We slept late – I guess we are all just tired from traveling. We decided to take a day trip to the Vitosha mountain. We had to take the subway and then the bus, I couldn’t believe how nice to subway is – see pics.

When we got off the subway we had to take the #93 bus, but did not know where the stop was. While we were looking at a map a wan stopped to help us. She spoke no English and of course we don’t speak Bulgarian. She asked either if we were French or German or spoke those languages (I guess). I told her “93 bus” in German and she went into the post office to find out where the step was, came out and told us. I am amazed that these people can make themselves understood in several languages. No one is fluent, but at least we can communicate. We found the bus and it started thrust town, but up the mountain. Thank goodness we didn’t walk! The bus rides this elves are interesting – thru narrow, steep streets with switchback turns. We didn’t realize how very large Sofia is until we were halfway up the mountain. I wish I could have gotten a pic, but there just wasn’t an opportunity. The bus let us off and of course we had to walk further up the mountain – it was a steep walk. We came to the Dragalevski monastery. Very serene and peaceful – have pics on the camera. We looked at a map outside the monastery and realized we still had a long way to go to the top. We turned around and headed down the mountain to a local restaurant. Hot and tired as usual we ordered drinks and a snack. We ordered a Bulgarian cheese plate. See pic.

I can’t get over how big the portions are. Sometimes the amount of grams served is posted and that is helpful. We took the bus and subway back to the hotel (air conditioned) and cooled off for a few hours. Then we were back waking the streets. Marsha and Stephanie had salads for dinner and I ordered a beet and carrot salad that I I thought tasted like cardboard. We walked back to the hotel. It is 11pm and we have a bus to Greece tomorrow morning. It’s a bus because Greece cannot afford to run a train. Will fill you in on the bus ride when I can connect again.

We are now in Sofia. We were on a Russian train that originated in Moscow on our overnight from Bucharest to Sofia. The train was comfortable but we were stopped at the border for almost 3 hours while Romanian and Bulgarian authorities did passport checks so of course our train was late. I thought you all might be tired of food pictures, but the food is so different and interesting I can’t help but take pics. While we were killing time at the hotel in Romania we ordered snacks – a cheese plate and vegetable plate – see pic.

We were in Sofia for a day while waiting for our train to Romania and we were not impressed and wondered what we would do for 2 days. We took another 2 1/2 hour walking tour and Sofia is also great. I have many more pics on my camera. After the tour we went to a Bulgarian restaurant recommended by our hotel and of course had to take pics of the food. We had peppers stuffed with cheese then breaded and fried, some sort of cheese and walnut combination, a potato casserole, stuffed grape leaves and a lot of other interesting stuff. The atmosphere was also terrific. It was pretty far away from the hotel and we didn’t get back until midnight. While we were on the tour there were protests against the government. Our guide told us these have been going on for several months. The uniformed guards are protecting the presidential offices, but there are local police that are protecting the palace guards.

Earlier in the day we had been walking around town and were hot and thirsty. It has been hot here, but at least not in the hundreds. I like the Kamenitza grapefruit cooler. See pic. It is made of beer and grapefruit, very low in alcohol and very refreshing. They also make a lemon one I haven’t tried yet. I know it sounds like it would taste terrible, but I think it is really good.