Bulgaria: January 2018
Snow at last! Alas, rough sidewalks and cobblestones meant that it was more of a pain than pretty, even in pictures. And the planned lunch at Skaptobara was foiled by the fact that their kitchen was closed.
Explored a bit more of ancient Serdica before hopping on the metro back to the airport, escaped a stinky lounge of cigarette smoke for a marginally nicer one, and then it was time to part ways with Bulgaria. (and say farewell to Sam and his better half!)
Another cramped yet quick flight with a surprising decent lunch back to Munich. Just enough time at MUC to grab a tiny pretzel and find the restroom, and then onto one of the few four engine airliners left in service, a fairly recent Airbus A340-600 operated by Lufthansa. The experience was marginally better than United, which again left me wondering how they earned a 5 star rating by Skytrax. Maybe they save it for their Airbus A380 flagship customers, or I had an unusually so-so flight crew? (or they consider serving you food out of a cardboard box to be 5* service?)
About the only major advantages of Lufthansa over United/Delta/American were a pretty cool in-flight map? The early arrival into SFO helped as well, as that meant I was able to hop on an earlier flight (yep, one more!) and get back at a decent hour.
All in all, not a bad trip, although next time, need to go somewhat more interesting, or at least more picturesque, if I'm going to be spending that much time getting there!