We arrived in Sofia on Tuesday afternoon, and were greeted with a warm welcome by some old friends, who had prepared lunch for us. It was so much fun getting reacquainted! Honestly, I don’t remember many details of those first conversations, other then the basics, like the delicious food and the feeling of being with friends that I have missed.
After a visit and a little unpacking (we stayed at Pastor Plamen and Debby’s house for a few days) we headed to IKEA for a meal with friends and a little activity. This trip was designed to keep us awake until a decent bedtime. It worked! We had another nice visit and walk around IKEA, then collapsed. We slept reasonably well, and felt soooo much more human in the morning.
The second day we jumped in headfirst to deal with many of the details needed to settle in Sofia. We started with a visit to currency exchange, then a visit with our immigration attorney. The we opened a bank account (also required for our visas), had some awesome pizza, and coffee with Dessy. I have a photo, but she made me promise not to post it. :)
The iced coffee, however, was wonderful, and exactly what the mid-afternoon slump required.
After the coffee, Johnny (another new friend) took us to the police station to register. This was required for our visa application and had to be done in the first 5 days. Basically, it means that we have to let the government know where we are staying and how to contact us. We used Johnny’s address for this, since we didn’t yet have our own.
After all this activity, we capped the day off with a tour of the neighborhood we hoped to settle, and a relaxing dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Turns out, the grocery store tour and the Chinese dinner provided that night by Dido and Milena turned out to be EXACTLY where our new apartment is! We didn’t know it that night, however.
Up next… apartment hunting.
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