Sofia

 Finding a Couchsurfing host in Sofia is proving tricky, so I send another batch of requests, hoping that I get to meet someone who actually lives here.
Unfortunately on the first night I am forced to stay in a hostel. It's not that the hostel is particularly bad, quite the contrary, but the generic questions from fellow lodgers grow tiresome after a few hours. Also sleeping in an oxygen-deprived, warm, snore-filled room is not an experience I want to have again. There seems little depth in this backpacking way of traveling: partying each night on a free pub crawl through the cities of Europe and spending your days glued to your mobile organising how to get to other places. It quickly becomes a cocoon, isolating the backpacker from any authentic interaction with a city, causing each city to blur into the next in an effort to collect-em-all.
Nadine stays at another hostel nearby, where I meet up with some volunteers from Thessaloniki, who inspire me to apply again to help out with continuing tide of refugees trying to escape the crisises in their respective countries.
The next day Nadine has her flight back to Berlin, so we roll about the city checking the major tourist attractions. There is a good vibe to this city, particularly as it has so many different types of parks. Later, I meet up with a Couchsurfer (Mike) and grab a coffee. He tells me of some of the toils of living here and he is still trying to find his niche here after being here for nearly a year.
Fortunately, my struggle to find a host pays off and I'm on my way to the suburbs this evening to meet up with Ivelinka and family. My GPS app (maps.me) had proven invaluable in finding addresses in every country I have visited. However finding this particular address proves tricky. The problem is that there is not only the house number but also an entrance letter which can be confused with the extra house letter. I went to find house 49b but ended up at entrance b instead. All this despite accurate instructions from Ivelinka. The final challenge when you make it to the correct door is to read the cyrilic name to buzz the correct door.
Ivelinka and Vladimir entertain me all evening and cook me a nice meal. I'm glad to finally be learning about Bulgarian attitudes; everything from Soviet architecture to the rise of the IT sector in Bulgaria.
The next day's weather could not be more different. Hailstones in the early morning and then heavy rain all day. Good that I can seek refuge in a public library and eat at a quaint vegetarian restaurant in the city, rather than battling though this inclement weather to reach my next destination.
The evening is spent with my hosts. This time the topics include explaining hurling, Gaelic football and other Irish traditions.