Alive and Well and Living in Lom

We made it to Lom. As is usual most of the time, all of the things I was worried about for the trip melted away. There was one unexpected hitch, but more on that in a minute.

The flight to Sofia was very bumpy, but winter in Europe, especially over the Alps, usually is. The Sofia airport wasn't bad, maybe just a little spartan. When you get off the plane, you go downstairs and clear passport control. From there you go straight to baggage claim and then exit through customs, which was really non-existent. It consisted of walking out one of two doors. The one on the right was for no declaration. The one on the left was for if you needed to declare something. Neither appeared to be attended, and everyone just walked out the no declaration door into the outer terminal. Our Family National attendant, Miglena (Maggie), was right there waiting for us as we came out, and we went straight to the rental car desk.

Driving in Bulgaria so far has not lived up to its reputation. The roads were in reasonably good shape, very much like rural highways in the states. They seem to be somewhat less well maintained in some of the towns, but the cross-country run was no problem. Navigation was also no problem the iPhone maps app was dead-on the entire time. There was a good bit of snow in Sofia and through the mountains, but the roads were well tended and clear. Once we got north of the mountains, the snow was gone and the land flattened out into beautiful rolling farm lands. From what we've seen so far, it is a beautiful country with an interesting mix of quaint little villages with tiled roof houses and soviet era apartment complexes. The one common denominator was that, at least in my eyes, everything was in need of repair and renovation. The approach into Lom was neat. The town sits in a valley running up away from the Danube with higher ground on both sides. The road from Sofia curves across the eastern ridge, and the first view of the town is of the whole valley laid out at your feet.

After a completely in eventful trip and even an easy time finding the hotel, we hit our one hitch. We parked the car and walked up to the hotel only to find it completely deserted, the doors locked, and the lights off. Maggie tried calling all of their contact numbers, but got no answer. Our original list of hotel options was limited to two, so there wasn't much for a backup option. There was another, albeit much smaller, older, and cheaper hotel right next to our intended choice, and we went there to inquire about our original hotel. It was apparently shut down for some reason. Maggie called the other hotel on our list, but they didn't have availability for the whole week, so we just moved into the hotel where we had gone to inquire originally. It isn't the high rent district, but the beds are tolerable, the rooms are heated, and there is hot and cold running water with a private bathroom in each room. It'll do.

Maggie has been great. She has given us a lot of insight on the adoption process in general, the plan for the next two weeks, and a lot of the history and culture of this land. She took great care of us in getting the hotel mess sorted out, and she has a good sense of humor and plenty of flexibility. The next two weeks with her are going to be fun!

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with the orphanage director, then we get to meet Yanka for the first time. She has been told that she has visitors coming and is very excited. We can't wait! Off to bed now. It's been been a 30 hour day, and I'm tired.