A Cheap Flight

October 08, 2019

On the weekend of September 27^th, many people from our group planned trips and majority of our group was going to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. For this weekend, I had nothing planned. I know, first world problems. I was trying to figure out if I wanted to visit another friend abroad, if I should stay in Greece to save myself some money, or if I should go to another country with some friends who also weren’t busy that weekend. As I was debating this, Kathryn, Allie, and Bridget told me they were booking a flight to Bulgaria. Yes, Bulgaria. To be completely honest, I had no idea where Bulgaria was. Turns out, it’s North of Greece and about an hour flight. I debated for about two days if I should go or not. But the flight was cheap, so was the Airbnb, and it was another experience. When else would I decide to go to Bulgaria? So, Bulgaria it was.

Arriving in Bulgaria that Friday night, the airport was empty. When I say empty, I mean empty. Uber doesn’t work there, so we walked outside to catch a taxi. The taxi driver clearly knew we were tourists, so he missed some turns one too many times, spiking the price. Bulgaria 1, MacKenzie 0.

The taxi dropped us off and now we had to try and figure out how to get into our Airbnb. After a few minutes of trying to locate the lockbox and get our key, we were in. It was a cozy little apartment with two bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and a kitchen. Eager to explore, we walked around to find a place to eat dinner.

Maybe it was because it was nighttime, or because I searched movies that were filmed in Bulgaria and saw the Grudge 3 was filmed there, but I was a tad on edge walking to dinner. To put things into perspective, a cat jumped out next to me and I took off running. Either way, I found it hard to sleep that night but eventually I did and surprisingly I had my first nightmare abroad there. Bulgaria 2, MacKenzie 0.

The next day we explored the city through stores, a museum, and a church. We stopped for lunch at a fancy looking restaurant. I’m not sure if it’s because we were tourists, but the waiters wouldn’t give us change when we asked them to split our 50 Lev. At first, I chuckled when they said, “no” thinking they were kidding. But when they walked away and didn’t return, I knew they weren’t kidding. Bulgaria 3, MacKenzie 0.

The day before we left, we scheduled a trip to hike the Seven Rila Lakes, what some people told us are considered to be the eighth wonder of the world. A Bulgarian man picked us up in a van, and we drove about an hour or an hour and a half to the spot. Our guide was the nicest Bulgarian I’ve met while in the country. And to top that, the hike was gorgeous and so was the view.

While we were on the last spot which overlooked all seven of the lakes, a girl spotted Allie’s Loyola sweatshirt and asked if she goes to Loyola in Baltimore. Turns out, the girl was an exchange student at Loyola eight years ago. She currently works in Amsterdam and was visiting Bulgaria with some work friends. What are the odds we meet a Loyola student on a mountain in Bulgaria? Small world.

Bulgaria was definitely an experience, and I don’t regret it, but I can tell you that I won’t be watching The Grudge 3 anytime soon.