Week of 7-14

Sunday

On Sunday we decided to go to a water park that was located near the hotel.It was small, but nice. They had about 12 slides, a lazy river, and a wave pool.Dale particularly enjoyed the slide commonly referred to as "the black hole".The nice thing about these slides is that instead of slowing down when you are going about 35 mph, they shoot you into a pool of water about 2 feet deep, which is fun, but can also hurt a little.We stayed there until it closed which was around 7:00 pm.After this day we were starting to look a little toasty as we have been in the sun for 3 straight days and are the two whitest people in Bulgaria, save for the Norwegians and Brits.

After Dale took a short nap and I went and grabbed some food, if I don't eat I get upset, we headed out again to a night club.On the way Dale was trying to find a bankomat, but for some reason was unable to.In Sofia you can't walk more than 10 meters without running into one, but in Sunny Beach it was impossible.After he found the bankomat we headed to the club.I should have known better, but I didn't expect them to play only techno music, but sure enough that is all they played.Dale is not as white as I am and is able to dance to it, but for me my honky prevents me from getting down.

It's really strange being with so many people who don't look different from you but so are.On one hand everyone speaks English because, well, you have to if you want to travel.But at the same time they aren't speaking it unless they need to communicate outside of your group.When you walk around the club, or bar, or the beach, you hear all kinds of languages.

Monday

Monday morning we basically hung around the apartment until it we had to catch the bus back to the train station in Burgas.The bus arrived at the train station with only fifteen minutes to spare before our train departed.At the station it's bulletin board, which shows which trains are arriving and departing, was outdated to the point that it was unreadable.Also, there nobody at the train station spoke English.With little time left Blaine and I (this is Dale talking now) got on the first train that had a Sofia sign on it.We also had a adventure with the train attendant.When it came time to show our tickets I only presented our reservations, but apparently you need to show your ticket as well.The conductor started yelling at us in Bulgarian to which I replied ne govram bulgarski (I don't speak Bulgarian).This did not matter because the conductor kept yelling at us.Luckily, there was a fellow train attendant who knew enough English to tell me "this is not your ticket, where is your ticket".After what seemed like an eternity of the conductor yelling at me and the attendant asking me where my ticket was it dawned on me to pull out the tickets we used to get to Burgas.Luckily, I kept them and had them handy otherwise I didn't know what we would have done.As soon as I displayed the proper tickets everything was o.k. and the conductor moved on.To make things even better this train only had one functioning window, and it was very hot that day.After an eight hour train ride we finally arrived to Sofia, and hiked home.

Tuesday

Tuesday was fairly uneventful; with using going to work accept that we ran into out friend and co-worker Angela and her husband, Ivan.We sat and chatted with them for a while and then headed home.

Wednesday

Wednesday was fairly uneventful as well until later that evening.Blaine and I were coming back from a book store that had books in English.On a side not English books are kind of expensive compared to in the States, or maybe I am just a cheap skate.Any way on our way back we ran into Ivan's (not Angie's husband) sister, Iliyana.We went with here to a bath accessory store.I found it peculiar that they had so many accessories for taking baths when they don't have bath tubs.After that we went to a Arabic fast-food place called Mima's.We had special burgers that had fries,a chicken patty, a fried egg, and liberal amounts of ketchup and mayonnaise.It was a heart attack waiting to happen, but still tasted good.After that we headed our own ways.

Thursday

Thursday started off eventful.Blaine was trying to plug in his A/C cord for his laptop into the wall when he was shocked.It was quite a spectacle.After being electrocuted Blaine instinctively jumped away and knocked over a monitor, a cup of coffee, and kicked one of our co-workers in the process.Atthe beginning of the trip I promised Blaine's parents that he would bring him back safe and sound, and he isn't making my job very easy.Besides, the morning the day was pretty uneventful until our walk home.One of the signs on the side walk was strategically placed at height where Blaine could not see it but could still be hit by it.He ran into the sign and luckily the sign was not harmed.Then we met up with Iliyana, for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.After that we went to a bar that had nargale and called it a night.

Friday

Friday went by with out Blaine suffering any altercations with electricity or street signs.That evening we met up with Vlado who took us to Studenskigrad, which is where all that students that go to Sofia University live.We went to one of his friend's house where we had some rakia, sausage and cheese.While we were hanging out one of Vlado's friends arrived with some homemade rakia.He warned us that it was stronger then the store bought brand, but we weren'tworried because Blaine and I had been in Bulgaria for almost two months and could handle our rakia.It turned out that we were wrong.Let's just say it was a late night that led a late morning.

Saturday

Saturday we woke up at the crack of noon.For some reason we both had headaches and not feeling like making breakfast/lunch we went to a local pizzeria.Pretty much we just took it easy the rest of the day, and met up with Iliyana that evening we and for a movie.