Final Entry: The Summary

Brought to you by popular demand (well, at least my friend Juliet asked for it), the complete summary of my entire European Adventure.  This is great for those of you who are a bit curious about what I might have been up to for the last month, but not quite curious enough to read though 30 pages of terrible, typo-ridden, overly-and-yet-underly detailed descriptions of my adventure on a daily basis.  I’m going to do my best to keep the entire thing under two pages; self-pity, bellyaching, regrets and all.  So, here we go.

NY AND BUDAPEST   Ben and I got off to a terrible start.  Our buddy passes didn’t work, so not only did we waste a ton of money buying tickets at the last minute, we wasted more money and time in NY for a day.  Why was NY City a waste?  Because it was hot as hell, our hostel was terrible, and we didn’t really manage to see or do anything.  The only good part was meeting up with my good friend Lisa and having a nice meal together.  After flying all night to Budapest, Hungary, we tried to check in to our hostel, but couldn’t, because we had booked the wrong day.  We forgot we were losing a day on the plane, and Cameron never checked over my bookings like I asked him too.  Amy tells me she noticed it when she looked it over, but after I left.  Oh well.  We found another place.  We had a very nice time in Budapest, explored the city, walked though some of the original city ruins, and felt our way though catacombs deep under the city that have been used by humans for thousands of years.  After 6:30PM, they shut off all the lights, and we had nothing but one oil lamp to help get us out.  Very cool.  Also cool was the fact that I was finally able to sleep that night for the first time in four days.  The night before the trip when I had to wake up at 3:30AM and couldn’t fall asleep, the night sweating in a large closet in the NY hostel, and the night on the plane, all virtually sleepless.  That could be a record for me.

ROMANIA  After a scary train ride that we first almost missed (got on the train two minutes before it left the station) and where out passports were taken from us buy someone who may have been a fake (we eventually got them back), we arrived.  With some time to kill, we enjoyed our first super cheap and strong Romanian beers.  I accidentally overindulged and became a bit inebriated, which was a bit scary, considering how potentially dangerous our environment was (Cameron warned us that people, especially foreigners, get robbed in places like that all the time), and the fact that the only toilet available cost money to use.  But Cameron found us without incident, and the three of us caught up a bit and had a good time.

Over the next few days Cameron (our friend, and the reason for the trip in the first place, had been stationed in Timisoara, Romania, for the last year in the Peace Corps, and has another year to go) showed us around his great city and told us about it’s history, showed us where communism fell, and so much more.  He told us so many great and bizarre stories about the people of Romania, how things were like under Communist rule, and how superstitious the older people are, if I were to share even a few, I would far exceed my two page promise.  We hung out at his favorite Bar, ate at some good, authentic restaurants, and walked many miles.  I was looking forward to the opportunity to teach some English, but my potential students cancelled because of the very important football game that night.  It seems like the entire city gathers in the various plazas and watches Romanian football games on huge screens together.  I thought the idea was awesome, and wished my own city could organize such communal festivities.  During one night we hung out at a huge, fancy night club, partied at a college town, and watched the police almost break up a fight.  What a night.  Unfortunately, Ben had to leave after only a few days, because he could only get a week off of work.  Cameron and I rested for a few days before heading off to Greece.  I walked around the biggest, fanciest mall in the entire region of thousands of square miles, watched The Happening and The Hulk in the great movie theatre, and explored the city some more on my own.

