Vacation is the best.

But I probably don't need to tell you this. I've been on summer vacation since the first week of July and I don't have to go back to work until September. Seriously. I can't believe that I am so lucky.

The thing about having this much holiday is that you begin to sleep in later. You lounge around in your pjs longer. You watch more tv. You read more stupid things on the internet (and some smart things too). You worry about the upcoming presidential elections in the States and you consider buying a new Obama t-shirt. You find yourself rummaging through your fridge more and wondering what's for lunch. You catch yourself thinking: how can I be responsible for feeding myself lunch every day?! Yes, this is true. It happened to me. It happens because for the last 9 months I've eaten lunch at school five days a week.
<a title="Coffee at Memento by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661119068/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/7661119068_368346384d_z.jpg" alt="Coffee at Memento" width="640" height="427" /></a>
At some point in all of this you realize that you could drink coffee at a cafe rather than in your kitchen. You realize that you should schedule a haircut for your bother's upcoming wedding and buy a wedding shower gift for his soon to be bride. Most important, you remember that there were bars that once-upon-a-time before you were a full time teacher and you were living in Sofia on a Fulbright that you liked to go to in afternoons.

Yep. All of this came together recently for a splendid lazy (but very hot) afternoon in Sofia. A. and I took the metro downtown. We walked down Vitosha to have a coffee at Memento.

I told him: I think they make a great cappuccino and serve some of the best coffee in Sofia. He sipped his espresso with milk and said: not bad. I'd translate that into Carolyn-speak as good. But maybe that's unfair. My cappuccino was delicious. The milk was thick and foamy and the espresso was smooth with no bitter flavor. Oh and it came with a pretty-pretty leaf in the milk-foam.

We did some people watching. There were plenty of older women out drinking cocktails at 1:30pm and lots of people riding bikes around. I swear, I see more and more people riding their bikes around the city each time I go out. I am beginning to suspect that this is going to be a biking city before I know it. I'm just holding out for some more dedicated bike lanes before I get a bike.

Then I went on a hunt for a wedding shower gift for my bother's fiancee. We popped into lots of shops around Sofia. The shower theme is kitchen. The thing is that she and my bother bought a house together last year and lived together before that and as such I suspect that they have all of the basics necessary for cooking in the kitchen already. Thus the challenge is finding her something that she will like and find useful but I don't want to buy her a gift that she'll never use or worse yet something that she already has. The problem for me is that I've been in their house in Walla Walla exactly one time and in their apartment in San Francisco once as well. So I have a general sense of her taste and style and I went out hoping that something would scream: Buy me! I'm perfect for N. &amp; K!

We stumbled upon this lovely shop on Shishman called <a href="http://gourmethouse.bg/catalog/shop" target="_blank">the Gourmet House</a> that were the wedding say in (or around) Sofia and the bride and groom lived in (or around) Sofia I would definitely consider buying something from. They have some seriously beautiful things from wine glasses to photo albums and frames to sterling silver cake knives and decorative art-glass serving dishes. I would have loved to buy my brother and his soon to be wife a gift from this shop but there was no way I could risk buying something glass and carrying it with me back to the States on not one but three different airplanes.
<a title="beer at bilkova by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7663105708/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8431/7663105708_dbe8df968b_z.jpg" alt="beer at bilkova" width="640" height="480" /></a>
Finally I found a little something for the shower (but I can't say what because I know that K. regularly reads my blog). It's nice to be able to check things off your to-do list. Then A. and I celebrated with a late afternoon beer at Bilkova on their terrace. Terrace sounds a little fancy for what it is but garden does too. So I guess I'll say this. We had a beer on the cement pad shaded by trees set back from the sidewalk right outside the basement level bar and it was perfect.
<a title="IMG_7960Street Art by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661118272/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7257/7661118272_8e475b2f14_z.jpg" alt="IMG_7960Street Art" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Street Art by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661119882/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/7661119882_214e91e96c_z.jpg" alt="Street Art" width="640" height="427" /></a>
Oh and on the way from Memento to Bilkova we took a circuitious route that took us past a number of different pieces of street art. It was a lovely afternoon.
<a title="Street Art by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661117418/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8004/7661117418_a8fcd21c95_z.jpg" alt="Street Art" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Street Art by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661120638/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8142/7661120638_20b93e33b2_z.jpg" alt="Street Art" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="Street Art by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7661119404/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8153/7661119404_ac4d747841_z.jpg" alt="Street Art" width="640" height="427" /></a>