We are in Velingrad now, a resort-town about two hours from Sofia.

Milan and Nadia brought us here by car yesterday, which was a very beautiful trip through the Rodopi mountains. There was a lot of snow in the mountains, but we still haven't seen it snowing in Bulgaria.

We are staying in Hotel Dvoretsa, which means hotel "The Palace" in English. It's a really nice place, with a swimmingpool, sauna, massage... very good. The city of Velingrad is known for its mineral water, and the water in the swimming pool is also mineral water. It doesn't have any chlorine therefore, which is pleasant. The water smells a little bit smokey.

We are having a wonderful time together, really a holiday. Below is a picture of the entrance of the hotel; notice Santa Claus climbing up the balcony (Djado Mrash in Bulgarian).

On the picture below Sasha standing in front of the outside pool. It's too cold now to swim there, but there are also jacuzzi's outside(again with mineral water), that I'll definitely try.

I'm writing this in an internet "sala", in the center of Velingrad. It doesn't have a very quick internet connection, but the guy working here is very friendly and let me use my digital camera to download pictures from it.

We are visiting Svetla this afternoon. She'll have a baby soon!

We'll come between Christmas and New Year for a longer visit, and to see Radoslav as well.

Yesterday we went out with Joana, Svetlio and Tsetsa in Sofia.

First we went to a restaurant, where we had dinner. I forgot the name, but it was from the same chain as where we had dinner once with Jaap and Mieke, three years ago. Later we went for some drinks in a bar nearby. It was very cosy!

We stayed in Joana's place tonight. We stayed up till very late; talking, drinking and eating and of course watching pictures.

We are now in an internet place under NDK, the central cultural center in Sofia.

In a little while we'll see Svetlio and Joanna, two friends who live in Sofia. We'll stay the night at Joana's place.

Monday I registred with the foreign police in Stamboliiski, and I went with Milan to see some of his collegue's. Yesterday we spent the four of us in Plovdiv. We did some shopping and had lunch in a mexana, a Bulgarian restaurant. A great and relaxing holiday so far!

My Bulgarian had became worse since last summer, but it's coming back now. I enjoy improving my language knowledge a lot.

It's the first time I saw "breaking news" in Bulgarian... I was watching some TV (which is a great way to learn Bulgarian), when I saw a news-ticker with Saddam Hussein's name.

It's simply wonderful news, especially for the Iraq people. And a huge boost for the morale of the troops there, too.

Actually there is very good internet access available in Bulgaria! We're in Plovdiv now, in an internet club.

It was extremely nice to see each other again -- Sasha and I met at the airport in Sofia. I arrived a bit later than planned, my plane landed around 17:30 o'clock. We went immediately to Perushtitsa, where there was a very warm welcome by Nadia and Milan.

The weather is far better than I had imagined. There's no snow, and it's not very cold either. It's around 7 degrees outside, but there's hardly any wind so that's great.

It's hard to describe how nice it is to be back here, in Bulgaria. It has been years but many places in Perushtitsa and Plovdiv I remember very well.

This is a automatically posted article.

It's very likely that I'm in Bulgaria right now.

We're going to Perushtitsa. That's a little place just below Plovdiv, the second city of the country.

Hah! Very interesting. I'm at Vienna Airport now.

There's an internet kiosk here, looks a bit like a phonecell but it provides internet access. Nice! The price is reasonable, 15 cents per minut, but I can't put pictures or sth.

The flight from Amsterdam had a little delay, but that was fine because my next flight is a small hour later as well. I was pretty late for my plane -- there were big lines everywhere (and yes, I was on time at the airport :)). They even called for me: "Will passenger Bosman please proceed to the gate for immediate boarding...".

The airport here is very big, and a big part of it is designated for shopping -- so many shops! Christmas music and decorations everywhere.

I'll have an espresso now; there's a Starbucks in the main hall.

I am going to Bulgaria! It has been more than three years since I was there, and I am really looking forward to see Sasha and to be there and see everybody else.

I will be reachable by e-mail (my hotmail address is the best), but I won't read it very often. For urgents matters you should contact my parents. Jelly is staying in our house for a while.

Our plans in Bulgaria are not very specific yet, but we'll first go to Perushtitsa, where Sasha's family lives.

My flight is through Vienna. I'm leaving at 10:30, and if everything goes well I'll be in Sofia around 16:15 o'clock. That's local time -- the time in Bulgaria is one hour ahead of Dutch time.

Wow... the preparations took much longer than I thought. At least I'm ready now, all the luggage is packed.

Tomorrow I'll wake up at 7:15 o'clock, leave the house at 8:15 so I'll be at Schiphol around 9:15.