It's my birthday!! It's kind of strange to be spending it in Sofia, as originally I had planned to be in Istanbul, but I am somewhat behind my schedule.

I have to say that there isn't an awful lot to see in Sofia other than a few churches and mosques and over-priced museums. STill I did make it to the Aleksandar Nevsky church which is possibly one of the best churches I've seen so far. It was built in Russian style and beautiful frescoes adorn its interior. As I was walking in the Sunday service started and the choir were singing. It was a really magical experience and I couldn't leave so I stood and watched the whole service, admiring the fact that in the Orthodox church bar a few elderly people sitting, everybody stamds throughout!

After this I walked to the nearby flea-market and bargained for some useless things like an old road sign and a pair of Russian binoculars, not sure why but it was fun hagling away and passed thetime. With my treasures bagged up, I made my way to the Ethnographical museum where a collection of traditional masks was on. In bulgaria the villagers wear these kukuri masks to warn off the evil spritis as the dirty, old year makes way for the new year. The masks are all hand-made and the residents have competitions toi see who can make the biggest and scariest mask - so you can imagine there were some pretty good masks!

Following this I caught the changing of the guard which would have been pretty much like anything you might see in london with silly costumes and the like. But this is really the Ministry of SIlly walks and the pictures in my last blog attest to the Basil Fawlty-esque approach to chaniging the guard outside the president's house. The afternoon was spent wondering the Sofia streets, stopping for the odd beer and trying to buy a ticket to the opera which was closed. I almost went ot the local Sofia football derby to get a dose of football but was strongly warned against this due to hooliganism. In the end I returned to my hostel and Mari the guy looking after it, decided to have a birthday party for me which was really touching. There was actually only one other person in the hostel so he called a few of his friends round and they made supper and we drank ghastly Bulgarian Champagne that I had bought to celebrate. The night turned into Karaoke and crazy dancing around the hostel but was a really cool way to spend the evening and totally unexpected. It kind of proves that when travelling you never know what's round the corner, good or bad.

Some of the guests at my birthday party and the awful Bulgarian Champagne!