Sofia, Bulgaria

I arrived in Sofia (captial of Bulgaria) with good spirits and a new haircut. (For those who have never done it before, shaving your head once in a while is a great experience!)



I had arranged a host through a backpackers' hosting website called "Couchsurfing.com".
My host Nasko was going to meet me at a central landmark. Although it wasn't my first time traveling through an area where I couldn't read the script, Cyrillic felt so frustrating! It was as if I was understand a handful of letters, with the exact wrong meaning behind each one... (Capial "A" means the number "1", Capital "S" is the number "6") There is nothing more pathetic than a backpacker standing around on a corner trying to translate street signs using a Lonely Planet guide... yeesh. Luckily, Nasko had seen a few pictures of me online, and rode by on his bike. So I guess I was closer than I thought. He passed me, whipped his head around to get a look, seemed confused, then turned back. "Are you... the guy?" he said. We took the bus back to his place and had a few beers and talked about Bulgaria, life, and politics.

Later that night after meeting his two roommates, I became 1 of 4 guests crashing at the apartment. It felt a lot like my time in Bombay, where we had a lot of guest coming and going through the place, leaving their impression quickly, but lasting a lot longer. It was a good feeling to be around so many other young people, on the path to... wherever.