Bulgaria

We only stopped in Bulgaria for a couple of days as we had intended to visit it further later on.  Our small taster left us wanting a lot more as what we saw was amazing and the people were super friendly.  Also gave us our first chance to operate with the cyrillic alphabet on the trip.

Sofia:  There was free beer and pasta in the hostel.  Sofia is a very pretty city.  The cathedral is beautiful, but it's not the only thing.  Cannelle had a good feeling for the city and it was one of her favourites initially.  We did some shopping, visited the city and hung out with some Colombian students.  We had problems working out our route here as we weren't sure how we were going to get to Budapest in time for Sziget.

Belogradchik/Vidin:  Wow this place was really worth the detour.  Cannelle hadn't wanted to come all the way up here, but it ended up being our second favourite natural wonder after the incomparable Plitvice.  We had taken the train to Orashets, but be aware that there is no bus from there anymore and you would be better off visiting from Vidin.  We got chatting with a local girl who was surprised we had come up there.  Shared a taxi with some Japanese/Taiwanese tourists who were obviously also unaware that there was no bus anymore.  Our driver told us how he was involved in forestry and wanted to go to the States and work illegally as it was far more money than in Bulgaria.  There is a little fort/monastery on a hill and behind it are the most amazing rock outcrops you will see.  Its UNESCO but noone comes here.  We met an old Japanese guy who was visiting all of the world's UNESCO places.  We would visit this great place together and then share the bus to Vidin where we had a fish dinner in one of their famous floating restaurants.  He would end up coming to my wedding with his wife a year later.  Funny things these travel meetings.  You should definitely come here if you are anywhere in the area.

We weren't sure how to get away from here as it was the bridge to Romania and round or the bus to the Serbian border and risk it.  We took the risk.  We arrived and there was no onward transport so we had to walk across the border for 10km to the nearest town on the other side.  The border guards angrily erased our Kosovo stamps.  I thought it was because they were angry at us for visiting Kosovo, but later we found out that if you enter Serbia through Kosovo your entrance stamp is not recognised and yu will be sent back the way you came.  So in hindsight maybe they were just doing us a favour.