Another late night update
It is late. Outside looks like the aftermath of a massive attack on feathery white birds. Only frozen. Yes, it is cold here, judging by the news shockingly cold. Unprecedented.
Winter has played a bad joke on us really. Natural disaster in Bulgaria meant that our plans of wasting a night on the train over there was scrapped, as trains apparently dont go through flooded ‘unprecedentedly’ cold areas. We said, ok, no problem, we will go through Greece then. Swerve left and then go north to Sofia. Yeah, but not. Greece’s economic troubles are so bad that they have stopped all of their international trains. Due to the facts of the free economy and ruthless capitalism, this means that bus tickets have at least doubled in price. Because suddenly it costs a lot more to deliver the service. Of course. I stand corrected in my dark cynic corner.
Last viable option is the bus from Istanbul to Sofia and today we purchased our tickets. The children are especially excited because the bus has internet and personal entertainment monitors. I just hope we dont freeze along the way or just slide into a ditch.
My laptop hates me. Our relationship is going downhill, which is a sad development as we have had some great times together.
Thank goodness for the food. I can just walk around the tiny streets of Istanbul and pop in and out of the even tinier corner kitchens where mom and pop are cooking food that is so similar to my childhood delights that every bite tickles not only my taste buds, but my memories as well.
The kids love snow. It is the only thing that can drag them outside of the apartment with a smile on their face.
No pictures. My laptop hates me.
The end.
Well, I feared that something like that might happen – after all, Europeans manage to be utterly surprised by snow in winter every year ;-) (Although the news about the trains in Greece are indeed quite disturbing …)
Keep up your faith and dont worry too much about the missing pictures. We all know what snow looks like. Have plenty of it here, as it happens. Anyway, I am crossing my fingers for you to get to Sofia without breakdowns and hassles!
Haha, you would think they would be used to it by now. Europeans with snow. But this is indeed a bit of a nasty spell, I just hope it ends shortly.
Thank you for your company on this cold night. How is the weather up your way? It must be quite cold as well.
Have a nice trip to Sofia, warm and fun!
Thank you! I dont know about warm, but it should be fun.
It’s not your laptop, that’s just a machine.
It’s a state of mind.
Don’t worry, we will be here, waiting for you until you are ready again to share stories.
Have a safe trip!
Emiel
Miss SB, today we went to the mountains (called Erzgebirge) just around the corner (another advantage of living in the capital of the former kingdom of… ;-)) and spent some time luging (or is it called sledding?).
It was icy cold, my feet hurt from freezing after just 30 minutes, it was impossible to take photos because you had to put off the gloves for that which was just not possible… Beautiful, if there is a warm place to return to and your clothes are up to it. I guess it was about -15 to -20 °C. And that seems to be quite tame, compared to the news from Serbia…
Are you still looking forward to getting to Europe? ;-)
Emiel, this time it was the laptop ;)
Jenny, we are here and the kids are loving it. Yesterday, on the way to the restaurant, I lost feeling in my toes, so reading your comment rang so true to me. Ha! I agree though, these kind of chilly snowy days, are so much better from the inside, with a warm drink in hand.