Well, I finally have some definite plans for the future...

I bought a plane ticket for this coming Tuesday, Sept. 14th from Sofia, Bulgaria to Tel Aviv, Israel. I wanted to stay in Bulgaria for yet one more week so that I could be here for a friend's wedding and the ensuing festivities. And it works out well for me because I'll probably see most of my friends here all within a few days before I leave. Trying to get through Greece and finding a boat to Israel would probably take too long, be too frustrating and might even be more expensive than flying so... this will be a lot less trouble. There is still the issue of my visa, or lack thereof, for Bulgaria. I discovered that my visa had been expired close to thirty days after the fact and therefore decided that since I would have to pay whatever fine when I leave the country no matter what I did at that point, I might as well stay as long as I like and enjoy it. In the back of my mind I was hoping that I might slide buy without paying anything, or only having to pay the border guard $50 to let me go or something. Now that I'm leaving through the airport, I'm a bit concerned that the situation will not be so lenient as it might be at some obscure overland border crossing in the middle of nowhere. I called the US Embassy today to ask them what to expect... In what I have come to view as typical for US embassies, they were brief, uninterested and basically unhelpful. The lady told me that there was nothing I could do and that I would be charged a fine upon leaving the country between 300 and 3000 leva... which is about $300-$3000. So, now I'm really nervous, but...... what can I do? Just keep your fingers crossed for me! :-)

This past weekend was quite a trip. Spent some time in Botevgrad and a small village somewhere near there. We went to a small disco in this village to buy alcohol. It was quite a sight... it was later confirmed that for sure I was the first real, live american they had seen in ten years or so. The doorman came back to the house where we were after the place closed... the whole night was just funny. I can't explain it... you just had to be there. The next day we went to a going away party for a guy that's headed for his military service. Again, you just had to be there. Suffice it to say, the old man that lived next door was the life of the party. Maybe I'll manage to get a copy of the video one day. Next day... back to Sofia, watched the video from the night before, when to a few different houses, didn't sleep the whole night.... another crazy weekend.

So, this weekend is the wedding for Taktaba and Geri. The party starts Friday night, the wedding is on Saturday and then the party continues on... probably for 3 days until I leave on Tuesday. I don't know if I'll make it through the entire thing, but it's sure to be a good time... and it will be a good time for me to say goodbye to everyone here.

If I'm allowed out of the country, I'll make an update soon after I get to Israel to let you know how it went down. Until then.....