Sofia

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10th November

Arrived into Sofia at 6am - vowed (yet again) that we would never do another overnight bus journey!

Found a good hostel for the next 24hrs and after catching up on some sleep went out to explore the city.

Sofia is an undiscovered capital on the edge of Europe with a lot to offer the adventurous tourist. We stumbled across the remains of a Roman village and 4th century church hidden within the grounds of the Presidential Buildings. Visited a number of Bulgarian Orthodox churches all with beautiful frescoes and chandeliers.

Identified the old Communist Party Headquarters by the Social Realist architechture we had seen so much of in Warsaw. There were many beautiful buildings and interesting streets to explore. A friendly lady who spoke English and saw that we looked lost put us on the right track and advised us to take a look at the National Art Gallery, as Bulgarian art is quite distinctive. We were glad we did and admired many beautiful pieces that seemed to be ahead of their time compared to the art in Western Europe.

The highlight on the tourist route in Sofia is the Aleksander Nevski Church named after a Swedish born Russian warrior who died fighting the Ottomans and so liberating Bulgaria to be its own independent state.

Although it was a brief visit into this country, it was a very fitting conclusion to this part of our trip giving us a taster of what comes next in Orthodox Georgia and of course Russia ...

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Comments

[Kay OHara]

Thanks for the Blog
What a wonderful way to catch up with your adventures. Keep happy,well and safe. I have been speaking to Mum recently, who informed me about blogging, and so I am fairly up to date with events. Looking forward to the next news. Let us hope that the next time we all meet is in Florida. Lots of love to you both.