lets see, the past few days...
sofia was great, actually starting to get much better, settled in to the hostel and whatnot. a nice little group of friends and such, and the city was charming and i was starting to know my way around and everything. two days ago, a group of us, me and 3 aussies, left sofia for the day and headed on a little trip south a ways to visit the rila monastery. yeah yeah, yet ANOTHER monastery, but supposedly the best bulgaria had to offer, and it wasn't far, so i just HAD to check it out. after 3 hours on the bus, we arrive, and after 15 minutes had pretty much seen all that the monastery had to offer. a lovely place, in an even lovelier setting, all out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by lush green mountains, it was worth the trip, but would have been better had we planned on staying there. hiking around the place definately would have been amazing, but we had already paid for another night back in sofia, so we had an interesting lunch, and headed back. i say interesting, cause to me it seems that in romania and bulgaria, "traditional" fare means a chicken breast and some fries. or a fried pork tenderloin (snitzel), or some other similar food. its not BAD, but its just not traditional, like i would think. ho hum. anywho, we finish off our chicken breasts, and head back. by bus again, a lovely bus circa 1940, we get mashed way in the back, on top of the engine, pretty much acting as a nice heater for us. aparently we had picked the SLOWEST bus ever, as it stopped like a city bus, every 100 meters or so, for the whole trip. and then, just my luck, in the middle of freaking nowhere bulgaria, it decides to just BREAK DOWN. for whatever reason one of the rear tires just siezed, rendering us as good as stuck. sooo, we wait, and wait, and wait some more. its hotter than hell, so we decide finally to walk up the street to get some ice cream. again, my luck, as we're paying for our ice cream, the "new" bus comes, and we have to throw money at the lady and sprint down the hill to the replacement. this bus, though older and hotter than the first, manages to make it all the way back to sofia. phew.
so that was the adventure for the past few days. i have since left sofia, on the night train. AND, instead of just sitting in the seats, as i was traveling with some people, we decided to splurge the extra 5 euro and get a SLEEPER. a cramped little cabin, with 3 beds and a sink, it ended up being perfect, as for whatever reason the 7 hour train ride ended up taking nearly 12. probably had something to do with the seemingly 4 hour stop at the bulgaria/greece border. pretty much all i remember of that, was some guy pounding on our locked door about 20 different times through the night, and then at one point screaming "AMERICAN BOY!" at me, cause aparently i wasn't finding my passport fast enough in the pitch black. sorry guy.
and then, into greece, where i said goodbye to my aussie friends, and headed south and west on a full, hot train, where i sat on my backpack for 4 MORE wonderful hours on the train. but at last, here i am. where, i know not. but i'm here. the actual town name is something like kalambaka. and from here tomorrow i'm going to set off to explore some monasteries that are aparently atop these massive cliffs that are looming over this little village. and with that, i should finish my monastery tour that it seems i have been on for the past few countries. and then, islands here i come..