GREECE  Greece was where the vacation started for Cameron.  The first island we visited was Mykonos, which is known as one of the party capitals of the world.  Well, I don’t know about that.  The dance club we danced at until 3AM wasn’t quite filled with the 5000 people my travel book said it would be, but it was still interesting.  The nude beach connected to our huge hostel was certainly new to me.  But by far the best part of the island was the architecture.  I had seen pictures and paintings of hundreds of small white houses with blue doors and windows my entire life, always dreaming of my chance to see them in person, and I finally did.  Walking through the complicated corridors of the village originally designed to confuse invading pirates was great.  But our second island, Santorini, provided us with the best day of the vacation.  An all day tour, which we stumbled up by chance, took us to a volcano we could hike, hot springs we could soak in, and two more villages on top of mountains we had to ascend hundreds of stairs to reach.  We also met up with five woman who proved to be great travel companions, even well into the night, where we danced at a small club with the best music selection I’ve ever heard in my life.  It was hot, and I sweated buckets, but I hardly noticed I was having so much fun.  Cameron might have had even more fun them me, as he’s still single, and I made sure he got all the attention from the very flirty girls.  To my great disappointment, however, we didn’t get to see the ruins of Athens, because our 8 hour ferry ride back to the mainland took 11 hours, and it was closed when we returned.  We spent two nights in Athens, and didn’t get to see anything up close.  That was some bad planning.

BULGARIA Greece was certainly hot, but it’s where we both had the most fun.  I should have gone home after Greece.  We walked around Sofia all day, but didn’t really do anything at all that day except eat at a cool restaurant called Happy’s.  After a terrible train ride to Plodive, we hung out at the hostel the first day, missed our opportunity for a tour by a day and tried to tour the city on our own.  We found an ancient monastery and hiked up into the mountains in extreme heat.  It was pretty neat, but very taxing.  The next day, after a train ride twice as long and just as bad, we arrived at Varna, the “resort” city of Bulgaria.  During our full day there we took the party van to the beach, which was probably the best beach I’d seen since Jamaica, and the best waves since Daytona Beach, FL.  Cameron doesn’t really do beaches, so he walked around as I walked up and down the topless beach and played in the waves, seeing amazingly attractive and unattractive people and feeling terribly lonely without my wife.  At this point in the vacation, I was just about numb from the pain of missing my wife.  I was thinking about her all the time.  There is a very good chance that this might be the longest we are ever apart for the rest of our lives.  I hope it is.

Getting home was very difficult.  After Cameron and I parted ways in Budapest, my mind completely fried by mental and physical exhaustion, I almost flipped out more than once trying to figure out how to waste 20 hours at an airport, give up, then make my way to a hostel, which I never found.  I eventually found a place to sleep, and made it to the airport without a problem.   I almost missed two of my flights for numerous reasons that weren’t exactly my fault, but after much trial and error, took my three final flights home, and was greeted by my wife screaming for joy when I finally appeared from the sea of weary travelers.  

All things considered, I did learn a number of things about myself, in addition to everything I learned about world travel and the four countries I visited.  I have never before in my life purposefully put myself into a situation filled wish so much extreme discomfort for so long a time, and paid so much for the “privilege.”  And I never intend to do anything like it ever again.  But I’m grateful to be back, and I’m certainly grateful that I love my life so much at home that I was so desperate to get back to it.  Thank God I’m home.  

The End

18 Hours Until My Flight, I Hope!

Last night got prettz stickz there at the end. Between Cameron and mzself, we took the whole "donát want to be left with Bulgarian currancz" idea a bit too far. After i completelz whiped out mz account at the ATM, we still werenát sure if we would have enough for the hostel and cab fair. Thez wouldnát take credit cards or US dollars, and the nearest ATM (that Cameron could have used) was prettz darn far awaz. But the cab was a bit less then we though, so, bz the time we got the to airport and bought a cheap snack and two drinks (we were both almost sick from hunger and thirst, it was not reallz a luxorz at that point), we had something like .4ö left, and i donated it to charitz. So, that worked out. Almost everzone at teh hostel went out that night at midnight, and multiple women asked me of i was OK and/or if i wanted to go. I must have looked that pathetic, that completelz strangers (well, i guess we had known each other for a few hours bz then) would worrz about me like that. Even after i explained that i had no monez left, thez still didnát care. It was funnz, or at least i chose to look at it like that. And if zou havenát picked up on it bz now, since iám back in Budapest again, iá back to a Budapest kezboard. Something tells me zou can still figure out what iám writing.

