Bulgaria, Day One

After a hayday of airplane rides and airport tours, we're here in Sofia.  We arrived at our hotel around 11:45 last night (that's 3:45 in the afternoon in the US)  and we were so incredibly tired...and emotional.  I think that we were both nervous about our surroundings and the fact that we were just so far away from home and everything and everybody we love.  Things are much, much better today.  We slept REALLY late, and finally got out of our room and downtown around 3 this afternoon.  We're right in the middle of town, so we were able to walk everywhere.  Some things are very different, some things are very much the same.  The weather (today) is very similar to a cool day in Alabama.  Probably upper 40s, but, in the picture below, you'll notice the mountains in the background.  What you think may be a cloud is actually a snow-covered mountain . . .

 

Some of my stuff got trashed at the airport, because I got kinda careless in what you can and can't put in your carry-on.  My brand new Mary Kay facial moisturizer, that I hadn't even opened yet, was one of those things, along with my body lotion.  So, our main goal (or mine, I should say) was to find somewhere that sold stuff like that I could recognize.  Let me tell you, it wasn't easy.  There are more people here than I thought that can understand English, but there's a lot that don't.  Same goes for products in a store.  I could recognize that things were some kind of personal hygiene products, but I couldn't tell what kind . . .like, was it shampoo, lotion, conditioner?  We found a shopping mall with a kind-of Bath and Body Works type store in it, and luckily the girl that worked in there was very helpful and spoke some english.  I found just what I needed, and took some pictures of the mall . . .

 

 

The city is a little 'dirtier' than I expected.  Everything is pretty run-down, but I read some about that before we came.  The government here still has a very post-cold war mindset, and the infrastructure is very indicative of that.  The pictures below were taken off of the balcony of our hotel room . . .

 

 

 

I might not go as far to say that our hotel is in the slums, but I'm certainly not walking out of here at night.  This is our hotel . . .

 

 

The rest of these pics are just places that we know well in America.  Eastern Europeans seem to find them good, too . . .

 

 

Dinner tonight consisted of these next two . . .

 

 

The next few pics are just out and about downtown.  The 'official' looking buildings are the President's office and the Prime Minister's office.  Walking around down here is the equivalent of walking around Washington D.C. in the states.  You'll notice that the first pic is the same pic as one of the mall pics. That's because the President's office is connected to the mall.  You wouldn't see that in the US . . .

 

 

 

 

This is a pic of ruins that were just recently discovered under the city.  Sofia officials were beginning to build a subway system, and in the beginning stages of that, they discovered old ruins underground that are remains of an ancient Roman city.  They're in the excavation process, but you can see evidence of their work in a large section of the underground parts under the bridges . . .

 

 

These pics are some I took yesterday during our trip.  I wanted to make sure I got a pic of the Airbus that seats 525 people.  Do you know how big that is?   Ginormous!  I was absolutely amazed at the size of this thing . . .

 

 

 

People were loading on the top deck of this thing the same time we were loading on the bottom.  I realize my love of planes is a little unnatural, but really . . . I enjoyed that piece of aircraft.

 

This pic was taken as the sun came up from the plane.  It was neat to see the sun rise and set from the air . . .

 

 

When we flew over Austria, snow was covering EVERYTHING.  It was so pretty from above . . .

 

 

And here's a pic of us as we were on our way, when we still resembled well-rested humans . . .

 

 

Our driver/translator will pick us up here at the hotel at 9:30 AM tomorrow.  He'll take us to the orphanange, and there we'll meet our girl.  We're so excited to get on with the real reason we're here.  Pray for us tonight, that we won't be nervous, because, believe it or not, I am a little.  I'm not sure why . . .maybe I'm scared that a two-year-old little girl isn't going to like me!  I know we're ready for her, though, and we just want her to be ready for us.

 

I'll update again after our day tomorrow.

 

Much love to everybody,

 

Paige