status: alive, well, not at all stolen by gypsies...

At any rate I am using the convenient internet place across the street from the 'art hostel' that I am staying at in Sofia, Bulgaria. I rolled into town around 6:30am. First, however, Bucharest:
I had planned to perhaps stop by Sinaia on the way but there was not time so I had a few hours to wander around Brasov some more. pretty place for sure. Then a 2 or so hour train ride into Bucharest. The only other person in my compartment was some poor lady who kept trying to ask me if we were getting close to sofia. At some point I just started speaking spanish whenever anyone spoke to me in Romanian. It's actually close - Romanian is a romance language and very close to old school latin. At any rate, got to Bucharest around 1:30, and headed off toward the center of the historic quarter. Walked through some very gheto areas, lots of gypsy kids runnin all over the place. So wandering, wandering... almost 3 hrs later I realize that I dont really know where I am and that I shouldve been there by now. Well, long story short - I had pulled a complete 180. By the time I found an intersection I knew from the map, I was about 5 blocks from the train station. I then proceeded to walk the wrong way down that street. As a last resort, I walked into the next metro station, attempted to head in the correct direction to the historic quarter. No signs, announcements, I just got off when the most people did. Luckily - it worked. In the dilapidated historic quarter, there were all sorts of random street vendors. I just found somplace recommended in the guidebook and had some nice soup. I walked around to see some of the sights, treated myself to desert, and just as it started sprinkling I headed back toward the train station. words of the day "comfort food. On the way to the station, I ran into the Bostonian that went to Draculas castle with me. He had just arrived and was on his way to a hostel. I wished him good luck and got myself out of town. Had a sleeper car - all to myself! Pretty sweet service too. Of the billion people that had to see my passport, the customs guys were the best. The first one asked me where I had come from and when I said Brasov he got dreamy and said he loved it there. Then asked if I had any problems - drugs, guns... laughed and left. The other customs guy was funny - reading all of my passport outloud, judging me fit to continue into Bulgaria. Ah...
Somehow managed to make it to the hostel here around 7am - the streets are not exactly gridlike, and all the signs are in Cyrillic. I can't wait to see what a mess of things I make when in Turkey. I'm getting the hang of it now though. The 3 other people there were still asleep when I left about 10:30. I hit all the major sites, got my sleeper reservation from Plovdiv to Istanbul, and have spent the rest of my time wandering. An absolutely gorgeous day - to warm for my coat, windy, you can see the mountains all around.... Verdict = sofia is an infinitely nicer place then Bucharest!