March 23rd, 2011

One of the great things about working with a good adoption agency is the in country help. They have everything arranged for us. Airport pickup, hotel rooms, cars, drivers, translators, etc. All we needed to do was get to the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia.

Sofia is located in the Western portion of Bulgaria. Bulgaria is about the size of the state of Pennsylvania. Sofia has the same population as Columbus (about 1.2 million people) but only takes up about 1/3 of the space. It is much more compact than Columbus, as most every European city is. Dobrich is located in the Eastern portion of Bulgaria. It has a population of about 100,000 and is located about 6 hours away from Sofia by car.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Sofia,+Bulgaria&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.287373,93.076172&vpsrc=6&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sofia,+Sofiya-grad,+Bulgaria&ll=42.681426,23.509369&spn=0.352837,0.727158&t=h&z=11&iwloc=A&ved=0CBAQpQY&sa=X&ei=rcWITsn3BYbeNYvXvcwF

March 22, 2011

Travel booked! Due to other employee vacations at work for myself and Rani, we couldn't leave as quickly as we wanted to. We would need to get ourselves to the town where she is located, her orphanage is in Dobrich, Bulgaria. It's about a 6 hour drive from the capital Sofia. Here is what Rani had to say about it from our original blog:

After getting the referral, we wanted to travel to Bulgaria that night! But alas, vacations on my team at work would delay our trip. April 1st is the date we will be leaving to travel to Bulgaria. Columbus to Minneapolis to Paris to Sofia on the trip there, and Sofia to Amsterdam to Minneapolis to Columbus on the way back. We are super excited and cannot wait to leave, luckily the days seem to be flying by.