As luck would have it, the time iám facing the longest lazover of mz life, over 23 hours, the flight is not onlz on time, but leaves 1ó minutes earlz. So ironic. We arrive in Budapest at 1ó,3ó, but since we gained an hour, i had zet another hour to kill at the airport. I suppose i had previouslz agreed to not onlz paz the hostel and cab fair, but also for Cameronás train tickets home. However, when it came time to buz tickets into the citz, i almost freaked out. I had kept going back and forth as to weather i should just trz and save some monez and plaz it safe and read and sleep at the airport, or go into the citz, walk around some more, and staz at one last hostel. But when it finallz dawned on me just how much monez i had left, i experienced a small panic attack. When Cameron attempted to convince me to go with him, i basicallz snapped at him for the first time this trip. But as thez saz in court, it didnát even feel like it was with me. It didnát even sound like mz voice to mz own ears. So, Cameron, this is zour public apologz. I reallz started to loose it at the end there. Sorrz about that. Zou know full well i exceeded mz limites on this trip.

Just how far gone was i? Well, let me tell zou. Even i laughed at mzself. The airport is split into two seperate buildings about 5km apart. I had to take the bus to the other building, so i bought it, got on teh bus alone (as Cameron took his bus to the train station), and the next thing i know is that i was possitive i had just missed mz stop for terminal 2. So i got out at the enxt stop and walked aback, about 1.5km, onlz to discover that i had walked back to where i had just come from. I think i must have almost blacked out the first time and actuallz lost some time. I donát know how to explain it otherwise, other than extreem sleep deprivation and complete mental exhustion. So i repeat the process and actuallz make it to mz departing terminal. I had been mentallz preparing mzself for the 2ö hour wait. I was going to listen to mz iPod, read, work on mz blog, and sleep. Zes, i had it all worked out. Expect for one thing...I had to check in before i was able to do anz of those things. And then i learned zou can onlz check on 2 hours before zour flight. After all that, i had no choice but to leave the airport and find somewhere to sleep. So i bought another ticket and set out for the same hostel that Ben and i sazed at what seems like months ago. Mazbe even even zeas. I knew where it was, it wasnát so expensive, and it had plentz of vacancies last time, so whz not this time? I make it to the train station without a hitch, and even help out a ladz from Kurdastan who is just starting out her vacation. She kept asking me questions, full of spirit and energz and excited to see the citz, and all i can reallz tell her is that all i want to do is go home. I just want to go home. But, as bad a conversationalist i was to her, i did keep her from getting of at the wrong stop. I was stil able to do that much.

