The Last Night in София aka DISASTER STRIKES!

Author's note: This blog post is very hard to write, as it brings back feelings, memories, and emotions from a dark time. But, I feel compelled to put pen to paper, or more accurately, fingertips to LCD touch screen to share this woeful tale.

After a great week in Bulgaria, Katie, Ellie (Elly), Lisa, Bekah, and Zak were headed back to София (Sofia) to go home due to work/scholastic commitments. The week had gone smoothly to this point, and the biggest issue all week had been figuring out what food and beverages in the hotel rooms were complimentary and which were incidentals. But, for our heroes that was about to change.

After minor trouble finding the Хотел Консул (Hotel Consul), the party crew was heading downtown for one last night on the town. They found a row of parking spaces outside the Levski National Stadium and started walking up the Г. Гурко (Gen. Gurko) highway. As they left the car, one cautious member of the group asked: "Do we all think that this is an okay place to park? We can't really read the signs, so we don't know if we're allowed to park here." Everyone agreed that it seemed fine to park there.

After wandering through downtown Sofia for a bit, the crew ate dinner at Les Fleurs, a restaurant that leaned towards Italian style food. Dinner was delightful and afterwards they made their way to the car, planning to catch a few Z's before an early flight the next morning.

When they got to where they left the car they stopped dead in their tracks.

"It's not here!" Katie cried. Sure enough the trusty BMW, affectionately known as The Party Car, was gone.

All of the travelers were floored. How could this have happened? Bekah was sure that the car had been stolen, but a closer inspection revealed a sign with a picture of a tow truck and a phone number.

Zak called the number, but it was a recording in Bulgarian. Meanwhile, Katie started speaking to a Bulgarian couple. The guy didn't speak any English, and the girl only spoke a little, but they knew where the car would've been towed to, and even called to confirm that it was there, when Zak explained that he couldn't understand the recording.

Then, when the girl was explaining that the car jail wasn't far away, the guy called a taxi and explained to the driver where to go. Zak and Katie hopped in and zoomed off, leaving Lisa, Bekah, and Elly waiting on the sidewalk.

Artist's rendition of the night's events

"Do you speak English?" Zak asked the driver. The driver replied in Bulgarian. Zak took that as a no. The driver definitely knew where he was going and wasted no time getting there. When he almost ran over some peds who were x-ing in a cross walk, the driver made a frustrated gesture at them and grunted.

It was less than a five minute drive to the car jail, Zak and Katie paid the 6 лв. fare, and walked over to the booth. After paying the 96 лв. ($54.48) fine, they hopped into The Party Car and drove back to pick up the rest of the crew.

By this time Zak was becoming much more comfortable driving around Sofia, and with Katie navigating, they made it back to pick up Lia, Bekah, and Ellie quite quickly. The whole round trip took less than half an hour. Afterwards, they all went back to the Hotel and prepared for the trip home.