I Guess I'll Keep On Ramblin'

      Meteora:

 

A Tortoise:

       I arrived in Thessaloniki on Friday afternoon. I walked quite a ways from the bus station to the hostel. When I arrived I saw two Australians that I had met in the hostel in Trikala. It was nice to know some people from the start. For the rest of the evening I hung out with them and an older Australian man with a lot of stories. We drank some beers at the hostel before a Swedish man joined us and we started playing a word association drinking game. Later that evening, we all went to dinner at a tiny restaurant down the street. When we got there it was full of locals playing music, singing, and having a good time. The five of us shared several different plates of Greek food some wine, and plenty of raki, a Greek liquor.
       The next day I walked around the city for a few hours. Thessaloniki is a really nice city and I felt very comfortable there. I went to the waterfront and visited the White Tower. From the top of the White Tower I saw a castle on the hill and made my way up to it. There is an old wall around much of Thessaloniki that connects to this castle. After that I headed back to the hostel and spent some time just sitting in the sun and talking to some of the employees there.        

      Later that evening, the two Australians, a Canadian, and I, headed downtown to meet up with a local from Thessaloniki and a couple girls from the Netherlands and Germany to check out some of the night life. There were plenty of clubs to check out and, although clubbing is not really my thing, we were out pretty late.
     The next day I caught a bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. I got here around 10:30 last night. This morning I, along with a South Korean and an Egyptian, got a ride from a Bulgarian man in his minivan to the Rila Monastery. As soon as we pulled out onto the road, we were side swiped by another car. The drive was a bit long and we went way up in the hills outside of Sofia. On the way we passed through a town where on almost every roof there is a stork's nest. Apparently the storks come to Bulgaria in the spring and summer and then fly down to Africa in the winter.
       The Rila monastery was really cool. We also walked up a trail to a small church that was right next to a cave where a monk used to live around 1700 years ago. Now I'm back at the hostel. I'm going to stay here for another day and then head to Bucharest.