Karolinka In & Around Bulgaria

The weather was beautiful on Saturday morning. So A. and I decided to go to the park in the early afternoon. Now this in and of itself isn’t really worth of writing about. It’s spring. People go to the park in the spring.

What makes this different is that it basically rained every day in May so a warm, sunny day with blue skies and a light breeze was a welcome change. The weather was so nice in fact that I put in my contacts and dug out my sunglasses. I then evicted my umbrella to make room for the case of my sunglasses. I painted my toenails and put on a pair of sandals.

That’s how sure I was that it was going to be a wonderful day. Now don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful day. We to the metro to the city center. We walked to the park. We drank a beer. We wandered around the park for a while with what seemed to be half of Sofia.

Then it started to spit rain. Only the sun was shining and it was raining at the same time. That’s kind of weird. (On a side note, I was told once by a Bulgarian student that when this happens bears are getting married. Right, because when else would bears get married?! Really though I think it’s such a lovely saying–there’s something kind of magical about a moment where is sunny and rainy all at once.)

So we started to started to make our way to the city center. Why not have another beer somewhere and wait out the spitting rain?

Well we decided to go Fun House The Clock, an Art Restaurant. I am not sure what’s up with the name but the restaurant/bar is really cute. They have a lovely garden out front and probably 8 or 9 tables inside. It’s both cool and cozy.

By the time we got to the restaurant there was no more rain. We sat outside, ordered beer and salads and not more than 5 minutes into our salad did it start raining. We shuffled our chairs under the large outdoor umbrellas to wait out the storm assuming that it would let up as quickly as it came on. No luck.

After a bit of this, we retreated indoors with our beer. Because really, what’s the point of getting wet sitting outside if you could sit inside just as easily and be dry?

The salads were excellent. I had a chicken salad. It was hot chicken with roasted onion and mushrooms in a cream sauce served on a bed of romaine lettuce with a few cherry tomatoes mixed in for color and a dash of balsamic vinegar. I thought it was delicious. It was not at all what I imagined when I ordered it but I have to say I was really please with it. A. ordered the Moroccan tuna salad and was equally happy with this dish. It was a mayo-less tuna salad with tomatoes and herbs also served on a bed of lettuce. The colors of this salad were amazing.

The thing is after we drank our beer and ate our salads and figured that we could walk back to the metro. The problem? Upon paying or bill and exiting the restaurant it was clear that the rain had not really let up. We ducked into a cab but only after getting pretty wet and then we headed back to Mladost.

I am convinced that this is what I get for excavating my sunglasses after 6-plus months of disuse, painting my toenails a cheery color, donning sandals and leaving my umbrella at home.

The is, was it raining in Mladost when we climbed out of the cab? Nope. Go figure.