Well, it’s my final morning in Malak Izvor. I’m waiting on laundry, need to finish packing, and hope to be on my way within an hour and a bit (by 9:30). That will give me time to walk to Yablanitsa to catch a 10:45 bus or to chill in town if I get a lift.

My final day here was busy. I had a big work job and I also needed to get the house prepped for the new sitter. It’s a small house so, of course, it didn’t take long.

It had been raining off and on for a few days and so I hadn’t given the dogs very long walks since it’s simply too slippery and dangerous to go up the path when it’s raining. I took a chance yesterday afternoon and on the way home, the inevitable happened. I slipped and fell, hard enough that it took several minutes for me to assess if I broke and/or sprained anything. The dogs came back to me and knew something was wrong. They normally beat me home, but they stuck close the whole way and periodically nudged me and whimpered. They are so intelligent and I will miss them so much. 🙁

As for my feline brat, Penghu, he’s spent the last few days sleeping across the back of my neck. I can get up and do whatever, then come back, he’ll just climb right back up there. He’s actually there now. I’ll miss him, too, but not his food stealing!

It was really cold last night, so much so that I got up twice for extra blankets, and, of course, I was sore and the bed is terrible. So I didn’t get much sleep. 🙁 I’m really sore today and hope I can find more Nurofen when I get to Sofia since I’m down to just one tablet. I’m just glad I had some! I’m also glad that I didn’t fall on my “bad” side.

I’m feeling a bit weird about leaving Malak Izvor in that while I will desperately miss my charges, I’m otherwise fully ready to go and looking forward to new adventures and a final night in Sofia. I hope to have time to do a bit of exploring this afternoon before tucking into a sushi dinner! 🙂

Well, it’s time to force the suitcase to close. I’ll check in when I can. I think I have internet where I’m staying tonight (Hotel Zenith was fully booked, so I took something close to the bus station), but I don’t think I have any credit left on my phone. One of my projects for the afternoon will be to try to find out if I can use my Bulgarian SIM in Serbia. I painstakingly wrote all my questions in case I can’t find an English speaker and hope I can get a clear answer! I’d especially like to have access to the internet during my long bus ride tomorrow.