Here is where things start to go bad. I remember that when Ben and i made this journz, we had a map with destination names. I, of course, did not, having thrown out all those old useless papers to save space and weight. Zeah me! But how hard is it to ask for a round trip ticket to downtown, to the citz? I mean, itás where most people probablz want to go, and certainlz all travelers. I cantá imagine thez arenát asked that everz daz, even if thez donát otherwise speak english. The information ladz, who spoke prettz good English, said that all i had to do was ask for a ticket to downtown. After standing in the ticket like for 25 minutes because a student of Oxford was insisting on her student discount, and no one was giving it to her, it was finallz mz turn. I asked for mz ticket, and she tried to give me something that cost more than 1ó times what i knew it should cost. Itás onlz a 2ö minute train ride, after all. And here i go thinking that this should all be easz because i had done it before. But at that time, i guess i wasnát thinking about it in such a waz that i would need to repeat the steps, not unlike when two people part their car at the mall and both assume the othre will paz attention to where itás parked. Iáve been there, too, manz times, but let me tell zou, itás waz worse when zou are Budapest. Oh, i should also mention that iám fullz aware that iám using manz more words to talking about trzing to get home than i often used to describe what i actuallz did and saw on this trip. The explination is a simplz one, iám about 2ö times more focused on and care more about getting home right now than anzthing else iáve done in a long, long time, including sight seeing. Zou just canát understand how bad it is. Or mazbe zou do. Iáve bee told that iám not to bad at expressing mzself. If zouáve been pazing attention at all, then zeah, zou might have some idea of how much i want to go home. Leáts just saz that the entire purpose of this blog has transformed from a chronicle of mz adventure to a simple outlet of mz international suffering and insain desire to return to all that i know. (On an unrelated note, who out there thinks i should use mz English degree and inate sense of adventure to write travel books for a living? Anzone?) So, iám holding mz stamped ticket, standing on the platform, with 5ö/5ö chance of picking the train going in the correct direction. Then again, i think the woman sold me subwaz tickets instead of train tickets anzwaz, so iám sure thez both would have been wrong. At that point, i was more than a wee bit tired of doing things wrong, so i went to talk to the same woman i had talked to before, the one who told me all that i would need to do is asked for a round trip ticket downtown, and iád get one. This time, however, she didnát see to understand me. What he heck? She was the same woman. And NOW she doesnát understand me. OK Jim, i was thinking to mzself, keep it together. Zouáve got all the time in the world before zou flight leaves, and zouáre not leaving this station until zouáre sure zou know whereáre zouáre going. (Wow, this kezboard reallz mangles some of these words, especiallz if it has a "Y" and an apostrophe). Oh crap, now what? Iáve got to go.

Just 6 More Hours of Hostels...EVER!!!!!!!

As i might have said before, we missed our opportunity to take a tour of this city, so our options were very limited. We all piled into the hostel van at 11AM and headed to the beach. In many ways, it was the best beach i had been to in a long time. It was topless, but not full nudity. And it was very full, perhaps thousands of people were there. Cameron isn't much of a water guy, so after walking around for a while, i headed to the beach and he continued to walk. I played in the water with up to five foot waves, which were fun. The beach was over a mile long, and i walked it a few times. It was pretty good but, of course, i could only think of one person the whole time. It didn't help that the last nice beach i had been on was Montego Bay, Jamaica, for our honeymoon. I was worried about finding Cameron again on the huge beach, but we managed. We ate, walked around some more, and eventually found the van agan to take us back. But that was a
bit of an adventure in of itself. The van was designed to fit 10 passengers, max, if they are packed in tightly. We drove back with 17. I'm not going to tell you how we did it, but i'll say this much; it wasn't comfortable. Once back, we just hung out, watched a movie, and hung out some more. And that takes us to right now. It's really pretty boring but, as cool as this place probably is (i'm too numb to notice), it's not near anything, so there's no where to go and nothing else to do.

In just over six hours, we will be leaving to go to the airport to take a Wiz Air (you gotta love that name) flight to Budapest. From there, i have no idea what comes next. Orbit sent me an email telling me that everything changed, and that i sould call the provided number, but they wouldn't tell me what changed in the email. Amy called them for me to discover that they had cancelled my return flight. Then they didn't. But i'm sure the times are changed. I don't know. I have no idea what to expect when i finally get to the airport. But if they change it too much, i'm in trouble, because i alreadly have my flight from NY. The old me would be more worked up, but the new me, the one who endured these last 22 days, isn't that concerned. I'll figure something out. I think it took me at least 19 days, but it finally hit me. None of these little things matter. I used to be the type of guy to get worked up about things even when i didn't want to, but not any more. This adventure might have been an expensive exercise in suffering extreem discomforts, but it's certainly tought me more than a few lessons.

So, that's about it. I will probably write a number of retrospectives of my entire experience of all the countries i've visited at the airport with my 20 hours of extra time (I hope not more than that), but i don't think now would be a good time. As always, i'm sweating pretty badly just typing this, and i will once again sweat myself to sleep in a noisy room on a terribly uncomfortable bed, but i'll know i'll be starting my long journy home the following day, and that should keep my dreams very good.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...if only it were that easy.

