After spending the last several days in relative isolation in Belgrade, my experience in Sofia, Bulgaria was a breath of fresh air. The city is remarkably well kept and, even though the architectural styles of the communist era leave much to be desired, the buildings throughout town create an excellent atmosphere for aimless strolling. Sofia is an enormous city full of fantastic people, great food, and a thriving nightlife, but best of all, it's dirt cheap and a haven for backpackers trying to stick to a budget. There are plenty of attractions to entertain travelers both young and old alike, and even after spending a week in this great city, I still didn’t have enough time to see everything I wanted.
I’ve been completely out of my element since the day I arrived in India a little under a week ago and I’ve been wandering the streets of New Delhi like a toddler lost in a shopping mall. I’ve been staring at all the pretty lights, putting strange foods in my mouth, completely at the mercy of kind strangers, collecting a variety of new illnesses, abjectly lost the entire time, and generally just trying not to die. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to catch up with an old friend from college, Kanika, who was in town visiting family and friends in New Delhi. The timing couldn’t have worked out any better and thanks to her, I learned the ropes of how to get around India, saw the dynamics of an Indian family, and got to finally up with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in years!I’ve been completely out of my element since the day I arrived in India a little under a week ago and I’ve been wandering the streets of New Delhi like a toddler lost in a shopping mall. I’ve been staring at all the pretty lights, putting strange foods in my mouth, completely at the mercy of kind strangers, collecting a variety of new illnesses, abjectly lost the entire time, and generally just trying not to die. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to catch up with an old friend from college, Kanika, who was in town visiting family and friends in New Delhi. The timing couldn’t have worked out any better and thanks to her, I learned the ropes of how to get around India, saw the dynamics of an Indian family, and got to finally up with an old friend who I hadn’t seen in years!
I’m rather surprised by how much there is to do in the UAE (albeit expensive at times), but as great as the country is, what made the experience for me was not so much the city, attractions, or even activities – it was the great company I got to share it with. Backpacking across the world by myself grants me the freedom to make spontaneous, unilateral decisions as I go, but there is a price: I have nobody to share my adventures with. While I do my best to share my stories with family and friends back home through this blog, it is a far cry from actually experiencing the events together. While cliché, it’s true when they say life is better with company - and the same applies to travel. Ironically, what started out as terrible travel delay with my Indian visa turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I had the opportunity to travel with two old friends from college, Sean and Will, who were visiting family in Abu Dhabi.
