Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived in Sofia. After a fairly noneventful flight, avoiding the thunderstorms which M was convinced were a certainty, we landed at Sofia airport. The chaotic scenes at passport control, in which nobody - passenger or airport staff - seemed to grasp the concept of queuing, were a helpful reminder that we had left the organised fun of the UK. Little did we know, they would also be a sign of things to come.
We got our bus tickets with relative ease (£0.36 each) and made it in to the centre of Sofia - after some aimless wandering around, we stumbled upon the metro and were finally able to pinpoint a route to our guesthouse. However - despite finding ourselves on the right street, we still couldn't locate it until we finally realised that what looked from the outside like a condemned building would actually be our home for the night. After climbing a dark set of staircases to the top floor and accidentally wandering through an open door into someone's private apartment, we found the guesthouse doorbell and discovered that it was actually quite nice inside.
By the time we'd sorted out payment and checked our room out, it was nearing 9pm local time. We were both pretty hungry, so we set off in search of food. We learnt a lot about Sofia on this first evening wander. Firstly, it smells. It smells really bad - sort of like a bin that hasn't been emptied for weeks. The reasons for this are unclear, but we're pretty sure the smell was strongest nearest drain covers. Secondly, there are lots of drain covers, manholes, potholes, and any other sort of hole in the ground you can think of - seriously, they're everywhere. Some of them have seemingly collapsed in on themselves, so you need to keep an eye out if you don't want to end up underground. Finally, there is nowhere to eat in the evenings. The few restaurants we found that were still open at 9:30 - hardly late - were either packed full, or had no indication as to menu or price (at least, not in a Latin alphabet).
We were tired and hungry, and unfortunately left with no choice - our first dinner of the trip was a Big Mac meal each, minus the chips which don't seem to be part of the deal here. Hmph. Feeling like we'd let the travelling world down by resorting to McDonald's so soon, we were at least lucky with the location - al fresco dining with a view across the road to the main square and mosque.
It was all quite picturesque, until the thunderstorms which M had been worried about finally showed up. The lightening was pretty spectacular and fun to watch whilst the stayed in the distance - but unfortunately for us, it got closer. And closer. And closer. And then, like a scene out of a low budget disaster film, the wind suddenly started blowing a gale, dust clouds raced down the street, and everyone started running. We weren't quite sure where they were running to, but we decided to join them at a more reasonable brisk walking pace. The hotel was reached and the apocalyptic scenes escaped - and only just in time. We'd barely shut the door to our room when it absolutely chucked it down. After watching the storm from the safety of our window for a few minutes, we decided to call it a night and get some sleep, with both of us dreaming of sunnier skies for tomorrow's full day in Sofia....
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