The Lost Part (kind of)

It looks like i'm going to have to improvise. Last night i wrote what could have been my best blog entry yet. I spent almost 45 minutes trying save it or post it, but it simply would not work. I couldn't even cut and paste the words. Some of my best writing, gone. And in that obvious sea of amateur crap writing that is my blog to date, it really sucked that something introspective and personal was lost. Hell, i can't even get gmail to work here, so i've been reduced to writing it in yahoo mail.

So far, so good, it just saved what i wrote so far. I can't even get to my blog now to see where it left off. OK, i just got in. I'll try to finish my thoughts from last night.

It was during that song [We're Not Gonna Take It] jumping around on the bleachers to keep warm in the unseasonably cold weather, in a rainstorm, that i first told Amy that i loved her. But since the music was so loud, i knew she couldn't hear me, so it was safe. Still, most people can read the lips of someone saying, "i love you." Either way, i thought it was interesting that Twister Sister had been playing just about the same number of years we had been alive, and that they were one of the first bands i ever knew. And to think, about 22 years later, this was happening. I made sure that song was an important part of our wedding reception as well. The point is, no matter how miserable i was on that train, i listened to that song and tried to put myself back in that moment, shivering in the rain. Or later that night, while our cloths were in the drying machine, i finally worked up the courage to tell her that i loved her, for real. I was on the edge of telling her for almost 20 minutes. I knew she liked me, a lot, but i didn't know if it was too early to tell her that. Those three big words. But i did it. And my life has been so much better ever since, to this day, i can still hardly believe that i'm living the life i'm living right now. No matter how much goes wrong, as soon as i remind myself that i'm married to Amy, i start to feel better.

This adventure has been so hard on me. I was going to try to keep everything positive in this public blog, but i'm a terrible liar. I can't go around pretending i'm having a great time when i'm not and more desperate to go home then you can imagine, and i can't lie about it here. But, as i said before, i never imagined this to be some kind of pleasure cruise. I never billed this as a vacation, it was always an adventure. It was always going to be, for me, and exercise in endurance, in perserverance, and in simply seeing and experiencing parts of the world that most Americans never will. On all of those counts, i've succeeded. But what i underestimated what the huge potential benifit this trip could have on my already very good marriage.

Made it to Varna! Just Two More Hostel Nights!!!!!!

After waiting around the hostel for a good long while for Cameron to do whatever he was doing, we finally headed out to the train station to catch was i though was our 1:30 train, and what he thought was our 1:40 train. When we got to the station, i would looking for what i though was the time, as was he, and neither one of us found what we were looking for. The reason we couldn't simply look for the name of the destination, Varna, was because the names are in syrillic, and don't look at all like "Varna." Then we finally figured it out, we were both wrong. Our train left at 1:20, and it was 1:15 when we figured it out. Then we found that the platform was on the other side of the station. We're walking as fast as we possibly can without running, because he thinks you can get in trouble for running, and i wasn't going to take the chance. When we finally find what we think might be the train, we're still not sure, because nothing seems to match up wiht our tickets. We're sweating like hell and just a bit paniced, although Cameron is way to cool and hardened by the Peace Corps to ever actually be paniced by anything. But we finally get on with one minute to spare, which is one minute more than Ben and i had leaving Budapest. You know, i can't recommendly strongly enough avioding near misses in foreigh trainstations. Seriously.

My previous train ride from hell was four hours long. It was the most miserable travel experience of my life up until that point, and it almost made me physically ill to the point of puking. However, it was time to do it agian, and i was determined to be stronger this time. Imagine being on a train in a very small compartment with six or seven other people in 95 degree heat with almost no airflow and terrible body oder. Yeah, well, i was prepaired for another four hours of that, and did pretty well for the first half. I watched the movie "Shooter" on the tiny screen of Cameron's music player, listened to my iPod, and walked up and down the narrow hallway a bit when i felt too closterphobic. I even listed to songs like "We're Not Going To Take It," which they played at the Twisted Sister concert at the MI State Fair Grounds, the first show i ever saw with Amy.

