A few from Sofia

Here are a few of my last pictures from Sofia last week. 

                                            I love the stray animals in Sofia

                                                       Church of the Seven Saints

                                                   A big American tree

                                                       Fall Colors

                                                         Selfie

                                                      More Fall colors

                                                     Strange monument

On Wednesday we took a tour with my buddies at Sofia Green Tour( Sofia Green) - click on that link for more information. 

It was a little bittersweet leaving 'ole Sofia, but it was nice to leave for a little while. 

Ten Days

and as of tomorrow, four countries. Talk about an long ten days that will make.  So I will sum things up real quick here:

On Sunday the 20th at 5:30 am, I returned from my trip to Thessaloniki for the half marathon.

On Monday the 21st at 8:20 am, I met my good friend Lauren from WKU, along with a young boy from California, who joined us at the hostel for about 24 hours.

For the next three days I showed Lauren around the city of Sofia, proudly being tour guide in the city that I called home from about August 1st to October 21st.

On Wednesday the 23rd at 11 pm, we boarded a bus for Istanbul, Turkey. Around 5 am we crossed the border, which meant we had to get off the bus and pay a man to put stickers on our passports. Those stickers were our little visas that allowed us to enter the country of Turkey.

On Friday the 25th at 11 pm, we boarded a bus for Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Around 3 am we crossed the border, and received our exit stamps on the visas. Then we crossed into Bulgaria and received our entry stamps back into the country.

On Saturday the 26th at 6 pm, we arrived in Plovdiv, and were driven to our marvelous lodging place - Old Guesthouse Plovdiv.

Yesterday, Sunday the 27th at 1:30 pm, we boarded a bus from Veliko Turnovo, where we met old friend Jimmy around 6 pm yesterday evening.

We have really enjoyed this city, and now we will be heading to Bucharest, Romania during the middle of the day tomorrow.

Over the next few days I will be posting some pictures and stories of the different places we have visited, and will be visiting.

Ciao!

Thessaloniki Night Run

So on Saturday evening last week, I took part in the Thessaloniki Night Run. This was a run that consisted of 21 kilometers, or 13.1 miles.

Had I eaten a little healthier lunch, the race result would have really been amazing. I did finish in my race goal range of 1:45:00-1:50:00, at a time of 1:49:10. I also completed another incredible task. It was not all that incredible, but I did finish the complete the race without stopping at all.

My first 8k (almost 5 miles) 44 minutes
Second 8k (almost 5 miles) 40 minutes
Last 5k      (about 3.1 miles) 25:10

The event was very well organized. The whole town seemed to have shut down at the same time as the race, which meant plenty of spectators for the three laps of fun. Water bottles and isotonic drinks seemed to have been in endless supply too. There were about 2500 participants in the half marathon, and about 7000 spectators in the 5 k race. All of the finishers in each race were given medals. The medals were beautiful pieces of hardware too.

I forgot to mention that the sunset at the same time as the race started. The race started about half of a mile in front of the White Tower. The race eventually ended at the White Tower. The temperatures were freakin' amazing - perfect fall temperatures.

                                                      Representin'

                                                  Awards stage

                                                      Runners getting ready

                                                      Getting my warm up going

                                                      Start line was somewhere up there

                                                  Sunset - almost race time

                                               a little excited about what is about to happen

                                                         DONE!

                                                       Finish line was here

                                                         That is awesome

                                                       Beautiful medal

Where am I?

So I recently departed Sofia for the next few months. It was a somewhat sad departure, but I was ready to hit the road to get a little traveling done. I left Sofia last night about 11 PM, and headed toward the east about 350 km or so. So I will load some more photos about this place with some info about it tomorrow. 

A few from Saturday

Here are some of the pictures from before the race activities began on Saturday. I spend most of the day walking through a few markets and squares, before lunch, and then afterwards I found a lovely park bench and took a nap. 

                                                   Greek Cats

                                                     Evidently they love the old ruins too

                                                        Lovely Orthodox Church

                                                    Not sure about this fellow here

                                                             I liked the design of this place

                                                   Cats are great at guarding history

                                                     Check out the pigeons here

A few pictures from Thessaloniki

Hey Ya'll!

