Trams 9 &amp; 10--I want to karate chop you.  I just spent all morning trying to get from the city center to the American Embassy.  Only I never made it.  I need to get new pages sewn into my passport but I guess that will have to wait for another day.

First I tried to take tram #10 from Graf Ignatiev.  I had to wait for 12 minutes for the tram.  No problem.  I don't mind waiting.  When the tram arrived, I got on stamped my ticket and we started off.  Only when we got to  Zhurnalist Sq rather than continuing on towards the Embassy, we turned around and came right back to the center.  Um, really!?! <!--more--> So I got off at the corner of Graf Ignatiev and Rakovski--more or less where I stared my trip and decided I'd walk to NDK to pick up the #9 tram.  Maybe the fact that the #10 didn't follow it's normal route should have been a sign but I figured that somehow I got on a #10 tram that only ran part of the route and that I should have looked to see where the tram line was terminating (not that I have any idea where that is or the names of any of the stops along the #10 tram line--or any line for that matter).

I doubled checked my map and it looked like the #9 tram stops under NDK so I walked over there.  In the past when I've gone to the American Embassy I've taken the #9 tram from the big five corners stop and I was 100% sure that we'd stopped under NDK in the past.  However, when got I down there the only sign was for the #6 tram.  Ug.

So I looked at my map again and walked over the bridge behind NDK and down to the tram stop.  There I doubled checked the posted tram stop signs and yes, this was a stop for both the #6 and the #9 trams.  The first tram that came by was a #6, as was the second, the third and the fourth. (Um, what?!?)

At this point, I can't help but wonder what's going on.  Four #6 trams in a row, how can that be possible?!  That's when I think: I guess it could be possible if the #9 isn't running.  Now it's getting close to 11am and the Embassy's Consular hours are only between 9 and 12 noon.

I figure that I'd better ask someone what's going on.  Only there isn't anyone young waiting for the tram so I go up to an old Bulgarian woman and in Bulgarian I ask her: where is the number nine tram? She tells me right here and points.  I think that I  say to her in response: okay but I've only seen tram 6, tram 6 and tram 6.  Is tram 9 working? She shakes her head and tells me that she doesn't know.

At this point, another #6 tram pulls up and she gets on it.  I look at my watch and it's after 11am.  Now even if I walked, I wouldn't make it.  So I walk home in defeat. Mad that there aren't any posted signs telling me that the #9 isn't running.  I am also angry. It's angry defeat.  I'm angry enough that I want to karate chop something and I don't even know karate.  Heck, in hindsight, I'd probably hurt myself if I karate chopped something but that's how frustrated I was.

The first thing I did when I got home was to do a google search to see if I'd missed some announcement on closing or re-routing trams # 9 and #10.  Nothing.  Well, nothing in English.

I am not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.  I just wasted my entire morning trying to get to the American Embassy but on the upside, it doesn't appear that I should have known better. It's just maddening to travel around in circles for a couple of hours trying to get to the Embassy and then after 2+ hours not get there.  Sure, I could have taken a taxi but the whole thing became a point of pride. . . I will take public transportation.

Ha, not tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I'll be taking a taxi because even though it costs more--I know that I can get there easily and hassle free.  I just hate feeling defeated and I really don't like it when things like public transportation get the best of me.  I'd like to say: I'll show you trams #9 and #10 but I think today, at least, it's the other way around.  Oh well.