Sofia

Sofia was great!

My train was late (of course) but Rob was there to mete me at the train station. I walked smugly past all the people advertising hostels and Rob and I tried to get a cab to his place. He said that it should cost less than 2 leva...about 1 euro, and that was being generous.

The first cabby wanted 10 leva. The second wanted 5 euros. Rob's been in Sofia for as long as I've been in Romania. We asked the next guy to use his counter but he refused, asking some exhorbitant amount. Finally, we walked a bit further down and found a guy willing to use his metre. Total cost? 1.80 leva.

Wehung out a bit, relaxed and then went shopping.

I like Bulgarian fashion. The long skirt, hip scarf and tank top look that I tried so hard to establish in Romania was alive and well in Sofia. I tried in vain to see some Romanian microscopic skirts to point out to Rob what I put up with on a daily basis. None.

We found a great store selling linen tops and skirts, all at up to 70% off. Happy Karla.

While walking downtown, we saw the Bulgarina equivalent to Speaker's Corner.

Speaker's Corner is a Canadian institution. Rant and rave on national TV for a dollar. We thought we'd give it a go. I put a leva in and nothing happened. Then another one. We were on in five seconds!

We had no idea what we would talk about. Rob started, by complaining that Eastern Europeans all think he's Japanese, when he's really Malaysian. We then talked about how much we love Eastern European tomatoes and finished up by asking ourselves how we could smuggle back homemade tsuica and rakia. We both gave these huge cheesy smiles and thumbs-up signs, which I half expect to see on billboards around Bulgaria next year.

"Bulgaria: Even the Canadians love us!"

That night we went to a going-away party for Rob. I got to meet all his coworkers. Lovely group of people. We stffed ourselves full of traditional Bulgarian cuisine and then tried to interest people in coming clubbing with us.

No one was interested.

We wandered downtown by ourselves. Rob was curious about the strip club scene, never having had anyone to go with him. I told him I would go. So off we went to a club well-recommended by the Peace Corps guide to Sofia.

The girls rotated every song,which was nice. No one was completely nude. We sat on a couch and drank overpriced tonic waters.

There was a couple of Aussies perpendicular to us. One kept getting lap dances. You could tell he was trying to convince the girl to go home with him. Finally, he approached the manager to work out a deal. When the manager called him a few minutes later, he jumped up so excitedly and hit our table...spilling my drink all overme. I gave him a rude stare.

"Sorry!"
"How about buying me a new drink then?"

Sadly, they fell on deaf ears as he was too excited about his upcoming private session. On his way back, he told me sorry again. I re-asked for my drink, but he was too concerned with the girl on stage. Jerk. Rob and I kept giving him dirty looks all night.

After a couple of hours, we went home. The place was ok but not great. Anyways, now I can say I've been in a Bulgarian strip club!

The rest of the time in the city, Rob and I went sightseeing. We passed by a little hole-in-the-wall porn shop. My first time in Sofia, Momir and I went to the porn shops by the train station, which had an impressive selction of beastiality and granny porn. I wanted to see if they had them here to show Rob.

Sure enough, they did. I pointed out "Fun With Horseies" and "Pit Bull Delaight". The guy behind the counter helpfully pointed out the granny porn as well as the funniest German porn I'd ever seen: Spritz in mein Grotten. That became our catch phrase for the rest of the trip.

Coming home one night, we saw the infamous Sofia transvestite hookers. I wanted to geta closer look but Rob thought they might be dnagerous.

I was sad to leave. On Sunday afternoon, I packed like mad and we hightailed it to the station with seven minutes to spare. I ran to buy a couchette but luckily, the train was 80 minutes late.

Then 100.

Then 150.

Wemet a French guy and a German girl who were also taking the Sofia-Istanbul train. Since misery loves company, we decided to wat together. We had a great time sharing food, complaining and running to the informaiton desk eveyr ten minutes.

Finally, the train arrived. Rob brought me to the train, gave me a big hug and promised to see me in Toronto.