Bulgaria: update

So, finally access to a computer. Nor for long though so this is going to be brief, there are people waiting to use the internet as well so I don't want to monopolize the computer.

I have been in Istanbul and Edirne both in Turkey. Turkey was amazing and I have lots of really good stories that I can't really do justice in this short time. Maybe I will have to continue blogging once I return home to finish. Not the least of which included flagging a bus down from the side of the highway. This was not unusual though, apparently this is the way people usually board buses in Turkey outside of main cities... who knew.

I was also in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for two days and I am now in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Plovdiv was awesome and Rachael and I recieved and incredibly warm welcom from everyone in Bulgaria. Actually during our whole trip everyone has been incredibly friendly and helpful and more than happy to help us on our way. Even when we don't ask for directions people offer to help us on our way, and we've even had someone walk with us 10 minutes to show us an out of the way address we wanted to find.

Plovdiv was amazing, albeit a little beat up. The sidewalks and roads were incredibly uneven to the point where I tripped multiple times over several minutes. Most of the houses in the downtown area were well maintained though. That being said, there were also lots of soviet/yugolav era buildings that are so ugly and eyesore like they are almost beautiful.

I haven't had the chance to see much of sofia but so far it has impressed me, though it is rather unconvential. The whole town kind of looks like a low income area in north america. Everything is quite beat up and at points decrepit.

Next locations  on the agenda include Skopje (pronounced skopie), the macedonian capital. We are departing at 4pm this afternoon on a bus and will be staying there this evening and tomorrow morning before we head to Lake Orhid. Lake Orhid is meant to be the most beautiful place in Macedonia so we are going to take the opportunity to relax and unwind before we tackle Albania. We also need to do laundry pretty badly... travelling hits clothes pretty hard.

Also, Albania is going to be quite and experience as far as I understand. According to our guide book the government has not seen fit to establish any kind of central bus station anywhere, so buses just drop you off in the city. The location changes depending on what bus company you are with. There are also apparently a lot of rivarly between bus companies so sometimes to have to cede the primo locations to rivals and vice versa. This makes me think that catching buses in Albania will be a very Where's Waldo type of experience but the country sounds amazing and has tonnes of stuff to offer so I'm sure it will be fun.

Hopefully I will have access to a computer in Lake orhid, but if not you will all just have to sit tight until I reconnect with techonology.

Adele

P.S.
I'm not sure that's how you spell orhid, so don't worry if it doesn't appear when you google it...