own stupid fault that I had to wait out in the cold, with no food, and no money, and I was going to go and beg the nice lady at the bakery for some food cos she loves me so much, but it was Easter Monday so of course everything was shut! I made several unsuccessful attempts to break in. My next door neighbour Peter felt sorry for me and asked how he could help, and I just had one request…can I PLEASE use your toilet.

Finally they got home, I found out the Easter Bunny DID come to me, so I had chocolate, warmth and my host family and it was good J

I would say 'off to Berlin next!' but I've already been to Berlin, I'm just becoming lazy with my blog! Stay tuned for the Berlin blog within the next couple of days.

Au Revoir!

Kate