>do bvlgari watches come from bulgaria?

>what i find awfully hilarious about travelling is that you’ll meet dozens of people on your travels who will try to discourage you from heading somewhere. almost every single stop on my trip, someone has asked, “you’re going to(insert city name here)? why would you want to go there? it’s so boring and full of crooks and there’s nothing to see and blah blah fucking blah.“

and it really pisses me off that people think that because they couldn’t find the beauty of a place, that no one ever will. if i can’t get into the spirit of things, then neither can you!! my standard response is, “because it’s a part of the world that exists.”

anyway, i was being discouraged from heading to sofia (bulgaria) endlessly before i arrived, so i was a bit apprehensive. i heard it was full of guns and gypsies (what a racist comment) and even border guards will try to steal my passport to sell, and no one smiles, and every one hates english speakers….no one told me how beautiful and tongue-in-cheek bulgarians can be.

the alphabet used through much of eastern europe is cyrillic. so when shops try to use the latin alphabet now and then…they kinda falter.

tee hee….you said ‘fag.’

ignore the ‘act your age’ thingy and just pay attention to the message above it….so so true.

some streets in sofia are painted gold, which was probably done years ago when it was a communist country to try and portray the infallibility of the system. i just thought it went well with my sandals.

nothing in this shot is particularly of importance. i just like the sunshine.

the hills of the rila monastery. me and 3 australians blokes from my hostel piled into a small yellow taxi and road 2 hours outside of the city (for the princely sum of €15) to the rila monastery up in the mountains which was built in 900 CE

rolling green

the rila monastery. no photos were allowed inside of it, but let me assure you that there was so much gold on the walls, golden paintings and frescos in that place, that i couldn’t help but think, “this is not the church of a carpenter. if jesus were around, he’d smash this place like he did the sellers in the temple.”

this is me and aussie-Nick. nick and i met on the train from istanbul to sofia and spent about 2 days wandering around together. such a cool bloke, we had nothing but laughs. and yes, i am super short.

some of the murals outside the monastery. notice how all the images are of women?

you just KNOW this monk was thinking to himself, “i’m too sexy for my pants…too sexy for my pants…”

mountains rise, people pray

more murals.

cobbles to trip over.

pussy! i leaned in to take a photo of his face, and he purred up against the lense…that’s my foot in the background. yes, i’m that bendy.

i’m trying to drink from the fountain, but it kinda looks like i’m vomitting

http://www.youtube.com/get_player
this video, and the one following, are of the taxi ride back down the mountain. so fucking beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

outside my hostel lived a gaggle of cats. they loved looking up to heaven.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

because heaven is where pieces of meat would drop….watch the video! meow!

the next day i decided to climb mount vitosha. it took me 3 hours, and i forgot to bring water with me. bugs ate me alive. i was all alone. loose rocks abounded. i nearly slipped and fell down steep cliffs more than i can count. i got freaked out by Blair Witch ideas running through my head, and never actually made the summit…but it was a fucking amazing climb. and another 3 hours to descend it…

little streams flowed down the rocks.

the view of sofia from halfway up

me all sweaty and gross

the light flowed down like endless rain into a paper cup….

—

yesterday i took a 6 hour bus from sofia and arrived in skopje, macedonia. while i love train travel, i actually feel closer to the environment when busing about. we stopped for about 45 minutes at the bulgarian-macedonian border, where i was asked (by someone who obviously doesn’t see a lot of canadian pass through his border), “canadian? why are you traveling to macedonia?”

“to see the world.”

that didn’t seem to compute.

skopje is great. everyone said i would hate it, and so far, i’m enjoying every second. i had a massive vegetarian meal yesterday at a riverside restaurant for the princely sum of €1.30 … really can’t complain here.

i have 58 stamps on my passport.

and counting.

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