This is a post where we eat things. By we, I really mean my dAd, my sister and me, and all of you who read the blog get to read about and look at some of the things that we ate in Sofia.

<a title="Beer at Pizza Fritzi by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984398254/"><img alt="Beer at Pizza Fritzi" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7399/9984398254_eaa181ae91_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>

<a title="dAd's dark beer by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984443516/"><img alt="dAd's dark beer" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5527/9984443516_e0bd52effd_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
The first night my family arrived they were pretty loopy and totally jet lagged. The thing is neither my dAd or sister wanted to admit it so dinner was super funny. We went to a pizza place in Mladost. One down the street from me and it's a good thing we didn't go any further because a large beer later my dAd and sister were even funnier and weirder than normal. The tell for me was the weirder than normal part. You see my dAd and sister are inherently funny people; it's basically impossible not to laugh when you're around them but they aren't normally as weird and off the wall as they were that first night.
<a title="Me and a salad by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984522983/"><img alt="Me and a salad" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5530/9984522983_99137cd902_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
Dinner was a slow introduction to Bulgarian food. My dAd had a Shopska salad and my sister a Greek salad.  I had a mixed salad of some sort. We then shared a large pizza.

The Shopska salad and Greek salad were both a hit and interestingly neither salad was hugely foreign or strange to either my dAd or sister. I think that the surprising thing is the presentation of the salads. My dAd's was in a bowl while the Greek salad came out on a platter and was basically deconstructed. A 500 gram deconstructed Greek  salad is kind of intimidating.
<a title="Char and dinner in Sofia by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984381735/"><img alt="Char and dinner in Sofia" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3749/9984381735_4d89952b76_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>

I am a huge believer in the importance of eating plenty of veggies and drinking tons of water after any long flight not to mention a transatlantic flight. I think that both of these things are an excellent way to combat jet lag.

The next day we moved on to snacks and beer.
<a title="dAds bulgaria Sofia by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984438934/"><img alt="dAds bulgaria Sofia" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3830/9984438934_ea4d49b9e3_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
I wish that I could also recommend snacks and beer as an approved method of combating jet lag but alas I cannot. Nevertheless, when in a foreign country it is important to sample the local beer and eat local snacks. It's basically like conducing your own social anthropological study. (How's that for justifying my general beer and snack consumption?!)
<a title="dAds bulgaria pics Sofia by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984425095/"><img alt="dAds bulgaria pics Sofia" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2852/9984425095_0a67fd30e7_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
<a title="dAds bulgaria pics Sofia by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984493716/"><img alt="dAds bulgaria pics Sofia" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7406/9984493716_1a99071a97_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
There's a little snack shop in the first floor of my building and I mean little. I think that in terms of the lay of the shop there is more floor space committed to food and beverages than to customers. This is both wonderful, overwhelming and a little bit claustrophobic.
<a title="dAds bulgaria pics 343 by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/9984534043/"><img alt="dAds bulgaria pics 343" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2844/9984534043_1af08da43d_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" /></a>
My dAd loved it and we came back with an armful of beer that we paid next to nothing for. Oh the pleasures of a large cheap beer.

Oh and just so that you know, even at 32 it's <em>totally embarrassing</em> to have your dAd taking tons of photos of you in your neighborhood snack shop. Luckily everybody was laughing at me so nobody really seemed to care.