Our last stop in the Balkans was Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, here we spent two nights one full day to explore the city. Bulgaria became a member of the European Union in 2010 and since then the city has boomed they now have a metro system that was until 2010 30 years in the making as were many other city projects. Our first impression of Sofia walking from the train station was that it was a little grim, the buildings were really outdated and there was not much colour around. Upon further exploring the following day we visited some really impressive sites, there is so much restoration work going on in the city - digging up Roman ruins and various other artefacts from different eras. The huge communist buildings are a reminder of their past and stand tall in the city centre. Out of all the places we have been the last month this place was buzzing with tourists like none other, apparently once they became EU members andwere accepted into NATO tourism and investment started to boom in Sofia.

 After a full day exploring Sofia Pete decided he needed a fresh cut before heading to Turkey, I left him to it only for him to arrive an hour later with a much darker beard and a severe Turkish look going on. Pete thought the barber was offering a beard trim but after about 5 minutes of wet cream on his beard he realised he was actually getting a beard tint, at least he can now hide some of those greys.