In case you were wondering Sofia is a big busy city and it's really easy to get lost or go to the wrong church (you all remember ABC). But more about that later.

The bus to Sofia took about 2.5 hours. There are millions of acres of unused land that we saw on all of our trips in Bulgaria. There are also huge fields of corn and sun flowers. Cannot figure out the sunflower crop. The flowers complete with heads are all black, look dead, but they are now harvesting them. Have to do some research.

According to Google maps the hotel is a 6 minute walk from the bus station. Easy for us one back pack one suitcase with big wheels. Well sometimes Google maps isn't that easy to follow. We went the wrong way at least twice and finally found 2 very nice ladies who spoke English. Where the hell is Favorit Hotel?

We booked a tour for Wed to go to the Boyana church and the Rila Monastery . The web site says be there at 0845, we leave on the dot at 0900. Kitty and I went downtown first thing Tuesday morning to find the departure point. It should be easy, it's in the square by the Nicholas church, a huge ABC. We hunted and hunted, no luck. Asked a bell hop at a hotel. Wrong church. How can one city have 2 huge churches. After a 15 minute walk it was easy to find the departure point and we were able to tour one of Sofi's main landmarks.

The rest of Tuesday we explored the city centre, walked Vitosha Street, the shopping street. Lots of high end stuff. For dinner we went to a restaurant close to our hotel. It looked a little sketchy but it's hot and we were tired. WOW!!!! The place was huge inside, lots of little rooms and quite busy. We had a super meal, pork kabob and a chicken and cheese dish.

Wednesday was tour day. As promised, the bus left at 0900 minus 2 people. They had to take a taxi to catch the bus at the first stop. On every toutr there'should always one.

Go to you tube and look for videos on the Boyana Church and the Rila Monastery. There aren't words to describe.

Educational stuff

The fresh lemonade with mint looked delicious but the local water scares me. I finally took the plunge, it was very good and my bowels are fine

French people apparently understand sarcasm in English . I was trying to take pictures in old Town in Plovdiv and there was a large tour of French tourists there as well. One of them stepped right in front to of me so I said something like Oh that's OK, feel free to ruin the shot. He moved like he'd been goosed,

There a huge Roman theatre ruins in Plovdiv that they discovered by accident. They were tunnelling thru one of the 6 hills in the city to build a hiway tunnel. It collapsed and there was the theatre. They still use it for concerts.

A lot of food in restaurants is sold by weight

Electric scooters are everywhere. Same brand as in Calgary. Can you spell menace?

It's free to visit the churches but where they allow photos, most don't, they charge.

I hope I don't hear the word icon for a long time after we get home, if we get home. British Airways pilots are going on strike on Sept 27. We fly home on BA September 30. Yahoo extended vacation in London.

We say goodbye to Bulgaria tomorrow Sept 13. We have a 0730 bus to Nis, Serbia. We know the way to the bus station. Excited to see Serbia.

We are fine and really enjoying Bulgaria.

Had another hotel with a drier so the laundry is all caught up ready for traveling

Talk to you all from Nis

Hippies out