Fall break is a full week here at AUBG because in Bulgaria they don't have that pesky Thanksgiving break messing up the schedule. We decided to do some traveling during the week. I would like everyone to appreciate the situation we are in. We don't have cell phones yet. I repeat we DON'T have cell phones yet (they are coming sometime after we get our Bulgarian ID cards on Dec 8).
This complicates the travel picture a bit, at least for me who feels the need to have a stronger hold on potential emergency situations than some. Part of the issue is that the internet is not entirely reliable for hotels and transportation arrangements as it is in the US. The other part is, as mentioned above, my need to have confirmation of travel plans before setting off. Fall break helped the situation because if something went wrong we had a few days to deal with it before having to get back to class. So I braved travel in a foreign country with only Mark and a computer. It worked great!
The bus system in Bulgaria is excellent and there are hourly buses from Blagoevgrad to Sofia. The bus station in Blagoevgrad was easy to navigate once we found it. Everyone mentioned how conveniently located it is, but no one actually said WHERE it was and Google maps was not much help. Mark found an address but it didn't seem quite right. All I had was a vague memory of passing the station on my 3:30am shuttle to the airport when I went to Seattle (not particularly trustworthy). Rather than take our chances on our day of travel, I suggested we lace up and head out to visit both potential sites. After a very long walk, we found the bus station (Lynnette's sleep addled memory-1; Google maps Bulgaria-0). Both the state run and the private bus stations are a short walk from our apartment each with prominent bus schedules.
Confident in our abilities to find the bus and make it to Sofia, we tried booking a hotel online. Found some fabulous prices if you would pay in advance, only the site was done. Sent some emails and went to sleep hoping it would work out in the morning. Morning and no email, so I tried the online system again AND the cheap price was reserved just before we left. We swung by Mark's office to print out our hotel reservations and headed to the bus station.
We decided on the state run bus because of the times it was running. We couldn't figure out where to buy tickets, but in our broken Bulgarian managed to learn that we just needed to pay our bus driver. It was a great ride to Sofia Central Bus Station. Once we realized that lines at the taxi stands in Bulgaria are more of a suggestion than an order for getting a taxi, we were on our way to the hotel. The taxi driver had excellent English skills and she got us there quickly in the mid-day traffic. Total spent on transportation so far=25 leva ($17.50). Great price for the two of us.
More to come from our Sofia adventure (as soon as I find the pictures Mark loaded on my computer!).
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