Skopje and Bulgaria

 I left on the bus for Skopje at 9.30am. Skopje is quite dirty, all of the apartment buildings look like slums, and the whole place isn't very nice.  I am so glad I stayed in Ohrid, it was lovely.  Skopje is full of monuments and statues, they are on almost every corner from what I could see.  Pity they didn't spend the money on fixing up the accommodation for the common folk.

I had a long wait in Skopje for the bus to Bulgaria.  The Bulgarian countryside looks really lovely.  Similar to Macedonia and all of the Balkans really, yeah, surprise, surprise. But it does have more fields and meadows in this area anyway.  I arrived in Sofia and took a taxi to my hotel. 

The countryside from the bus.

Well what can I say.  Sofia has traffic crossings that make a noise for the blind, just like the ones in Aus, and that is about the only nice thing I can say about it.  It has been a huge disappointment,  I should have kept to my usual plan and not stayed in the capital.  It is dirty, uninteresting and the people are quite rude.  

Old ruins under and beside the metro station

More of the ruins

Part of a better Sofia street, a walkway near the metro

A really old church

I actually ran across and Kiwi and a hybid Aussie (she is apparently part everything) anyway after the first pleasantries notheir first question was how I find the hospitality industry.  Yep they noticed it too.  A young English chap at the railway depot commented on it too.  They are really bad.  You can wait at a restaurant for ages and then have to approach a table with 3 to 4 men sitting at it and then ask "Do you work here?"  They answer yes and then you have to say can I have a table and a menu?  I mean it is like they have no interest in doing their job.  The food takes ages to arrive too.  They only time they smile at you is if you leave a big tip and not always then.  Unblievable.  Even the check-out chicks are downcast and blunt, no smiles, ever...

They have trams, no info on them as I didn't use one. 

One of my meals, it was delicious. Most of the food didn't impress me to be honest. But this was nice.

I have no idea what thi is meant to represent.

A nice park in the city. Very well used by locals and tourists.

I really wouldn't recommend Sofia to anyone.  I am off tonight on an overnight bus to Romania.  I have decided to skip Portugal and just do Romania and then go home.  I am starting to feel it is time.