On Friday night I went to watch two different volleyball matches: Germany vs Argentina and Bulgaria vs Portugal. I know, you might be thinking to yourself: What?! Carolyn went to a sporting event?! Is she feeling okay?!

Sure almost never write about sports but that doesn't mean that I don't like watching people play a game now and then.
<a title="Arena stadium by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480916300/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7123/7480916300_5783e32e02_z.jpg" alt="Arena stadium" width="640" height="480" /></a>
<a title="BG flags at Arena by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480924426/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7133/7480924426_25225c1e87_z.jpg" alt="BG flags at Arena" width="640" height="480" /></a>

Yep, on Thursday I made a special trip to the Arena to buy tickets. I have preferred to buy them online but even if you do this you still have to pick the tickets up in person. This begs the question: does this save anyone time and why buy the online if you then have to physically pick them up at a separate ticket office in person?

Anyhow, I got tickets. Pretty good ones even though it wasn't until I was at the ticket office that I realized I didn't know how to ask for seats on the sidelines. Luckily I drew a picture of what I was looking for and the ticket lady was willing to smile at me as I told the basics in the Bulgarain.

I thought the whole evening was great fun. I haven't been to many, if any, sporting events in Bulgaria. I am not sure why I'd never been before now because I guess I could have. Maybe now there's a football game in my future. Then again, maybe not. I don't know which Sofia team I'd cheer for. And a girl can't (or maybe shouldn't) pick a team just because she likes their colors.
<a title="Volleyball tickets world league by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480941558/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8022/7480941558_b2323ce73c_z.jpg" alt="Volleyball tickets world league" width="640" height="480" /></a>
Back to the game at hand, I didn't really know what to expect from a volleyball game in Sofia. I've been to a lot of college sporting events from American football to gymnastics to basketball to rugby and even to regattas.  Thanks, dAd! And as an adult, I went to plenty of baseball games in Washington DC and was perfectly happy to drink beer, eat peanuts and watch the Washington National lose. However, I wasn't able to determine how official things would be at this game.

For example, I asked A. if the games would start on time. This of course seems like a reasonable question in Bulgaria. No really seems to be concerned with time in this country and given the number of drama and musical productions that I've been to that start late it seemed like a fair enough question. He looked at me and knowingly said, they'll start on time. And they did. <!--more-->

So the first game started at 5:30pm and the second at 8:45pm. A. and I showed up early enough to have a coffee before the game started. Coffee out of small plastic cups. I had a long coffee and A. a normal coffee. The funny part was the A. had to ask which one was which. The girl pointed to the coffee that was slightly more fully and said: this is the long coffee. Oh, of course.

I'll spare you the play by play details of both games as I figure if you really care you already know and if you don't know you probably don't care. I am also not really sure that you want to read my play by play of the games since I don't think I'd make a great sports writer. Mostly because during the second game I kept getting distracted. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that the Bulgarian national team was actually wearing kind of short shorts. Shorts that were shorter than any of the other teams.
<a title="Germany v Argentina by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480928788/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8013/7480928788_bdc2c49b10_z.jpg" alt="Germany v Argentina" width="640" height="480" /></a>
Anyhow Germany beat Argentina. It wasn't even close. I went back and forth between wanting to cheer for Germany because they were playing really well and rooting for the underdog Argentina. In the end it didn't matter. Germany won.

After the game we went to find some food. The selection was pretty limited and even writing that makes it sound like there were more options than there were. The option was this hot dog stand.
<a title="New York style hot dogs in Sofia by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480934456/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7108/7480934456_8b447ba775_z.jpg" alt="New York style hot dogs in Sofia" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The hot dogs claimed to be New York style but I'd say they were anything but. The bun was okay but the condiments left a lot to be desired and the hot dog was clearly a Bulgarian style hot dog. Oh well, it's not like I was actually expecting a New York Hot Dog in Sofia, Bulgaria. I know better than that. Still the Stadium could use a few more food options.
<a title="Outside the stadium by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480946428/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7265/7480946428_9b34b669ee_z.jpg" alt="Outside the stadium" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The big disappointment was that the stadium wasn't serving beer because really, what is a sporting event without a beer?! The interesting part is that actually they were serving beer. It was just nonalcoholic. Who knew such a thing even existed in Bulgaria? I mean this is a country where while the drinking age is 18 but  no one actually seems to care enough to enforce it.

Apparently a lot of sporting events in Bulgaria are dry. I think that's really funny. Still I could have used a cold beer. It would have gone perfectly with sitting around outside on the steps of the Arena killing time after eating my hot dog and before the start of the Bulgaria/Portugal game.
<a title="Bulgaria at play by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480954090/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7480954090_32589d12fc_z.jpg" alt="Bulgaria at play" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The second game Bulgaria vs Portugal was much, much more lively. First of all, there were many more people there to watch and second, Bulgaria and Portugal were actually playing a game. While in the Germany and Argentina match, Germany was just trouncing Argentina.  And I am talking trouncing to the point that it was painful to watch.
<a title="Before the game by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480958762/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8157/7480958762_5366d255ac_z.jpg" alt="Before the game" width="640" height="480" /></a>
The Bulgaria-Portugal match up was good one and it was great fun to watch Bulgarians actually enjoying themselves and cheering on their country. I mean Bulgarians went all out. I am talking flags painted on their faces, green, red and white shirts, scarfs, flags and even drums. Way to go! That's some serious pride.
<a title="fans by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480965288/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7108/7480965288_4608f71e94_z.jpg" alt="fans" width="640" height="480" /></a>
I will say that nearly 5 hours of watching volleyball in a plastic chair was a little uncomfortable but two days later these things don't matter any more and now I am kind of bummed that I won't be around next week to watch more volleyball.

Sorry for the pretty sad, volleyball action shots. I didn't have my good camera with me and my phone battery was on it's way out or I'd have tried for a few less blurry shots.
<a title="action shot by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7480971440/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7480971440_22acbf3b53_z.jpg" alt="action shot" width="640" height="480" /></a>