On Bulgaria

Bulgaria is a super interesting country, full of nice people, cool soviet relics, and a beautiful mountainous countryside, which was loaded with trees changing color when I went through it. However, I had my first negative experience with HelpX.

I was in a small village (Voditsa) working at a family's house that's run as a campsite/hostel during the summer months. I was doing a variety of odd jobs around the property, like building a fence and shelling walnuts. The village was nice, and the work was alright, but I really didn't get along with the boss, and it got quite cold there (note the snow), and the combination of the weather and the boss got to me. I had planned to stay for three weeks, but I ended up leaving after one, and luckily I got the opportunity to work at a hostel in Albania, where I am right now, happy and warm and getting to socialize with guests. I'll post more on the hostel later.

I think if I had been in Bulgaria in summer or spring, I may have enjoyed myself, or maybe if I just had more time to get along with the boss. But I'm only in Europe for so long, and I didn't want to spend another two weeks unhappy, so I left. The boss took it pretty well, and I'm glad I left early.

I spent a couple days in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, after leaving the village, and I rather enjoyed just wandering around, taking in the city that was somewhat western, but somewhat soviet. The English graffiti was interesting (as above on the main shopping street), and the cheap street food was hard to beat. More photos here.

I then took a bus to Skopje, Macedonia, where I had an afternoon to kill walking around the city, and then headed to the hostel in Albania. I'll be here for another 3 or 4 weeks, then hit up Greece, Turkey, and head home for the holidays (and to finish my applications to grad school).

Italy!

I've been in Italy since October 3rd, and it's been great. I'll do this in reverse chronological order! I just arrived in Milan, where I will be catching a flight to Bulgaria, where I will be working on a farm/campsite for a few weeks. I most recently spent 2 days in the Cinque Terre, which is a stretch of coast with five villages connected by trails. Above is Manarola, where I stayed in a lovely hostel.

I joined my friend Megan (middle), who worked in Scotland with me, and her friend Emily, and we also made a new friend, Ruben, who was pretty much a Belgian version of my old ultimate frisbee captain, Jeff Loskorn (aka DJ). We spent one day hiking the five villages (about 5-6 hours one end to the other), which included walks through vineyards, olive groves, wild areas smelling of wild herbs, and gorgeous cliff views. We ended the day by going down to the water for a swim with "cliff diving" aka jumping off of 12-foot boulders and doing cannonballs. Also included: delicious lasagna and gelato.

Yesterday, we hiked to Porto Venere, which is further down the coast. The hike was quite incredible--everything from clifftop churches to pine forests to stunning views of marble cliffs. Around the corner of Porto Venere is this place nicknamed Lord Byron's Grotto, I think because he tried to land a ship there once (the descriptive plaque was pretty beat up). There are marble cliffs on three sides, a cave, two castles, and blue, blue water. We went for a nice dip before catching the boat back. For dinner -- walnut ravioli and local white wine. You can view my other photos here.

Before Cinque Terre, I went to Florence (by myself). I loved the Renaissance feel of the city, and I had gelato which definitely is in my top 10 desserts of all time. Seeing Michelangelo's David was spectacular, and so was the Uffizi museum.

I had one lovely evening where I went up to the Piazza Michelangelo and watched the sun set over the city.

Before Florence, I spent three days in Rome with my good friend from high school Alexandra Gloria. We had a blast. We saw the Coliseum, the Roman forum, a bunch of churches, the Pope, the Vatican, and an ancient city outside of Rome, Ostia Antica. I most enjoyed the Sistene Chapel, St. Peter's, and Ostia Antica. You can see my photos from Florence and Rome here (you'll have to scroll down past some photos from the UK).

Rome was great, but I think I would go back to Florence and Cinque Terre first (CT especially). All in all -- a great trip. Next stop: Bulgaria.

Goodbye Wiston, hello London

Alright folks, the nearly month-long post drought is over. Last week I left Wiston Lodge after a month there. It was a great month, and I'll have a lot of good memories.

From Wiston, I took a bus to Aberdeen, which is a very cool city, with loads of interesting granite buildings. I had about two hours there (enough to walk most of downtown) before catching an overnight ferry to the Shetland Islands, the northernmost part of the UK. Shetland is renowned for beautiful shorelines, geology, and archaeology. I spent a couple days hiking the sea shore (pictured above) and visited a 4000-year old archaeology site.

Above is a tombolo, a sand and shell beach connecting two pieces of land. You walk across the beach from the mainland to get on this island inhabited only by sheep. The weather was pretty incredible too (although windy).

I had originally planned to spend a few more days there, but most of the lodging on the outer isles was already closed for winter, so I decided to go ahead and go to London, where I am now.

I've just been walking around the city a ton and bingeing on museums, which are free (!) here. Yesterday, I went to the British Museum (home of the Rosetta Stone and a bajillion other cool things), the National Gallery (home to a pretty exhaustive collection of western art from 1300-1900), and the national portrait gallery, which has, well, a lot of portraits, some of which are pretty cool.

I also ran across this little gem:

Yes I ate there, and yes it was good.

I head to Rome on Monday. After that...who knows!