Good morning from Veliko Tarnovo (Велико Търново) the historical capital of Bulgaria’s second empire. The Bulgarian language is written in Cyrillic, and very few signs include the Roman alphabet. So, that takes away even the little bit of guesswork that had helped us navigate. We are completely clueless.

For instance, when I first looked at the sign at the train station, I thought it was displaying who ruled this region from what year to what year, especially because it has 1916 and 1945, significant years in world history. Then, I told myself, “It’s military time, you idiot.” I was actually looking at the train schedule.

After months of showering in bathrooms that are either too tight, had low water pressure, wouldn’t drain, or looked plain yucky, I was so happy that the showerheads at this very clean hotel malfunction in my favor. So much water at such great pressure! I even took a photo to commemorate this happy day. That is, until the limited hot water in the tank ran out twice as quickly. How can the water be so freaking cold during this brutality hot summer day?