Angekommen

yep, i've arrived. i am in sofia now. got here around 5 pm local time (one hour later than germany, GMT + 2) and somehow managed to find the way from the airport to the place of vera and georgi where i will be staying for the next few weeks/months.... i took a private taxi from the airport asking beforehand how much it would cost to get to my destination. vera and georgi live in a former library (sowjet style, so it looks rather like an ancient storage hall on three floors from the outside) in the former industrial zone of sofia. "voenna rampa" the district is called (soon, i am going to provide you with the names also in cyrillic letters if possible, but for the moment i am not used enough to them). it's somewhere in the north of the city center and....well, it took some efforts of me and the "taxi" driver to find the place. it's much easier by bus though, but the bus line doesn't go to the airport and with all my luggage (24 kg + carry-on + laptop), i didn't want to go into the adventure of riding different buses in an unknown city to unknown stops and with unknown conditions. so, the taxi brought me to the right district, eventually, we found the bus stop and the "silver staircase" described to me by vera. and here i am.

about the place i am at.....i'll better take some pictures during the next few days. it's a three storey building surrounded by a huge garden. in the backyard live around 11 dogs and in the front yard, there is a lot of gardening going on. homegrown fruits and nice flowers still resisting the growing autumn cold. there is a lot to do around the house. gardening, of course, and feeding the dogs. also there are many rooms in the building which need painting and stuff, so that they become inhabitable. the bathroom is not quite done yet, but it can be used, so who cares... i have wireless internet access with my laptop, a nice bed, friendly people around, a washing machine and a dryer that i can use, a kitchen including a stove (which is as far as i know sth i wouldn't have if i lived in a student residence around here)

in return for the place to live and breakfast, i will help with the work on the place. renovations etc. i'll see how long i like it here.

well, the next post shall have pictures.