Live by the Sun - Love by the Moon: DAY 83 & 84 – Where is the Teeniest Bathroom in the World? (update)

June 10 & 11 – Two bachelor guys in Sofia, Bulgaria

We spent most of the day traveling to our next destination of Sofia.

On the road again...Oh baby we're on the road again!

Interesting sign at the border between Macedonia and Bulgaria

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and supposedly has the worst reputation in the Balkans for pure air quality. It did smell pretty bad. I guess it's because of all the industry or something. We used our rain gear for the packs for the first time. We really hit the rain storms today.

Trying to keep dry from all the rain today.

We walked up nearly 100 steps to the top floor of two bachelor guys' flat. They gave us a key and we were on our own.

We enjoyed dinner at a little cafe. – chicken soup in a bread bowl (SO good!) and roasted vegetables. (NOT so good!)

Chicken Soup tasted very good after a rainy day.

Ivailo and Rich sit with a couple of Bulgarians on a bench.

Ivan Vazov National Theatre

A close-up on the theatre door

Our hosts had gotten these couches from a special "unwanted" place so they could do couch-surfing.

Is it raining inside the house, Rich?

Ivailo and Velislav gave us the middle room, their living room and dance floor when they had parties. It had a nice view of the city and was very comfortable. They have the tiniest bathroom I've ever seen as you can see below. This was it. They had hooked up a nozzle hose on the sink so they could have showers. You can see the drain right next to the toilet. It works and it's better than an outhouse. Right?!

This bathroom wins the contest in my book

The next morning Rich was sleeping in. No way was he getting up early to go do anything.

We finally wandered out to the city to go on an 11 a.m. city tour. No one was there. We were a couple minutes late, so we hurried to where we thought they would go next. We found out later that we had changed time zones, so we had missed the tour. We went out to the city on our own. The trouble with that is we had no idea what we were seeing, but we've done that before. So, next post are some pictures of our day in the city.

A scene from out the window where we stayed

Looking at the back of the flat next to Velislav & Ivailo

Scenes of the city of Sofia.....

Some interesting modern art along the parkway.

Such a gorgeous building!!

National Assembly Square

Changing of the Guard...look how they are in sync.

The Balkan countries have come to the realization that something needs to be done with the poverty level of the elderly. Under Communism things were better as the government took care of the health benefits and the retirement and pension of the elderly. Today, however, more than 50% of the elderly are in poverty, having to rely on their children to support them. They are asked to live on 80 euros a month. (about $100) This figure is lower than an earlier post that I did. It seems that this area was particularly not doing well. We saw so many begging in the streets. Some were working and doing what they could, but after all their years of hard work, it seems sad that they are expected to continue til they die. I saw one older lady who did look like she was dying. My heart really felt for her.

I bought a hand-made item from this lady. Luckily, she could still work with her hands.

Such a cute little man

Many go around and collect items in the trash cans

Generally, it seemed that the older people were very sad and distraught around the city of Sofia

Many carried around "Lidl" bags - a grocery store out of Germany, but seen throughout Europe.

This man was wanting someone to play chess with him

Velislav made us a yummy salad typical the Balkans, with lots of tomatoes and Cucumbers.

We made the boys some "Idaho Funeral Potatoes" for dinner - a dish that is brought to many Idaho funerals when the family comes together for a pot-luck meal after a loved one has passed on. They loved it - I think I used more than a 5 pound bag of potatoes.