A Winter's Tale, Part 3

Irisha, my dear wife, loves second-hand clothes shops. She was very pleased to discover that there are rather a lot of them in Sofia. Yes, the smell is usually pretty horrible, but the bargains you can find are just too good to miss. (Bring a clothes peg if the stink really bothers you.)

On Friday we had yet another visit to Sofia, as part of my ongoing battle to get my Chinese Police clearance certificate sorted out. The woman in the microwave oven at the Justice Ministry did not charge me much for the official stamp or apostille or whatever it is that they are going to put onto my documents, only 6 leva, but she told me to come back the following week. This meant that we had the rest of the morning before us and therefore Irena decided that we were going to visit some second-hand clothes shops.

First we found a very nice (and very warm) anorak with a fur-lined hood. It fits me really well. Then we had the discovery of the morning: an excellent and very snazzy ski jacket. It is black, white and red and it looks brand-new. After finding the ski jacket, I just had to get some super-warm ski trousers to accompany the jacket. (The technical name for this type of trousers is salopettes, I think.)

This morning we woke up and the garden, along with the rest of Kalotina, was white. After breakfast, we simply had to go for a walk in the snow and I had an opportunity to “test drive” my ski jacket and trousers. And yes, she did throw a snowball at me and she also made a snowman. Well, I could not complain too loudly, after my dear wife had found me three splendid and (very warm) pieces of winter clothing and all for less than 100BGN (about 50 euros or 40 pounds).