My sincere apologies for not updating over the last five days. I had a great trip to Thessaloniki last weekend. On Friday I arrived around 4 pm, and found my hotel somehow without too many hiccups for someone who had never visited the city. I also did not even have a map in my possession as well. The hotel was not all that great, but it was only a $50 dollar a night room that I stayed in. The service from the staff though was wonderful. Service allows me to overlook the negatives in a hotel or hostel.

Thessaloniki was a nice town to visit for a weekend. There is a little history there, and the people are very friendly. Many of them speak English, and though the food is twice as much as Sofia, the taste is wonderful. I can not really say I ate anything native though, since I was stuck to carb-loading for Friday evening and Saturday at lunch time.

My idea of location was not a great idea considering location of the local sights. The sights were a good twenty-thirty minute walk away; at least the bus/train station were about ten minutes or so away from the hotel, so I was a sort of a winner there. I entered one church during the thirty-six hours I was there and just walked around and examined history in the great outdoors otherwise.

Here are a few pictures that I took.

                                           Great graffiti

                                                      I love the positioning of this cross

                                                  What's Up Park?

                                             Sunsets are wonderful in this city

                                                    White Tower

                                                           Not such a great pic of this church

Soup Anyone?

As I was working around the hostel on Tuesday morning, Jimmy came up with a wonderful idea. Soup. Well, we did not have any meat, but we had plenty of veggies - eggplants, pumpkins,onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and some tomato puree. Jimmy did throw in a few spices as well. I will let the picture do the talking. It is nice to buy food sometimes, and have someone else prepare it, while I am doing a little dirty work around this hostel at times.

This will be the last post for the next two - three days, since I will go run in Greece on Saturday evening. There is a chance that I will have wifi on the bus though.

             Interestingly enough, this was the first time that young Jimmy had ever eaten Veggie Soup

The Reward I had been aching to eat for a while

This is a thing of beauty. Pretty good taste as well. I pass this little bakery on my way to the produce store a few times a week. I have seen this carrot cake many times, but told myself "you have to get that long run down first, then you can eat it." I made it to the bakery Sunday evening a few minutes before closing time. I can not even recall the last time I ate carrot cake, but I savored the few moments I had eating it Sunday evening. I was so satisfied that I let Jimmy take half of it. We also shared some baklava as well. I am still ready to devour some pizza or a big burger as my reward for running this race in Greece this coming Saturday evening. Anyone hungry yet?

Ajvar

I first tried this a few weeks ago when I visited Kosovo. This was something that I saw many times though being sold in the cities of Macedonia as well. When Jimmy and I went to the store this evening to buy some little dishes for dinner, I was pointing to and trying to read out a bean dish that I wanted to the counter lady. Instead of receiving the bean dish, I received a little tub of what is called Ajvar. 

I love this Ajvar stuff. I was wise enough to only eat half of the container tonight, and perhaps I can save the rest for later. This would make great souvenirs for those folks out there who love peppers, and no, not the spicy kind either.  I just learned that the word is pronounced "eye-var". 

Here is a link that explains this yummy red pepper and eggplant dish. The link also contains a recipe too, so you can get started ASAP. 

Ajvar

Here is a link to one of the most famous brand names associated with Ajvar. I even remembered seeing a little car in Skopje, Macedonia, with the Mama's insignia on it. 

MAMA's

Only because it is a funny picture

I normally do not post random pictures on here, but as I was walking past a jewelry store Monday, I saw this. If it was good enough for a laugh, then it was good enough for a post.

Stray Dog Issue

It turns out that Eastern Europe has had its fair share of problems with over growing stray dog populations. Sofia, Bulgaria, Belgrade, Serbia, and now Bucharest, Romania. 

Here is an article that I found about the stray dog problem that is going on at the moment in Bucharest. 

Bucharest Strays

Jimmy and I, along with my friend Lauren will be passing through Bucharest in the next two weeks. I would love to make a short film documenting this problem. Here is one more article regarding the situation too. 

Bucharest again

Sofia has had their fair share of problems as well. I sometimes notice that the stray dogs here have had red tags clipped on their ears. Well here is an article that should support why they have received those tags. 

Four Paws

Just tonight as Jimmy and I were walking very quickly through the rain, we saw a medium sized stray hovered over in a corner avoiding the rain. Both of us instinctively pull something from our dinners and passed it on to the little fella.

