Sofia

We rolled into Sofia, Bulgaria tired, smelly, and hungry. The train station wasn't welcoming either. We almost got run over by some street cleaner. Our first priority was to make sure that we were indeed in a sleeper for our overnight train tomorrow. We got tossed around from ticketing office to ticketing office until we got to the right one and confirmed that we were in a sleeper. Ideally, we'll luck out and there will only be the two of us again, but who knows. Unlike the Budapest train, this is the only train that goes from Sofia to Bucharest. At least we get beds.

Also, trains in Eastern Europe make Italian trains seem prompt. This one arrived three hours late. While we're training into Bucharest tomorrow, we're ultimately trying to get to Brasov that day. At Budapest, they told us that we didn't have to make reservation for the Brasov train. I was going to do it anyway, but it migth be better that I don't. Who knows when we're going to arrive in Bucharest on Wednesday morning.

Anyway, we got out of the train station and everything smelled like pee. We had to make our way through a million taxi drivers and peole advertising hostels before we made it to the tram. The area of Sofia that we saw on our tram ride reminded us of some of the less touristy areas of Mexico. There were definitely some dirt roads and the streets were not completely done or in disrepair. That might have been fine, but add the rows of communist-era architecture and you'll get our first impression of Sofia.

We finally made it to the hostel. It's a pretty cute hostel, but because we got a private two bed room, we're in an apartment a couple streets away. Thus, we did not get to partake in the free pool table because we did not want to have to wake in the dark Sofia streets more than we had to :(. Anyway, we checked in, but they told us that it'd take a couple of hours for the room to be ready. We had the option of doing an 11 am free walking tour, but we were too tired hungry and gross feeling to do that. Instead, we sat around and hung out in the hostel. We also dug into the bag of mini croissants that we bought in Belgrade. They weren't that good, but we made them better with the packet of knock off Nutella that we also got.

Our room was supposed to be ready at 2, but it ended up being ready at 12. This was great. We showered. They do a laundry service here for 8 lav (equivalent of 4 Euro), so we decided that our train clothes from the past few days either needed to be burned or washed, so we went back to drop that off, pay for our room, and book ourselves in the tour of the Rila Monastery that they put on. Once that was done, we ran back to the room for the much needed sleep.

We were up and out by 5 and decided to do the 6 pm run of the free walking tour that we missed earlier in the day. This was a very tough decision for us. Included in the hostel price, they'll make you pasta for dinner. But that only happens from 7-8. On the other hand, this tour lasted from 6-8:30. We almost tried to do both and were going to leave the tour an hour into it, but we actually ultimately really liked the walking tour. The Sofia we saw on the tour was a lot nicer than what we had seen in the morning. There are a lot of underground Roman ruins in the city, so when our tour guide would take us to the subway area, you'd just see old walls all around. There are a lot of really pretty churches scattered around the city, some of them going back to the 11th century. The biggest church and the one pictured below is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It was huge. We saw a palace, the president's building (but just missed the changing of the guard). The tour guide was pretty funny too. 

Oh, another cool thing about Sofia is that they have a lot of mineral springs all over the city. It's completely safe to drink, so we got to fill up with some natural mineral water.

The tour ended around 8:30, right after the dinner. :( All in all, though, we were glad that we did the tour because we saw a lot more of Sofia and did a lot more than we would have otherwise.

Tomorrow we check out and we take an overnight train to Bucharest. Instead of having an awkward day, though, we're doing the hostel's tour of the Rila Monastery which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We could have taken public transportation to the monastery and it would have been a lot cheaper, but seeing as they only have three trains to and from Rila each day and the trains we've encountered so far have not been particularly reliable, I think the private transport is the safest bet. It's also a pretty long drive to and from the monastery, so we've got a full day ahead of us.

Belgrade

Our first day in Belgrade was pretty interesting. We spent a long portion of the morning still on the train. The train was supposed to arrive at 6:40, but didn't get in until almost 9. It worked out because it gave us some extra time to sleep. I think there must have been some problems with the train because there were several moments during the night where the train just flat out stopped. Whatever, we made it and we made it safe. I think the Canadian couple next to us were kind of panicked about the delays though. They kept on going in and out of their compartment to ask the conductor how long we'd have until we got there  and each time he told them that we'd be about 2 hours late.

We eventually made it, though and because we did not have any Serbian dinars and the guides specifically recommended against exhanging money at the train station, we just walked to the hostel. It ended up being a lot more of an uphill walk than we had anticipated and we must have looked pretty gross by the time that we found the hostel. We dropped our bags off and then ran off to get some dinars before coming back to check in. Our beds were ready (yay), so we also took the time to shower and get rid of all the train grime that we had accumulated overnight.

We finished just in time to run over to Republic Square for a free walking tour of the city. It was not with the tour company that we like to do our free tours with, but it was still a pretty well done tour and our guide was a lot less awkward than our guide in Copenhagen. The only problem is that on a hot day such as today, our guide did not have a break until almost the end of the tour. There were some points of the tour where we were just so hot that nothing she was saying was sinking in. Mia and I remedied this with ice cream though. A cure all.

The tour was fun. Belgrade's an interesting city where on one corner you will find a building that has not quite yet recovered from recent bombings, in another corner you see the lush "Bohemian Quarter" full of pubs and bars, and another street is the more ritzy pedestrian only shopping mall. The people here have also been very nice and friendly. I think the coolest part of the tour was the big fortress, which is now also a park. You see ruins of this old medieval fortress, a great view, and a lot other goodies.

Oh, also, there is a street here that the locals refer to as "Silicon Valley." Mia and I were initially excited because we thought it'd be a techie little quarter of Belgrade, but it was actually more Orange County than Silicon Valley. It's apparently a street of overpriced bars where rich locals make sure to flaunt their wealth and women with boob jobs try to find rich husbands. Also, apparently those with fancy cars will make sure to park their cars illegally in ways that everyone can see.

We were dying by the time the tour was over because it was so hot. It ended around the touristy pedestrian street, so we ducked into the closest air conditioned restaurant we could find and had lunch. Mia got gnocchi and I got a "burrito," which was more like a quesadilla. i think and Eduardos trip is due when we come home.

Anyway, we made our way back to the hostel. Mia stopped and got red glasses like the ones of her that she broke and had been trying to replace. For old times sake, we walked into a Lush. We made it back to the hostel around 3 and both of us passed out for a while.

We didn't leave again until 6:30-ish, when we decided that we should probably go out and do something else. We decided to go check out the Belgrade Beerfest, which is the big event going on in town right now. Our plan was to get a drink, get dinner and get out. The woman who we asked for directions at the front desk probably thought we were cooler than we actually were. When I asked if we could take a tram back from the event, she looked worried and told us that they'd only run until 11:15. Lol.

Anyway, BeerFest was actually surprisingly fun. We thought it'd be a lot more like Love Fest, but when we had made it there, it was actually a very family friendly event. There were even rides nearby. We tried the Serbian Jelen beer, which kind of tasted like Stella. Mia got some chicken sandwich thing and I got some hot dog like thing. We drank and ate, listened to the band perform, and then made our way out as the crowds started rushing in.

Now we're back at the hostel and I'm being eaten alive by bugs. Time to pull out the bug repellent, I guess. Tomorrow, we do the Nikola Tesla Museum and some other sight seeing. The walking tour covered many of the major sights of the city, but I think there were a couple of other things that are worth seeing. In the evening, we do overnight train #2 to Sofia, Bulgaria where they shake their heads to say yes and nod to say no.