Thursday, July 1, 2021

Noting too incredibly interesting to write about today other than Mom and I are starting to go a little nutso from being in the apartment. “Princess” (as she is sometimes affectionately referred to) seems to be in a self contest of how late she can sleep in. The routine has been to shut off our phones around midnight and go to bed. She’s been really good about following the phone rules so far. But we don’t really know for sure what time she actually goes to sleep.

This afternoon we went back to The Mall. Meagan really needed some new shoes and we decided on a movie during the heat of the day. It ended up raining while we were in the movie, so it turned out to be a good call. We grabbed lunch at The Mall. It was pizza for Sonya, Subway for Megi, and… whatever that says in the 3rd picture below for me.

We saw Fast and Furious 9. How they made nine of these horrible movies that people actually look forward to seeing, I have no idea. Easily one of the top 10 worst movies I’d ever seen. Honestly I thought it would get better after they sent the Pontiac Fierro strapped to a rocket into space, but it honestly didn’t. At least the theater was nice and the seats were comfortable enough for me to fall asleep during the first 10 minutes of the movie. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why the movie was so bad, because I missed the first 10 minutes which was so critical to the rest of the story line. 🤔

Then it was off to get Meagan some shoes. She got some Fila’s. And I’m at a loss as to what else I can add to that.

After the mall trip it was back to the hotel to chill out while it rained. It sprinkled off and on until about 9:30 and we couldn’t really tell exactly what the rain was going to do. That’s when we made our way down to the nearest McDonald’s to grab some dinner and to go and sit by the fountain in the cool night air.

Sonya read about this fountain located in Banski Square. Constructed in 1958, but this site was used by the Turks for public bathing from 1911 until 1986. What a sight that must have been! At its earliest history, Sofia was formerly a Roman colony called Serdica. People settled here largely because of the hot mineral springs around the area.

Throughout the week, Meagan has been able to keep up with her friends back home on the phone that we are letting her use on WiFi hotspots. I’m sure that it is difficult for her to let them go, mostly likely forever. We were walking around last night (and this also happened earlier in the day today as well) and she made the request to us that she see one of her friends who was coming to Sofia from Kazanluk, apparently to see their grandmother (a lot of this conversation was lost in translation through Google Translate, so we weren’t too clear on the details). We don’t know for sure if this was a girl or a boy, but we think it was a girl. Anyway, the jist of the request was “Can me and my friend walk around Sofia, just so I can spend one last time with her before I leave?” (Walk around by themselves without our supervision) Sorry sweetheart, that is what we call a “Hard No”. I tried my best to explain to her about us being in an unfamiliar city and that her mom and I were responsible for her safety, but she either didn’t understand what I was saying or didn’t like this restriction. As a compromise, we offered to let them walk around with us in tow, but that wasn’t what she had in mind. Sounds like this was a deal breaker and that they canceled their plans. It’s still up in the air for tomorrow, so we’ll have to see. It’s got to be so difficult to make this kind of life change and to sever those close ties with the people you love. We are certainly sympathetic to that. But rules are rules and they’re there for a reason.

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Friday, July 2, 2021

Fun day today! Another free day waiting for appointments. After getting our customary late start to the day, we did a lot of walking and got to see one of the sights that I’d been excited about seeing.

We left the apartment around noon-ish and headed out for lunch. We found a little “BBQ” place which did not disappoint at all. I got some kind of chicken gyro wrap thing that the guy called a “chicken dinner” in broken English. Yowsa! I think we will be back at this place the rest of the trip. Mnogo Vkusen!!

Megi’s personality is really starting to come out. She never has really been that shy around us, but she’s really starting to make us laugh, a lot! There was a point in the day when we were walking around where she saw a hotel with the word “INTERCONTINENTAL” at the top. She saw it and sounded out the pronunciation, and then celebrated with a hearty “HUH!!” at the end. So for the next 15 minutes or so (and even throughout the day), it was “Intercontinental! HUH!” (I’m sure this was much more entertaining in person than reading about. It’s a bit funnier in the video.)

We walked on…

Then it was off to the Aleksander Nevski Cathedral. We’d been wanting to see this for some time. Truly a magnificent site to see. I had to pay 10 lv to take pictures inside, so enjoy!

We continued our walk back to the west. We also got to see the inside of the old Russian orthodox church building. No pictures were allowed. I did covertly snap one at the entrance. Megi asked for a little red bracelet at the church, 6.50 lv. All I could pay for it with was was a 50 lv bill. This seemed to annoy the old lady sitting behind the desk.

We took a break from walking at a Starbucks for some overpriced drinks. Megi has gotten used to trying to translate for us, taking our orders via Google Translate and relaying them on to the person taking the order. This time Sonya told us what she wanted and then had to use the restroom. Turns out there were several different options for the tea that she wanted so this sent Megi and I scrambling, translating, looking at the options, translating… The barista finally piped up, “Wait, do you speak English?” Why yes I do. Thank you! That made it a bit easier.

We still had some souvenirs to buy for people back home so we took the rest of the afternoon to do that. There were a couple of other souvenir shops that we’d discovered online (one of them closed). “Souvenirs bought! HUH!!”

For dinner later in the evening it was… you guessed it… back to Vitosha Blvd. The restaurant we ended up at got mixed reviews. As usual, I liked my dinner and the girls didn’t really care for theirs. There was a similar situation to that of the Starbucks experience earlier. I was cluelessly looking around at the menu items trying to 1, figure out what I wanted and 2, figure out how to order it. I typed into Google Translate for the worker to see “It all looks so good I don’t know what to choose!” She laughed and said, in English, “Okay over here is your beef, and here’s your chicken…”

We then again walked down to the Cultural Center, and sat a while to people watch. I saw a little structure that caught my eye as the girls sat. It’s the Temple of Bulgarian Martyrs and is a dedication to the people killed during the Communist uprising between 1944 and 1989. From what I saw it was a small temple and a wall with names enscribed on it, like a smaller version of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC.

We explored a bridge on the southeast side of the center known as “Lovers Bridge“, but Sonya had a headache and wasn’t in the mood so it wasn’t any fun (just a joke, Honey!). Also, it didn’t really end up anywhere that interested any of us so we turned around and headed back to the apartment. All in all it was a really fun day with lots of laughs.

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