Heather & Bajji come to visit!

We love to get visitors, and recently we had the chance to host our friends Heather and Bajji from Colorado. They were on the tail end of a 3 week (or longer?) trip to India, Switzerland, and Bulgaria (I bet not many travel agents handle requests for that combination!). They were jet-lagged and travel weary, and we were exhausted from semester exam (and grades/comments) madness that had lasted for weeks. The weather was a rainy/snowy wintry mess. Still, we had a lovely time.

Their first night here we went up to a brewpub on the lower slopes of Vitosha to celebrate a friend's birthday. The taxi ride was epic. The unplowed streets were too steep for the little front-wheel drive with no snow tires. At several points the car was sliding backwards down the snowy hill, though our fearless driver Kiril kept the accelerator floored (all the while calmly chatting with his girlfriend on his cell). We kept trying to say "This is good enough, please let us out here!" and walk the rest of the way (probably 30 minutes up a snowy mountain road, but still) but Kiril would have none of it. I think he enjoyed the challenge, and when he got us to the nearly deserted (but open) restaurant, he gave me his personal number so I could call him for the return ride (which I did).

Heather and Bajji did a little exploring of Sofia on their own while we were teaching, and after school one day I gave them a tour of the more interesting parts of campus, including the old creaky water tower that you can surprisingly still climb (which of course we did).

Bajji climbing the tower, and grinning at the top.

On Saturday we rented a car for a short trip to Rila Monastery before they had to return home to the US. It was nice for them to see the countryside, Rila is quite pretty in the snow, and it was my first time driving in Europe. On the one hand, Shannon and I loved the freedom of being able to drive again. So many more travel opportunities suddenly seemed reasonable. On the other hand, Sofia traffic was sucky, the ice-slicked highway was often terrifying, and the potholes were relentless (more on that later).

My beautiful wife at Rila.

Heather & Bajji getting tourist-y.

Shannon & Heather taking in a brief moment of sun.

Rila Monastery in mid-winter.

On the way home, I nailed a pothole at highway speeds in our little tiny Euro rental car. Bent the rim and got a flat. Suck. Luckily there was a spare (we had neglected to confirm this when we picked up the car in the middle of the pouring rain). Luckily Bajji is craftier than I at figuring out leverage and how to make the most of a mini-tire iron (standing/jumping on it seemed to do the trick). Not so luckily for us the repair cost over $150, and of course it was not covered by the "premium" rental insurance we sprung for. Oh well...it was still a fun outing.

Thanks for visiting Heather and Bajji! Hope to see you this summer in Colorado!