I’ve never been able to ascertain if my blood is especially tasty to mosquitos, or it’s just bad luck that I get bitten so much.
Right now…I’m itchy all over!

Every day in Bulgaria I’ve woken up with new mosquitos bites. It’s become a morning ritual to count the new ones.
Last night I was very excited to be sleeping in a room with screens on the windows! (I don’t think I’ve seen screens in Eastern Europe before.) I left the windows wide open, screens firmly in place, I checked, and went to sleep relatively certain I’d wake without more itchy red spots.
HA!
No such luck! I am literally covered in bites at this point!
For some reason the mosquitos here are pretty fierce and their bites stay around for about a week. I even started thinking they might be spider bites…but everyone has been complaining about the mosquitos and I spent a night in a hostel in Sofia hanging around my room chatting with other travelers and seeing who could swat the most of the little critters.
I had lunch outside today, not sure what I was thinking, and I can count 4 more that I racked up while I ate. Add this to the 12 or so already on my arms and the 3 on my face, including one on my eyelid (!), and countless others on my leg and torso and I feel like I have the chicken pox!
I’ve spent the last hour going to pharmacies trying to get something akin to Calomine…but I haven’t figured out a proper translation and I just present myself, point to bites and scratch…at which point the pharmacists say no…and ask me to leave.
I got my hopes up in the last shop. I forgot that the Bulgarians shake their head “yes” and nod “no”…oops. (Really though…does anyone else in the world do this. I just can’t get used to it!)
Anyway…I’m off for a mid day shower to quell the itchiness. Maybe I’ll freak out one more pharmacist, just for fun, on the way back…