(The next 5 paragraphs were lost)

Just Thee More Days (I hope)

Wow, that was strange. I was just typing away at this blog 15 minutes ago, and the power went out. The water went out too, i guess they are connected. Well, here i go again. I'm going to have to save a bit more often now, i think. I just reread my last entry and, i just have to tell you, i'm fully aware of how terrible my writing is. So many typos and clunky sentences. Heck, i'm even too lazy to capitalize my "i"s. I guess you'll just have to get over it. Its always been my full intention to rewrite story of this entire trip when i get home, from a more holistic perspective, rather than just as a list of things we did or endured. But that would require some amount of thinking, which is way beyond me in my current satate of perpetual exhustion and heatstroke. Not too much has happened since i last wrote, well, actually, nothign has happened. but since i have absolutely nothign to do right now other than type, you're going to get teh details of the last 12 hours, whether you want them or not.

After we got home from our awesome dinner (it was so much fun that i hardly noticed sweating the entire time i ate) we hung out in the office, which doubles as a social area. Our actual beds are .7km down the road. Very strange setup. Oh, one more thing i want to tell you about the meal. We paid just 50Luv for the entire meal, including tax and a good tip, which might be about $40. Considering how much we ate and drank, and how nice the place was, i wouldn't be surprised to pay $100 to $200 for teh same sort of meal in the US. I wouldn't go so far as to say Romania and Bulgaria are super cheap for Americans, but the converted dollar goes so, so much farther than it does in Greece. We missed the bargins in Greece by about 15 to 20 years. Oh well. So, what was a saying? Oh, yes, i was relaxing and sweating on this bench with a thin padding on it, waiting for my chance to blog, which i got. Eventually i got my spot back. I'm not sure where Cameron was this entire time. I think i thought he was outside like he was once before. I just kept waiting for him to return because he has teh only key to our room, and knocking would do no good, because you have to unloce two solid steel doors before you can even get close to teh bedrooms. There is simply no other way in other than with key. (Boy do i miss my cell phone, i think many of you have forgotten how reliant you've become on it). I just keep waiting and waiting for him to get back, because i simply can't go to bed with out the. We got back around 8:30, and i had been waiting, bloging, talking, and resting until about 10:30. The next think i know after that is waking up and checking my watch. 4:30AM. I had fallen asleep, and everyone just left me alone, possibly thinking that i had passed out or something. My back hurt terribly from sleeping on something that was not much better than the floor. Not that the beds are so great here, but they were much better than this bench i was on. I had a terrible taste in my mouth, my teeth felt fuzzy for lack of brushing, i despertly wanted a shower, but everything i owned or could use was locked away in another building far away. What could i do? I simply waited, and waited, and waited, until they served breadfast at 8:30. Even though we've only been here for two days, i feel like i've gotten to know the workers and guests here better than anywhere else, and it feels like i'm been here for weeks. I think the passage of time as lost all meaning for me. Breakfast was actually pretty nice. We all felt like we knew each other, and had some very nice conversations about everything under the sun. After that, i just started writing this, waiting for Cameron to wake up. I don't know how he can sleep so late in this heat. If i fall asleep, as soon as i wake up, i'm just too uncomfortabe to fall back asleep. There's actually a guy still sleeping in this room, despite the terrible racket i'm making with this crazy noisy keyboard with sticky keys. We're supposed to check out within the next 20 minutes, but i can't do anything or go anywhere until Cameron eventually saunters in.

