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.

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