Day 9

Stood out on the balcony of the hotel and watched the small military parade go down the street-it was independence day in Greece. Headed back to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

The bus ride wasn’t near as long as the one there. We got there, dropped Sharolyn off at the Hotel Champion-the name is misleading-and headed out to see Sofia. It’s really a neat city with lots of old churches-Bulgarian Orthodox. Apparently Constantine worshipped in one of the churches we visited. Then we headed to the market to buy pottery and see a little more of the city. For dinner we went to a cool Bulgarian restaurant that was decorated in local stuff and was real fun. We celebrated Kara’s birthday and ate way too much. Once we were back to the hotel we went to visit everybody in the Suite and then headed to bead early. We had to be at the bus at 5 the next morning.

looking down a street in Sofia

military guarding the Presidential offices-which are coincidentally located inside the local Sheraton hotel

one of the local churches we had an opportunity to visit-just around the corner there's a market that sells Communist paraphanelia-Bulgaria is the only country where selling these relics is legal