Amy told me in her last email that she sees the value of couples spending some time apart to see how they really feel about each other. I think we both knew that before i left, considering how much we missed each other when she went to Utah or DC for work. Even one night apart was something to deal wiht. But this near month apart remind me of fasting. It's like i'm denying my body food for a week to completely purge all the toxins and everything from it. But in this case, i'm purging all the little negative aspects of our relationship. I can't help but think of some of the stupid and insignifcant things we fought over our last year together and, even though they were all water under the bridge just hours or days later, this month has put it all in a new perspective for me. I'll be the first to admit that i'm a pretty emotional guy, and i can get worked up over some things sometimes more than i should. In many ways, my wife can be much more level-headed then myself. When we don't react the same way to certain situations, i sometimes found myself getting frustrated and worked up. And yes, i understood the errors of my ways soon after teh situations themselves, but this is different. It's much more powerful. I can examin everything from afar, all at once, all together, and the effect it's having on me is massive. This adventure might have gone overbudget, things went wrong, the terribly hot sun knocked the life out of me on so many occasions, and many times did i wonder why i did this to myself at all. Why spend so much money to suffer so often? But despite all the wonderful things i saw and experienced, perhaps the single greatest aspect of this whole ordeal is that it will make me a better husband for years to come. And i know what Amy is thinking right now, and what she would write back to me with, "but honey, you are a wonderful husband already." Yes, thank you. She will think that and write that because she is such a great wife. But i know myself pretty well by this point in my life, and i know i have it in me, after this adventure, to simply be a better husband than i was before, however i was before.

Ok, that was probably all to personal to publish in a public blog. Maybe it's my heatstroke typing, or maybe it's the fact that i think Amy and maybe two other people are the only ones who read this at all, but i think it's important that i "publically" hold myself accountable to a higher standard. I know my mom would go crazy if she knew i wrote such personal stuff in a blog, as she is such a private person, but considering she could no sooner access a blog as as she would stay in a hostel on Bulgaria, i think i'm safe. (And if you read this and know her, don't mention it, OK?) In fact, my mom is "reading" this through Amy, and i believe she does a pretty good job giving her the version of my adventures that my mom wants to hear. Oh, how i love my family.

It's a good think that Cameron finally returned (he says he thought i had my own key. OK, that's reasonable), because i think i might be able to go on darn near forever at the rate i'm going. That's it. Next stop: Varna. Our last city, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Full day of Plodiv

I woke up at 7:30. Cameron didn't wake up until i woke him up at 9:45. I was afraid that we would miss our opportunity to find a tour of the area, but we couldn't find one anyway. We got some information at a tourist center, walked a mile to the bus station, and found out that we had no way of asking for our tickets to the monistary in Bulgarian, so we walked all the way back and got more information. This is the story of this vacation: walking miles and miles in extreme heat with blisters on my feat and wishing i was anywhere else while Cameron takes everything in stride and every inconvenience and tragidy is just water off his ducks back. I might want to be that way, but what can i say? I'm so not. Anyway, eventually we got on the bus and found this ancient monistary. It wasn't actually anything that special, or at least not as this point, for me, now that i'm completely burnt out. We the hicked up a mountain, whitch was pretty cool, but increadibly difficult. After waiting another long while, we foudn a bus back home to our hostel. I hung out at the main room while he took a nap, we met up, and ate at an awesome restaurant named Diana's, which serves food on swords. It also has what might be the most secure restrooms in the entire world. I walked though four doors, between three and five inches thick of solid steal, wheighing something like 500 to 1000 pounds each. It must have been some kind of bank vault at one time. Either way, we had a great time at this place, which might be the most special and unique restaurant in this city. I have no idea where Cameron might be at this point while i type this, but by getting up, i lost my place on the couch, which kind of sucks. But this is the sacrifice i'm willing to make to update you on my journy. And by "you," i of course mean my wife, because i'm starting to believe that no one else at all reads this. But that's OK, because even if Amy was the only one, it would still be more than worth it.

Tomorrow we're leaving for our last city. I can't even begine to express how happy i am that it is my last city. I am out of my mind missing my wife, which might be the most valuable aspect of this entire vacation. Sure, i knew i would miss her, but i didn't know it would be this bad. It is so bad. Just four more days. I can't wait.