Transportation in Sofia

We don’t have a car here in Sofia which is both a blessing and a curse. We knew coming over we would not have a car, although we did not realize just how far the bible school was from our home. We take public transportation (Bus, Tram, Trolley or Taxi) almost everywhere. To get to the school I take two busses. I walk 5 blocks to get to the bus station, take a 30 min bus ride, walk another 4 blocks to the next bus, take a 20 min bus ride and walk another 3 blocks to the school. The whole trip door to door is about 1hr15min. Once the weather gets better it won’t be too bad. However with all the snow we have been having – it makes for quite a trek. The positive is that I will have some genuine stories to tell Drew about waking blocks on icy snow packed roads in a foreign country – so don’t give me any whining! Another plus is that I am getting my exercise in.

Last week a family on our team left for a few days and left us their car to use. That same trip to school is only 35 min by car – but driving is a whole new adventure. Every car here is a manual transmission – automatics are unheard of. I can drive a stick – but pray that Lisa never has to go anywhere. The roads look like they just got bombed by the Germans. There are pot holes you can actually loose a car in – and some have. We had a family on our team who drove through a “puddle,” this puddle happened to be 16 inches deep. They ended up breaking their front axle on their min-van.

Road signs, street signals – are merely a “suggestion” here. The biggest and fastest win – the others get hurt. I have to admit – it was an adrenaline rush to drive. You are a race car driver with everyone else. The “right-of-way” goes to the one who gets his bumper in first – I felt like I was cutting my way through a defensive backfield once again. The only problem is – if you get tackled here – it will cost you some serious money. (It didn’t help that my friend’s car is a Volkswagen 6 speed turbo diesel – it could move)

I pulled back on my testosterone levels and we actually got around pretty good. We made some runs to the large groceries stores and visited some stores we had not been to. I gave back the keys and came down with “car bug fever.” Actually we will hold off and see how the public transit works once the weather gets nicer. On the down side, almost everyone on our team who has a car has had it in the shop a few times this year. Bulgaria just eats cars.