татуировка

Go ahead...look up that title in a Bulgarian-English dictionary...I'll wait.

After visiting the passport office to renew my Bulgarian ID card, I headed to the mosque to relax by the fountain and listen to the call to prayer.  Cat met me downtown and we did some tourist kitsch shopping...cyrillic t-shirts, etc..  (There are some cool pics from the underground passage with Roman ruins that will appear in a later post.)  After shopping, we met up with Jess, had a little adventure, and ended the evening with dinner at Annette, my favorite Moroccan restaurant.  (Pictures of the food will also appear in a later post.)  Below are the amaretto sours we invented, since they weren't on the menu, but the staff there indulged us.  After our little adventure, we needed them!

The adventure began earlier that afternoon when Ivo called тату MoHиka to inquire about appointments.  He was assured that an appointment was unnecessary, on a weekday evening we could just walk in.  He got directions (which were fantastic, thank goodness, since I appear to have lost all sense of how to get around Sofia), and found out the price.  Apparently there is a minimum charge for any size up to the equivalent of a box of cigarettes...nice standard of measure, isn't it?  

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a shirtless man in white shorts, who Cat and Jess assure me wasn't wearing any underwear...it seems this time, my tendency to be oblivious was useful.  In any case, he was very nice, realized we were the internationals who had called earlier, and though he spoke no English, simplified his speech enough that Jess was able to understand - yay for Jessica's Bulgarian skills!  Basically, they were busy, but had a guy at another location 200 meters away who could help us.  That guy would arrive in 5 minutes to pick us up.  In the meantime, cigarette in hand, he offered us all beer, which we politely declined.  

Other guy did indeed arrive in only 5 minutes (this was a good omen, since in Bulgarian time 5 minutes could really have been anywhere from 5-45 minutes...in that sense, I fit right in!)  He walked us to his place, which was certainly NOT 200 meters away...maybe 2000.  Below are some pictures of his studio:

the view from his window...oh yes, we were in the basement!

Here is the artist at work.  Fortunately, his limited English was not a concern.  Someone was definitely looking out for me.  This studio was much cleaner (notice he's wearing gloves), he wasn't drinking or smoking, and he had a girlfriend who spoke perfect English and translated exactly what I wanted.  Phew!

Yes, you may think I'm crazy.  I prefer adventurous, thank you.  As you can see, I lived to tell about it and I'm still smiling!

The final product, hours after completion...the drafting ink hadn't even all washed off yet.

Yes, it's a Bulgarian word, written in Cyrillic.  But I'm not telling what it means or where it is!

Below is the video for the song we were singing after this little adventure: