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I think I’m going to stay 2 nights extra than planned here and then head to Istanbul on Tuesday night rather than Sunday. The main reason being is that I’m ruddy knackered and need somewhere nice to recuperate and this place fits the bill.

Last night I went to bed at 1 but didn’t get to sleep until 6 and was then awake at 9, grrr. I’m a bit under the weather with a bunged up nose, headache and sore throat, so that with 15 itchy mozzie bites makes for difficult sleeping. I can’t really face a night train/bus with that sort of preparation. So if I can string 2 or 3 decent night’s kip together here in Veliko Tarnovo that should do the trick.

The only thing is that it will eat into time for future destinations. So to offset it I might just stay 3 rather than 4 nights in Istanbul and not go to Plovdiv on the way to Sofia at all. Soz Plovdiv, but to be fair, you do have a very silly name.

So feeling like I do and now having 3 full days after this 1 to explore Veliko Tarnovo, I’ve done pretty much nish so far today.

I have booked a hostel for Istanbul though, figured out what bus I’m getting (it leaves here at 20:30 and get in at about 04:00) and researched the rules around visas. I’ve also got my washing done and looked into how I’m going to catch the City vs West Ham game on Monday.

It’s on ESPN (the Yanks that picked up the mess Setanta left behind) and sod’s law there’s one English pub here that has Sky. I’ll have a trundle down to it tomorrow to enquire if they have ESPN as well, it’s unlikely though. It wil be on the Internet but as the PC here is a Pentium II 333 MHz with 192 MB of RAM (which must make it around a decade old) I don’t think it’s going to be up to it, in fact I’d probably have more joy with one of these.

The game is on BBC Radio 5 Live and I know I can get that unrestricted on my phone so that’ll be better than nothing at worst.

If I feel up to it (which I don’t really at the moment, tough stuff this male-influenza you know) I’ll have a walk into town later and see what the Bobby Moore is.

Actually, at 17:00 (so 15:00 in Blighty) I had a flick through the channels on the hostel TV and the Stoke vs Rags game was on some Bulgarian sports channel which has given me hope that we’ll be on too. Indeed not long after I saw an advert for it, Jurassic Park.

I suppose I better have a shower, no east feat with a weary and achy body (can anyone else hear violins?).

After the shower I went to watch the 2nd half and some loud and slightly annoying American fella had switched it to a documentary chanel and wasn’t willing to switch back, god damn douchebag.

I see Richard Dunne has been playing pretty well for Villa buy has just given away a daft 89th minute penalty to cost them the game against Blackburn. Nothing changes. More often good performances but costly stupid own goals, red cards and silly pens to follow no doubt.

After tonight’s ‘light evening meal’ (which was remarkably similar to yesterday’s broth except with some sort of beans rather than potatoes, still quite nice) I managed to leave the hostel for 15 minutes to catch this. There wasn’t actually any music where I watched it from but the light show was still very grand and impressive. Apparently it is on pretty randomly as it only goes ahead when people in the posh hotels have paid for it to do so, they will play the music directly in the hotel and then the guests will watch from balconies.

The American bloke I referred to before is ok I suppose and certainly very well travelled and has some quite interesting tales, but he boasts constantly. It’s not becoming, especially when a man is well past 50 (and possibly past 60). One thing he said that stands out is “Living near Tucson the past few years, I’ve sewn more oats there than at any point in my life, including college”, urgh. The funny thing is I heard him say the exact same thing word for word to someone else at dinner last night. Urgh again.

This hostel has a very progressive approach to their beer sales. There is a fridge full of ‘em (as well as soft drinks) and then on the side of it there is a sheet of paper where you put your name down and mark how many you have had in tally fashion, then you pay at the end. It’s all terribly trustworthy and is actually quite nice, you don’t feel like taking liberties. Though the fact that the beers are about 65p helps ‘n all on that front. I’ve only had 3 or 4, purely medicinal of course in my current plight.

I couldn’t get a decent picture of the light show (not for wantvof trying) so here is the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest instead.