The tears! The consternation! The chasing the bags down the stairs! The attempt to get in a hand bag and come too... ‘Twas one of the most difficult departures we’ve ever had with one of our foster-furballs - and that was just for us. Poor little Smokey was aware something was going on (that much luggage is never a good sign) and we felt utterly criminal by the time we were on the road to Belgrade, Serbia. Driving vs. Flying was a fairly lucky decision as it...

It’s our final night in Sofia and the last couple of days have passed gently with packing, cleaning, eating the last of our cucumbers (obviously) and spending our last Bulgarian leva (2 bottles of wine and 200ml bottle of vodka... 11 leva/€5.50/A$9 say). Nothing worse that leaving a country with currency unspent - so that was a final jaunt to the supermarket this afternoon. It’s been a day of contrasts. It was cold and a bit hazy last night when we walked...

In order to see a city, we reckon you have to get out and about on foot. Leaving the house/Hardie Hobbit Hole is also a requirement as it turns out. We figured we’d skip the metro on the way into the city as it was only 1 stop and it’s almost a kilometre to actually reach our local metro station. In hindsight walking 2.8 km to get to the start of a 2 hour walking tour might have been somewhat ambitious - but it was a stunningly sunny day, all the snow had dis...

After the 18 odd degrees we left behind in Rome (and sunshine), there was the tiniest bit of culture (climate?) shock when we arrived into Sofia Airport. Everything bar the runways themselves were buried in deep snow! The ride in the approved airport taxi into town had it’s fair share of laughs (tears?) as he tried the standard rort-the-tourist routine... 12.70 lev fare... so we rounded it to 15 and went to pay with a 20... (equivalent to €10) - oh no... cou...

‘Lo and on the fourth day they left the property. Who would have thought when we arrived in Italy for a mild Mediterranean winter that we’d end up snowed in, unable to get the trusty (but automotively, fairly pathetic) Yaris up the snow and ice covered goat track to the main road. Fortunately we had a trip to the supermarket on the Saturday for a few bits and pieces - though not a stock up by any means. Seeing snow was forecast on the Sunday night I even b...