After arriving at Jessica's friend Milena's flat that she shared with her parents, they treated us to a great dinner of stuffed peppers, fried chicken, some form of pattie and salad. They welcomed us into the wonderful home with open arms and plates of food, what better way! I shared grappa with her father, Borislav and at almost a whole watermelon by myself after dinner. I had been craving watermelon for a month, it hit the spot. After applying our nightly eye medicine we hit the sack for some much needed rest.
Milena and her friend Slavena, who was also staying with her went out the evening after we went to bed so they were not early risers. No matter because Jess and I ate breakfast with her mom and talked about the next six months of travel. After Milena and Slavena awoke and got ready we headed into town to see the beach. We ate fish and lounged on the beach before heading back to another great homecooked dinner and to watch the Olympics (only the second time for us). We also planned our trip to Sofia, Bulgaria the following day and our next leg to Athens on Friday. Milena and her parents have been awesome hosts and like many people we have met during our journey examples of how amazing and generous people can be regardless of their origin or background.
We made it to Sofia,Bulgaria at 11:30pm via bus a little late and tired. We met a fellow American traveler named Alex from LA. We trudged through the city looking for a hostel named the art hostel. We found it, checked in and bedded down for the night. The next day we toured the city, nothing major to see but we checked out all the things recommended in our guide book. We had a 8:00pm bus to catch that night for Athens so we packed up and headed on the tram to the bus station. While on the tram we were confronted by tram "cops" who informed us in broken english and with the use of a brochure that because we had luggage we needed to purchase two tickets for each person not one. Of course we had never heard of this and can't read Bulgarian so it was lost on us. Not to mention it is a crock of shit to do this so we argued back in forth as best we could and finally they made us get off with two other women and took us to the "police". In reality is was the tram office of some sort meanwhile we called Milena who quickly told them we we had no money, were leaving on a bus and were not that important. turns out they wanted a bribe but because we resisted, unknowingly it turns out, (we really did not have any bulgarian money) they let us go to catch our bus. We were of course pissed off by then but were happy to be rid of the tram "police". And thank God for Milena who definetly brought a speedy conclusion to this little adventure. See you in Greece!
