a little disappointed, really

I'm now in Plovdiv, and to be honest I'm a little disappointed. There's some kind of festival going on here and the city is PACKED with people. I couldn't get a bed at the hostel that I wanted to stay at, and although I did sort one out, it's at a place that's quite small and has no common room or any sort of 'meet people' kind of feel to it. On top of that, the bed is horridly hard and lumpy.

On the plus side, the lady that runs it, Svetla, is doing a load of laundry for me for free. That'll be nice, as it was getting pretty ripe. Actually, I wish I could wash my shoes. God they stink!

I suppose I should calm down a little and try not to pass judgement on this place until tomorrow. It was dark by the time I got checked in and showered, so again I'm allowing my tired, alone, hungry, lost in a dark city attitude to get the best of me. I'll just wait until tomorrow before I decide how long I'm actually going to stay in town.

Ha, I just realized that this post starts with "I'm a little disappointed. There's some kind of festival going on here". Clearly I HAVE taken on the wrong attitude! OK, it must be time to turn that around. I think it's just after 9pm right now, so I'll wander down to the newer part of town, where it's easier to keep your bearings and where I saw them setting up a big outdoor stage on my walk into town. Must be something interesting going on there. I could use another piece of pizza, or maybe some other kind of street food to fill the stomach.

As a side note, if I do decide to stay here tomorrow night, then I'll be committed to doing the hockey draft from this city. Might even be this internet joint, if it's open early enough. I'll have to ask the guys before I leave when they open this shop up. This part of the world really doesn't seem to start until 10 or 11am in most cases, although everything IS open quite late.

Finally, I've just setup a skype account, and next time I come over I'll maybe add a little credit to it. If you have Skype, you can find me by searching for Mike Schmitz, or my "bms" shaw email address. I can call normal phones for 2 euro cents per minute using it, so maybe that's how I'll start making calls home. It's much easier to find a computer with headset/mike than a phone these days!

that's it for now. later!
bms