Bulgarian Trip: Registration of the UFB

I took a 2 week vacation in Bulgaria in October 2006. Here are my impressions of specific aspects of my trip.

Entry status: not proof read

In addition to registering at the airport as to where I would be as previously undocumented visitor, Lili told me when I arrived that I had to get registered at the local police department. I wasn't terribly comfortable with this but I let it go. For me, the less time spent interacting with law enforcement and government in general, the better for everyone. However, "When in Rome..."

Since I arrived on a Friday, we went on the following Monday to take care of this formality. The policy station was an interest experience and reminded me of movies of feature stereotypical communist government offices (or entry ways to communist prisons. The building was in equal repair as the rest of the city and, as I recall, no overly decorated to state "Policy work here." It very well could be that the translation for this building, its officials and it's functions only partially translated to "Police".

Either way, after entering the wrong building and getting misdirected twice, we exited the building, went down to the next door way and entered. Both doors entered the same building but in the hall way connecting them was blocked by an iron gate. I'm not sure why that gate is there.

Lili filled out most of the form for me and we got in line to get me "identified." We had an inside joke about me being an "UFB: Unidentified Flying Boy".

We had two problems during the registration: one was the address I used on the form at the airport was the wrong one. We said nothing to the processing clerk about this. The second had to do with the ordering of surnames on the form at the Police station. The clerk was adamant about the ordering and after a brief discussion, Lili arranged not have to redo the form (and start over again.)

After wait in a small, warm room with many people getting their immigration issues handled or passports renewed or various other tasks, we officially transitioned me to "IFB" and off we went.