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Day 22 - 11/07/23

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 Woke up this morning with no idea what the time was, as my phone wasn’t working and the clock in our room was broken. Eventually though, we got ready and headed out to find a phone repair shop. After walking for about 30 minutes we found a shop. We found a few on the way, but trying to explain ‘phone charger not working’ is surprisingly difficult when they don’t speak English. Anyway, the man fixed it very quickly, so my phone was finally working again. After wandering for a bit longer, we had lunch at a restaurant. We had kind of a gyros except in a pitta, I would’ve taken a photo but I was so hungry that I ate the whole thing immediately. We then visited a castle kind of thing, but at this point I was quite exhausted so I headed home . The hills in Thessaloniki are brutal, and after a long walk home, which felt mostly vertical, I got back. We had a quick sleep and got ready to go out again. We then went to a nice restaurant for dinner, but I wasn’t too hungry so I just had some ...
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Day 21 - 09/07/23

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 3 weeks in, and despite being eaten alive by mosquitos I had a lovely sleep. Today was the day we went to the beach, but unfortunately the whole of Thessaloniki had the same idea so it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get there! It was a scorching hot day, and I had some beers in my bag that I drank very quickly to ensure they didn’t get warm. Unfortunately my sunglasses broke in Sofia so spent most of the day having to squint. I also forgot to bring a hat so I had to get creative. After a few hours of sunbathing me and Jagan went to get some more food and drinks.  Eventually, we decided to go home, and after waiting for about 30 minutes we realised that there were no ubers in the area. On a whim, we asked someone at the bar if they could call a cab, and luckily one arrived quickly! He spent most of the journey arguing with his mum on the phone. After getting back we all realised we probably should’ve used a bit more suncream. After arriving home, I realised that sand...
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Day 20 - 08/07/23

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 Woke up bright and early this morning and after hurriedly cleaning up the flat, we left on our way to the coach station. After using up the rest of my Bulgarian currency to buy snacks, we made our way on to the coach. Luckily I was sat right at the front, so I had a good amount of leg room. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep, as the coach driver was talking very loudly on the phone the whole journey. After making our way to the Greek border, us and a few others had our passports taken from us, and we had to spend the next 15 minutes waiting for them to check them. They took so long that the coach driver went over to the desk and gave them a piece of his mind. The coach was surprisingly speedy, and before we knew it we had arrived in our final destination, Thessaloniki. We couldn’t figure out how the public transport or taxis worked, so we decided to brave the 40 minute walk with our suitcases from the coach station to our airbnb. What we didn’t anticipate was that the entire walk was ...
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Day 19 - 07/07/23

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 Had a very lazy day today, as we all recovered from a heavy previous night. Despite the hangover, it was still lovely waking up in front of such a lovely view of Sofia. Went to make noodles for breakfast (it was the only thing I had left in the house), and after slaving away to make the perfect bowl I sat down to eat it and the chair broke! Was going to put a plaster on it but couldn’t find one big enough. The worst thing of all is that after spending 10 minutes recovering my noodles had now gone slightly cold. Think I might have to sue. Anyway, I spent the next few hours waiting for it to scab as I didn’t want to ruin any t shirts with blood stains. After sleeping the rest of the afternoon I headed out to get some dinner from the shop. After a long time deciding what to make, I decided I would try something I had never had before, so I made burgers. Spent 20 seconds being spoken to in Bulgarian at the counter before I realised she was asking if I wanted a bag (not sure why she co...
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Day 18 - 06/07/23

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 Incredibly busy day for Sam today. Woke up at the crack of dawn because I’m right next to a gigantic window and the sunlight was beaming in my face. It was worth it for the fantastic view though. We shortly headed off and got some breakfast at a local shop. I know I should’ve been responsible and gotten a pastry or something, but it was a boiling day and the Oreo ice creams were too tempting. We got on the metro and made our way to the cathedral. It was impressive, but after journeying in Europe for the last 2-3 weeks I’ve seen many many cathedrals, so the magnificence kind of deteriorates! There’s also lots of dogs in Sofia, so I included a nice picture of them relaxing in the shade. We then went to a place called ‘The Red Flat’, which was an 80s flat that had been untouched since the communist era, which was incredibly interesting. It actually looked lots nicer than my first year university flat so I’m not sure what they were complaining about. I found out that the reason why ce...
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Day 17 - 05/07/23

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 Woke up bright and early this morning and packed up all of our things in preparation for our big train journey. Had an absolutely nightmare trying to reserve seats as the queue was gigantic, and when we got to the front the lady at the desk just walked off for some reason, then returned 10 minutes later and informed us that we were queueing at the wrong desk. Despite this, we managed to get on our train in time. We were very excited as this train was comprised of various rooms with seats inside, like in Harry Potter as opposed to the normal trains with just rows of seats.  One of the two others in my carriage left shortly, so it was just me and Piotr for the rest of the journey. The carriage was very hot, and Piotr worked tirelessly trying to jam his water bottle in between the self closing windows to maintain a steady air flow. After about hour 5, I got a bit tired, so I stretched out along the seats and had a nice long nap. When I awoke, we were travelling around the Balkan...
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Day 16 - 04/07/23

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 Today was another lazy day in for the three of us, as the sweltering heat of Bucharest basically prevented us from going anywhere for too long without completely drenching our clothes in sweat. It was around this time that the air conditioning decided to break too, so there was no escape. Anyway, as the afternoon went on it got a little cooler, so we decided to head out for an early dinner. We went to this gigantic restaurant outside of a church, which appeared to be a very popular church as the queue to get in stretched around the corner. We had a beer and the waiter recommended we get a shot of Palinka, which ended up being disgusting and made everyone feel rather ill. Turns out it’s about 60% alcohol so that might explain it.  I had a lovely meat stew, which had all kinds of animals in it, as well as polenta (a kind of porridge thing which was actually very nice when combined with the stew), a fried egg and grated goats cheese. Probably one of the best meals I’ve had so fa...
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