Hey, the mysterious "R" here, weighing in to say -- you don't need to sell Sofia to me! You know I am already sold on all new places...and being an imperfect little piece of work myself AND living in the imperfect little piece of land that Hungary is, if there is one thing I have learned this year, it is that the real beauty is in the imperfect. Anyone can be charmed by, say, the clean sparkle of Kensington in London; that's the easy surface charm. But when you can walk through the crumbling Jewish district in a frozen-over Budapest January and still be charmed, you've learned how to see life better.

Which is why I am so looking forward to discovering Sofia. It's new, it is unlike anywhere else I have ever been, it's going to be an adventure. So, "R" isn't in need of creative marketing! (or KFC, ha ha)

A word of defense for my Hungarian colleagues who made comments at Sofia's expense, however: none of them have been there. And, unfortunately, they say unflattering things about every one of their fellow post-Soviet countries. Indeed, considering the fact that I have hear people here say such things as Slovakia shouldn't exist or Romania needs to be re-annexed as part of Hungary, their comment on Bulgaria is almost a compliment. Of course, we could look at it from our American perspective and say how silly/nationalistic/wrong they are. But then again, considering the weight of economic crisis Hungarians are facing, their dropping currency, their failed bank, their resigned Prime Minister, etc., I think a lot of it has to do with the old, sad truth that in tough times, people can lash out at others, looking for somewhere to put the blame for a situation which is too complex to understand. It's easier to poke at your neighbors than to try to understand the jumbled mess of political and economic policy and global factors that brought them to this point. That's not to say their attitude it right, just understandable; suffering and open-mindedness rarely come together.

But all that said, yes, I am scared of Cyrillic. I mean, I can't even tell what the letters are!