The week before Spring Break is horrible. It’s the end of the quarter and all the
teachers here get to enter our grades and comments for each student by
hand. Individually. Using copy/paste. However, it is slightly more bearable with
the knowledge that for the next 10 days you won’t have to go to work! Also, two of my friends (from here on out
known as Q and T) were coming from the US to experience Bulgaria and the
surrounding countries.
We then headed into the main part of the old town. It is a beautiful city. We headed down the pedestrian walkways and
made our way up to the amphitheatre. The
sun was streaming down in beams and it was really nice. We then walked past some traditional houses
and even stopped briefly at one of the house museums before heading up to Nebet
Tepe (the Thracian ruins on the hill).
Once again, it was all lovely. We
headed back down, passing the mosque and the Roman forum. We had scoped out the ice cream on our way up
and we knew exactly what we wanted. We
sat in a giant city park and ate our ice cream and refilled our water from one
of Bulgaria’s numerous springs. We then
headed back to the train station. On the
way, Q sweet-talked some ladies (who seemed to be about ready to pinch his
cheeks) for some forks so we could finish our left-overs (still in T’s bag) on
the train that night.
Q arrived on the Tuesday of grading hell week. Luckily he slept most of the first day he was
here, but then he just sort of had to amuse himself until I finished all 137
report cards. He did get really good at
going to the grocery store, but wouldn’t venture farther than that due to his
fear of being mugged, in spite of the fact that I kept telling him that it was
really safe. Oh well. He did make my roommate and me fajitas for
dinner one evening, biscuits for breakfast one morning and he managed to find a
50 stotinki razor for the trip (that’s quality), so his trips to HIT were
productive even if they were a little repetitive. I also managed to pawn him off on my friend
A, the college counselor, and her friends for an evening so he didn’t have to
sit at home. They did the Sofia walking
tour, which I hear is quite good.
On Friday, my friend T arrived! I was really excited and I was glad Q was
already there and could go pick her up from the airport. I made sure to provide detailed instructions on
how to find the proper and legit OK taxi.
Unfortunately, this didn’t make much of a difference and the (not so) OK
taxi driver still tried to rip them off.
Luckily, I’d told Q how much is should cost and he was sooo mad. Apparently, when the taxi driver tried to ask
for 20 lev, he said, “NO! Seven!” Luckily it worked and they weren’t
overcharged.
That night we went downtown to a mall I’ve never been to
before so my roommate could get a new power cord for her computer. We then walked around and took in the sights
before going to the Taj Mahal Indian restaurant. We tried to get Thai food, but Sofia only has
one Thai restaurant and it was full.
The next day, we took
forever to leave, but eventually made it to the bus station to catch a bus to
Plovdiv. We did the typical Plovdiv
sights: the Roman Ampitheatre, Nebet
Tepe (the Thracian fortress) and the Church of St. Constantine and St. Helena. If you want the historical info on these
sights, check out my more detailed Plovdiv entry: http://bulgariabiologyandotherbrasstacks.blogspot.com/2011/08/part-5-plovdiv-august-29-2011.html
It was such a nice day in Plovdiv. The sun was shining and it was really
warm. We started out our journey from
the bus station to the train station where a man showed us where the luggage
storage room was and then demanded 1 lev for a cup of coffee. Then we tried to find out how to buy train
tickets to Istanbul. We found plenty of
evidence of there being a train, but the first ticket lady said no (and of
course I don’t speak enough Bulgarian to really get any details) and the
information desk lady could only tell us what time it arrived. So, using my Bulgaria guidebook (thank you
SME science teachers!) we found the ticket office for international trains and
this lady hooked us up. She also had
great music playing. By now it was
almost 3 o’clock and we were hungry, so we went to a Chinese restaurant. The dish I wanted was 7 leva. None of us paid any attention to the size of
the meal and our waitress didn’t point it out either so we ended up with 2 lbs
of food a piece. Yep. 2 lbs.
Of course we couldn’t finish it, so we took it to go. We put the Styrofoam containers into plastic
bags and T carried them in her back pack all day.
We then headed into the main part of the old town. It is a beautiful city. We headed down the pedestrian walkways and
made our way up to the amphitheatre. The
sun was streaming down in beams and it was really nice. We then walked past some traditional houses
and even stopped briefly at one of the house museums before heading up to Nebet
Tepe (the Thracian ruins on the hill).
Once again, it was all lovely. We
headed back down, passing the mosque and the Roman forum. We had scoped out the ice cream on our way up
and we knew exactly what we wanted. We
sat in a giant city park and ate our ice cream and refilled our water from one
of Bulgaria’s numerous springs. We then
headed back to the train station. On the
way, Q sweet-talked some ladies (who seemed to be about ready to pinch his
cheeks) for some forks so we could finish our left-overs (still in T’s bag) on
the train that night. 
So, we waited in the train station. I paid 1 lev to use the bathroom (that one
lev even bought me about 6 sheets of toilet paper) and brushed my teeth. Then, about a half hour before the train was
supposed to arrive, we moved to Platform 4 (by the way, none of the platforms
in Plovdiv are labeled). And we
waited. We waited half an hour. Then another half hour. Then another half hour. That’s right, the train to Istanbul was an
hour late. We were starting to worry as
other trains had flowed in and out of the station, but the Istanbul train
finally arrived.
We boarded the train and found some seats (though, in
hindsight, we are pretty sure we were supposed to get a place to sleep) and
started our journey. The train was flying down the tracks and we
were tired, but it was still hard to sleep.
Sometime around midnight we finished our Chinese food. Then, it started to get cold.
Eventually, we got to some little town (Dimitrovgrad or
something “grad”) and we stopped. For a
long time. Then we started going
backwards, which made us worry a little bit.
Then we went forwards again.
Eventually we made it to Svilengrad, the border.
We asked the conductor what we should do and he told us to
stay where we were. Then, five minutes
later he was standing outside with a flashlight, intensely signaling for us to
move to the next car. So, there we were,
crammed into the narrow aisle with T’s giant suitcase as the large and
impressive-looking Turkish border patrol man made his way towards us. He took our passports, told us “don’t move,”
and left the train (which, by the way, was parked between two razor-wire
fences. The airport is much less
intimidating). Then we were told by a
man wearing cut-off jean shorts and looking to have no authority what-so-ever
to move into a compartment of the train, which we were reluctant to do having
just been told by giant-scary-border-guard to “not move.” But we did.
We met a girl from France and a girl from Germany, who also had no idea
what was going on. Soon, we got our
passports back and started to move again.
Eventually we were let off to buy our visas into Turkey.
As we were standing in line, the guy behind us asks, “Where are
you from.” T answers, “The US.” I then mention that the guy is American and
wants to know which state. T laughs and
comments on his excellent English. Turns
out, J is studying abroad in England and decided to take on Eastern Europe
during his break. He was traveling
alone, since all of his friends believe it is unsafe. Anyway, he only had pounds that were printed
in Scotland and N. Ireland, which apparently appear quite suspicious, in spite
of being perfectly legitimate money.
Anyway, we stuck around to make sure he would not be stranded at the
border. The visa man took his money and
after intense inspection, gave him a visa.
We then moved through the passport line and on to the holding tank (“luggage
inspection”) before getting on the bus.
We then saw the visa man, holding J’s money, coming towards
us again. He then began questioning, not
only J, but the rest of us as well about its authenticity. When Q finally took out $20 and offered to
exchange it, the visa man seemed to believe that it was real money. We then boarded the bus with our new friend J
(it is now about 2 am) and set off down the road to Istanbul.
To Be Continued.....
