Bulgaria - Day 1: Sofia - Part 1

After spending the better part of three hours in the Frankfort airport - we boarded our final flight to Sofia! It was pretty uneventful - not as luxurious as the first one - a bit more cramped - but it was the final leg and a brief one that, clocking in at just over 2 hours.

Getting into the Sofia airport was relatively easy - easy to navigate and easy to get the luggage (and what a load of luggage we had! Two 50# pieces of checked luggage each, a carry on each and a shoulder bag each! Geez! You would think we were moving to Bulgaria!). We had one piece that was slightly damaged - we filled out a claim form and on we went.

As we left the baggage claim - our friend Villy, her brother Tony and her cousin Hristo were waiting to greet us! What a warm welcome! Open arms and plenty or warm smiles! Villy is the main contact to Bulgaria between Lisa and her father. She stands about 5'3", dark shoulder length hair, and deep brown eyes, with alabaster skin. Tony looks his entire name, about 5'5" as well, stubble dark hair, deep eyes, surrounded by a jovial round face marked with laugh lines. Hristo is the picture of a 16 year old European teenager male! Decked out in the latest fashion - his dark hair slicked back ala Sylvester Stallone circa The Tango and Cash years - a thick silver cross and chain dangling from his neck - he smiles from ear to ear waving enthusiastically we approach.

As we say our “Hello”s and hug/kiss – Hristo wonders if we are moving to Bulgaria! After assuring him that we are in fact not moving to Bulgaria – we begin to move the caravan of luggage to the curb to grab a cab in order – to get this – plant Hristo on a bus with the luggage to get everything to Lovech (where we will be headed tomorrow – Tuesday). All this while we stay in Sofia for the evening and head to this cool restaurant on a mountainside! Poor Hristo! Everything fits into a Van/Cab – Barely Hristo though and off he goes to babysit our luggage into Lovech while we head into Sofia to check into the hotel for the evening.