13 June 2017
Sofia Panorama from the Hotel
I took my first business trip of 2017 last week; a 5-day trip to Sofia Bulgaria (3 days spent traveling, 2 days of meetings). I haven’t been traveling much on business these past few years:
- 2017 – 1 trip (so far)
- 2016 – 0 trips
- 2015 – 1 trip
- 2014 – 1 trip
- 2013 – 0 trips
- 2012 – 0 trips
- 2011 – 1 trip
- 2010 – 3 trips
- 2009 – 10 trips
- 2008 – 8 trips
- 2007 – 17 trips
Not that I miss the “good ole days” of lots of travel (I don’t!), but I had never been to Bulgaria before (business or pleasure) so I added one more country to my list, which is always a bit exciting.
The meetings were being held Tuesday and Wednesday, so to be there in time for the meetings (and keep the trip under budget) I had to leave Sunday afternoon and fly overnight to Frankfurt, transfer to a flight to Sofia (the Bulgarian capital), arriving Monday afternoon. I was staying at the Sofia Hilton – a nice hotel to be sure, so Monday afternoon I walked past the National Palace of Culture to the Boulevard Vitosha, where all the open-air restaurants, souvenir shops, and boutiques are. Great people-watching territory!
Communist Memorial to Bulgaria’s 1,300th Anniversary
The next two days were spent in meetings, with lunch provided, and Thursday was the long-haul day to return; up at 2am (7pm the night before, Boston time) to ride with my colleague to the airport (he had an earlier flight so I got to the airport with a few hours to spare), 2-hour flight to Vienna, 3 hour layover, 9-hour flight to Newark, 4-hour layover (plane was delayed), 2 hour flight to Boston, then an hour in traffic on 93 in the taxi, pulling up to the house at 7pm – 24 hours on the road!
I had way too many hours on my timecard for the week already, so I took Friday off to recover.
Saturday and Sunday was spent staining/sealing the deck, having power-washed it in preparation a few weeks back. It was hot work, but at least it didn’t rain! It’s a lot of work, but it looks nice when it’s done, and the water beads up on the surface instead of soaking right in!
The Vogt Family TreeHouse Blog 