Hallelujah! The last of our PBCC Bulgaria-Romania contingent has finally landed in Sofia! The first of our group touched down in the early evening direct from Frankfurt, some of us flew to Munich and then on to Sofia, and the rest of us took the evening flight to Sofia. (Editor’s note – proving Philadelphia’s global reach, I encountered an Eagles fan while buying allergy meds in the Munich pharmacy! We had a moment. Go Birds.) The Sofia groups had dinner at a local restaurant, the Munich groups had Munich airport food, and the final Frankfurt folks continued their long residence in that bustling airport for meal #2 of the day. (The airport had a free video game room which some of our kids happily checked out.)
We are all checked into our hotel and were delighted to see our choir mate Javier Pena Cohen, who’ll be with us for the rest of the tour, meeting our buses with a “Welcome to Bulgaria” sign he drew himself. Aside from Javi’s greeting, the things we are most delighted about are: showers and real beds. In case you’re counting, and we were, it took 30 hours for most of us to make our way from Philly to Sofia – darn near two days of buses, (airport) trains and planes. We are definitely exhausted, but don’t worry – these kids were still breaking into spontaneous song even as we pulled into our hotel. And one of the flight attendants on the Munich to Sofia flight was absolutely astounded that the choir that sang at a World Cup game on Saturday was on her plane very late on Monday. “It gives me chills,” she said. “You must be famous!”
Photos weren’t as plentiful today because we were spread out, but all of our guys are present and accounted for! Tomorrow, we head to the mountains, then have a musical exchange with a local choir that the kids are very much anticipating.
Exhaustedly yours,