Welcome to Bulgaria!

I'm sitting in this rather dumpy, run-down building with the usual cigarette butts scattered everywhere, as it is the closest internet cafe to where I am staying in Sofia, BG. It is dark, and there are very strange gaming posters everywhere. I get the feeling this is used more late at night. Anyway, it happens to be close and that is handy. I am staying with the mother of Daniela, the dance instructor for Radost who has spent the day helping me get around and get organized. In my broken Bulgarian, i tried to tell her it wasn't necessary, but I regardless, I am greatful for the help.

After i left Cavtat, Croatia, I took the bus to Dubrovnik and then onto Podgorica, Montenegro. Good thing I didn't listen to one travel agent who said i could catch a bus from Herzeg Novi. That one only runs 2x/week. The ride to Podgorica was supposed to be 3 hours...but took 6, even with a crazy driver. Imagine, those Montenegran narrow mountian roads in a bus with a madman! Glad that is over. From there, since it ended up being later (and darker) than I had hoped, I found that there was a all night bus leaving for Skopje, Macedonia right as soon as i got off my bus. Rather than checking the train, I just hopped on. A rushed decision but again the next bus was not until the next day or the day after that. I probably should have thought about route more because we drove through Kosovo during the night and that caused some problems at the border. The eastern border guards in Kosovo were not at their posts ( this was about 1am in the morning) and so the bus didn't stop. Well, it did, but not for long. But, then when we tried to leave after driving through the Kosovo plain, the Kosovo border guard at the other side said I was there illegally bcause I had no passport stamp and that i was lying about what I was doing in the country. SCARY! With God's protection, he eventually gave me back my passport and let the bus leave (with NO stamp). Then, at the Macedonian border, we all had to get off, empty our luggage and let them search. It took at while but that wasn't too bad. From Skopje, MK, I hoped on another bus to Sofia. By the time I got to Sofia after all this, I had been on 4 buses for a total of 28 hours of riding. Yuck. But, that's Ok. I'm where I need to be and I had a nice bed to sleep in last night.

At the bus station in Sofia, i called Daniela's son who hadn't read his email in 2 weeks and didn't realize I was coming. Luckily, he was free and he managed to convince me to come to a friend's high-school graduation with him. It didn't sound too exciting, but I had no idea what was coming! Bulgarian HS graduations are hard to describe without using cliche words like "party", "fancy" and "insane" :)
Luckily, I made lyubo take me back so i could at least change my shirt and wash my face. I asked if people were going to dress-up and he said, well not too much. HA HA. He was just trying to get me to come. The girls wore (scant) clothing like Vogue magazine with equally as much makeup and attitude. The boys looked similarly duded up with the fanciest suits and ties; not black and white suits. They were more like...well, again pick some teen magazine with boys trying to look like calvin klien and you might get the picture. We began at a restaurant where everyone brought the graduating girl flowers, stuffed animals and other such gifts. There were 3 long tables completely packed with family and friends. The festive mood was mounting but it was just a taste of what comes later. From the restaurant, we went and washed the car, came back and gathered again to decorate it and then formed a parade to follow the lead car (the fanciest and most expensive the student can find) and tore around honking horns, sitting on the windows while counting to 12 to represent the 12 years of school and drag racing the other students on dangerously busy streets. Lyubo has a loud muffler he likes to entertain with :) And they claim there are no accidents...but I don't believe a bit of it. Then, the caravan of 10 or so cars rallied at some predetermined destination, blocking a 3 lane road, as the rest of the students families and friends and their respective caravans joined us. Here, some Roma musicians in competing bands (two kids bands with tapan and clarinet and other drums and two adult bands) continued to elevate the party atomosphere with some great music. To be fair, not everyone was yelling and grind dancing on the sidewalk as they prepared for the actual discotek later, only some of the kids were. Anyway, from here, we ALL caravaned to the teachers house, picked up the teacher in a limo and went to the school. There were probably 600-800 people for a class of 25. Here there was more number counting and pictures and something else but i was far away and couln't tell what actually happend. The formal graduation had been at some other time so i'm not sure what happened here besides more music and gathering. At this point I didn't want to drive anymore and was very tired so Lybo brought me back to his grandma's and then continued on to the restaurant and disko later. We might see him in a few days since he has several friends graduating and as you can imagine, he is preoccupied!