Enjoy the article readings, and perhaps I can get some pictures of the strays when I camera's battery charger arrives next week. Ciao! 

Hello from Super Rainy Sofia

Luckily I got my run in earlier this evening. It turns out at 7 pm, though the sun has already set, I saw more runners than I have seen at any other time during my running adventures in this city. My Achilles Tendon is bothering me a little bit this week, so I may not be running the night race in Greece at a full pace. about 19 miles (almost 30k) on Sunday at a pretty good pace was not the best idea. 

We are having some major, major plumbing issues right now in this joint (hostel). It seems there some of the pipes have leakage that comes from our bathroom sinks or shower drain into someone's downstairs office. Meanwhile, as someone is working on the repairs of that issue, another person is piecing together the pipes to build up the second bathroom here (finally). 

At least we do have hot showers here now. For the first few months, one could take a warm shower for a good five minutes or so, but not so much a hot shower. I was credit with the idea for the thermostat which has solved the problem. 

Last week I met a recent college graduate from the University of Memphis (my hometown university), who was born and raised in Memphis. He lived in the Bartlett area, and went to high school at St. Benedict. It was definitely a great experience to spend time with someone from "back home" for a day or two. 

I have a few more things to throw on this blog, but I will try to keep everyone updated a little more regularly. 

A Beautiful Movie

A few times a week, Jimmy and I sit around and watch various movies.  Last night we watched a really well written, and beautifully acted movie, titled The Way, Way Back.

If you have not seen it, order it on Netflix, pick up the DVD, or download on your iTunes.

Here is a trailer, just in case you need a little more persuasion.

The Way, Way Back

Frugal Traveler???

Then this site is for you!

Price of Travel

A few recent pictures

                                          The Russian Orthodox Church is still undergoing some repairs

                                               I just happened to notice this

Jimmy making friends with a local stray 

                                                    The local stray enjoys his snack - feta cheese

                                                      This picture is just hilarious

A New Addiction

I have found a cool new website to latch onto in my spare time, courtesy of my co-worker Marc.

It seems my account has already been suspended and I have only used it for maybe twenty minutes so far.

Here's the site though anyway.

WAYN

Enjoy, and sign up if you are a big fan of traveling. 

Sofia Marathon

Here is an article about the Sofia Marathon that I took part in this past Sunday.

Sofia Marathon

My take on Bulgarian salad

It seems I am using a few too many onions. I am becoming more proficient at this Bulgarian-style salad thing though. Usually the dressing consists of a little salt, lemon, vinegar, and sunflower oil. It is probably a much healthier kind of dressing to use. This is my lunch these days - along with four or five slices of whole wheat bread. I eat pretty good sized breakfasts and dinners. The marathon training is forcing me to work on my heath a little more these days, especially watching what I eat.

A Slovakian, an Australian, and an American

sittin' round the dinner table preparing their meals to the sounds of Johnny and June Carter Cash. That is the way it should be.

Jimmy, the Aussie, and I often prepare meals together. He is kind of like that little brother that I momentarily wanted once in life. He loves playing his banjo, and listening to bluegrass music. Often times when we are preparing lunch or dinner, he will play some tunes from his iPod, such as Bob Dylan, or Johnny Cash. Ludvig, our Slovakian worker here, just happened to be in the kitchen with us a few nights ago. It was a great moment that shows the musicians may leave this world, but their music carries on forever.

                                                            Jimmy on his banjo 

Done!

So I ran and finished the 18km race of the Sofia Marathon this morning.  Back in late July finishing 5k without a break was pretty tough, but today I ran the entire thing. My time was somewhere between an hour and thirty-five or thirty-six. The course consisted of running 3 6km laps around the center of the city. I was a little frustrated because I chose not to bring my iPod with me and timers were not readily available on the course. A few moments after I completed my third and final lap, I did spot the pace car for the marathon runners, so I just had to subtract five or six minutes from that. The marathon started at 10 am, and the 18k actually started at 10:05. Finger crossed there will be some results posted on the internet sometime this week.

                                     These signs made it easy to find the race office yesterday

                                    I am not sure if there was anything significant with this race number

                                  Had to ask someone at the hostel to get a picture of me afterwards

                                                I even got a cool certificate for my participation

                                                                   My new kicks