A Series of Unfortunate Events

Right, so my posting is a month late again (must be having a blog baby...) but here is my Easter Holiday in a nutshell. What we did during the trip wasn't much to write home about - shopping, eating, shopping, drinking, shopping, eating - but the getting there was a little shocking.

On the Thursday before Easter Shelby and I headed out on what we would quickly find out was to be a somewhat cursed holiday. Our first mishap occurred at the airport, where our flight was delayed by 3 hours. We didn't mind so much about the time, but started feeling slightly uneasy when we heard announcements of "unattended luggage" in our terminal and then that our terminal was shut down because of it. Apparently, it wasn't a bomb, because I wouldn't be here writing this if it had been.

When we finally arrived in Sofia, we hopped in a cab to take us to the bus station so we could get to Plovdiv, our first intended stop. The cab driver tried to coax us into letting him take us all the way to Plovdiv, but as it's a two hour drive, we thought this would probably be ridiculously expensive. As it turns out, so was getting to the bus station. Ten minutes in this cab somehow cost us 40 Euros. Then, since we were already being ripped off, we tried to bargain with him for a ride to Plovdiv. We thought we had won (he agreed to our terms!), so took the ride... but we were wrong. A combination of terrible English/miscommunication/scheming from the cab driver ended up costing us a small fortune to get to Plovdiv. For the first hour and forty-five minutes, we were able to laugh about our loss. This became more difficult, however, when we arrived to the outskirts of Plovdiv and our driver called over another cab, dumped us and our stuff in it and drove off. Not only did we think we would have to pay ridiculous amounts of money for this new cab, but the driver spent the whole time on the phone. This wouldn't have been a big deal except that his voice was exactly the one you'd picture a mob boss/hit man to have, so we felt relatively sure that he was planning our deaths. He wasn't.

Originally, we were planning on taking the night bus to Istanbul that very night, but because of our considerable delay, we had to spend the night. We found a little hostel downtown and walked in to ask for a bed. Naturally, with it being Easter weekend, the place was full. They said we could sleep on the couch. We agreed - with the way things were going for us, we weren't likely to do much better. We didn't end up having to sleep there, though, because some wonderful guy gave up his bunk for us and slept somewhere else (or bed still ended up being in the common room, but at least we were mostly out of sight of the random people filtering in and out throughout the night!). We spent that night in Plovdiv eating and drinking, trying to forget about the ridiculous day we had just had. The world's best ice cream went a long way in helping us to forget.

The next day, we went to the bus station to catch the first bus to Istanbul. It was full. We figured there would be another one soon, since it's such a popular destination, but the next one wasn't for another three hours. We waited with more ice cream. The bus ride itself was rather uneventful, unless you count the two, yes two, Viktor Krum look-alikes travelling on the same bus as us. Their resemblance to Viktor Krum was almost as scary as the fact that they were 30ish year old twins who still dressed exactly alike. Weird...

When we finally got to Istanbul, we found our way to Cass' place (Shelby's friend who works there and was hooking us up with our very own flat for the weekend), had dinner, and went to bed. The next day, we got up early to go shopping. Travelling around Istanbul would probably be a little bit scary if you were alone, but with Shelby, who was lived there, it was a breeze. She knew what buses to take, how to pay for them (!!), and where to go to find the cheapest clothes! We hit up a few markets, the grand bazaar, and even managed to squeeze in some tourist attractions. We got loads of new clothes for the summer, all at ridiculously low (2-5 Euros) prices. It was wonderful. In the evening, Cass took us to a supper club to see her friend perform in what some might call a Tranny Show. He calls it gender-bending, since he would never dress as a woman in the day. Regardless, it was awesome. He was really funny, and the looks on the men's faces when he was making them slap his ass were priceless.

The next day, we went down to the Hammam (Turkish bath) for a serious taste of Turkey. It was so bizarre, yet so nice at the same time. Here's how a Hammam works:

1) Take off all your clothes, except your thong.
2) Enter a room full of equally, if not more, naked women.
3) Sit around the edge of the steaming-hot room, dousing yourself in cool water while awkwardly watching all the other people in there doing the same thing.
4) Get called by a scary, naked, Turkish lady for your turn to be scrubbed down.
5) Lie face-down on a slab of ceramic in the middle of the room while scary naked Turkish lady rubs you raw with a loofah.
6) Turn around so she can do the same to your front side. Grow increasingly uncomfortable with the whole situation as a group of old French ladies in one-piece bathing suits enter the room and look at your judgmentally.
7) Have hair and eyeballs washed by scary naked Turkish lady while trying not to drown in the water she is tossing into your mouth.
8) Exit the room wrapped in a sheet, not knowing at all what to think of the whole experience.
9) Discover what appears to be a hickey on your neck while putting your clothes back on and wonder how the hell that got there.

After the excitement/awkwardness of the bath, we finished off our day with an amazing dinner of baked potatoes and strawberry-kiwi-chocolate waffles. Yum!!

The next day was already time to go, so we hopped on another bus back to Sofia. Turns out Sofia is kind of scary and sketchy, so we did nothing but eat and sleep. Our flight back to Vienna left at six o'clock the next morning, so we weren't so upset to have an excuse to go to bed early.

I'm sorry it took so long to write this, but I've been feeling distinctly unmotivated lately. The school year should end in May.