Eastern European Adventure Part 1

Currently, I'm sitting at the Sofia Guesthouse computer accessing the internet in Bulgaria. We got here at about 6:15am this morning and got off to a good start walking around the city and exploring. Sofia is definitely a bigger city than I expected and the stray dogs here have become quite an attraction. If I could, I would have already taken two in! I feel like Sofia is known for its Orthodox Churches. We went into at least 3 today, all absolutely beautiful and the paintings remarkable. It's amazing to think about how old buildings are in Europe. We went in to one church that was made just by cobble stones and stood in the middle of the "new city" in a metro station. Way to preserve ;)
I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?
This trip is titled: Eastern European Adventure! Kristi-John-Richie- and some of the way Elisabeth.
Because we have a massive fall break (unlike the 3 days in America)- the stretched 10 days was worth taking a long vacation.
Itinerary: Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia and Istanbul.
From the beginning:
The 20 hour bus ride from Grenoble to Prague seemed as though it only took 5 hours. We slept most of the night. Thankfully I got to see a little bit of Germany on the way, although we only stopped at the Frankfort bus station (which was an industrialized city- not what I would have expected), another small town, and a gas station, where some very nice men offered me some of their delicious looking food through the bus window. Of course I would never turn down food, but it was cold and I wasn't sure if they were just being nice because they saw me eying it or not!?
Around mid-day we arrived in Prague. I really like this city. We walked around the city center, saw quite a few sights before grabbing dinner and heading to Elisabeth's hostel. Did I mention this was on the other side of town!?
Thankfully they had some room open, otherwise I would have been sleeping in the streets. lol. Sir Toby's was the name and the staff was awesome.. even the next morning when Elisabeth thought she lost her passport, they were all extremely helpful!
So the next day we hit up the castle, the bridge, did some shopping and ate more before we left for Budapest on the night train.
Budapest has been so far my favorite city. Thankfully, I upgraded to the sleeper car (the 13+ hour ride would have not been comfortable sitting straight up the whole time- the seats aren't as comfy as the bus). We searched for about an hour to try to find an open hostel. 3 of which were already full (supposedly there was a national holiday the day before we arrived!) That would have been pretty awesome to experience, and we later discovered that they had a huge firework show at the Parliament building. The hostel that we finally found turned out to be amazing. Central Backpackers. The most welcoming staff I could have asked for, and so much that when we arrived, we were welcomed with a "welcoming shot," alcohol stilled by the owners grandmother! Who's going to pass that up, even at 11am? Really got to explore Budapest. There were some great sights, beautiful architecture, and tons of photos. I wish I could express everything that was going through my head in all of these cities. Thought after thought.. but in reality, I can't explain half of what I felt. The pictures will have to show what I saw, and you can make up how it would feel.
Bucharest was nothing of what I expected it to be. It was more run-down and grungy, and unfortunately we only had about 4 hours there, which didn't leave us a lot of time to seek out the beautiful parts of the city. So instead, we ate. lol.
I tell you something, if there's one thing I haven't missed out on, it's all the food I've eaten on this trip. I swear I've been on an entire dress size!
Eastern Europe is pretty reasonably priced. I like using the Euro- which is so much more than the dollar right now that I get more for my money.
So now, after the 9 hour train ride last night, I'm in Sofia.
Venturing off to Istanbul tomorrow (which I think will be my favorite city!)
As much as I love ruins, and century old buildings, I look forward to experiencing something outside of the western culture.
Can't wait to post the hundreds of photos I've taken thus far, and more to come!

<3 Kristi