Catching up

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The train ride from Athens to Thessaloniki was one of little enjoyment. I was so damn tired by the time it left, I thought I was going to be able to get a good night’s sleep on the train. This, unfortunately for me, could not have been further from the truth. I boarded with no issues, found my seat and settled in. For some reason, in their infinite wisdom, they left the lights blaring all night. There was no respite, and to make matters worse, the seats were just about as uncomfortable as you could imagine. So I arrived in Thessaloniki at 6 o’clock the next morning severely sleep deprived. Instead of trying to figure out which bus to take to the hostel I just walked the distance instead. I knew the hostel probably wouldn’t have anyone there to let me in. So I arrived at the hostel half an hour before they opened. I was having a little snooze when the receptionist arrived. She kindly let me check in and head to bed to catch up on the sleep I had missed the night before. I slept for a solid few hours and only woke out of a feeling that I was wasting my time. So I gathered my things and made my way down to the shoreline. There I found the ‘White Tower’ which turned out to be a bit of a waste of time. All the signs outside of the museum were in English and Greek, but inside there was only information for those that could read Greek. I was feeling a little miffed, the only consolation being that the view from the top of the tower provided nice views of the city. On my way out of there I was stopped and interviewed by a TV crew. I was asked what I thought of Thessaloniki so far, a hard question for someone who had spent 4 of the first 5 hours sleeping. After becoming a TV personality in Greece, I walked along the pier looking for the Byzantine Museum. I had real trouble finding it, and after giving up and deciding to head back to the hostel I stumbled upon it. It was such an interesting museum. The Byzantine Empire is not something that I know much about, and I still don’t know as much as I would like. After spending an hour or two browsing the mosaics and icons on display I headed back to the hostel to take shelter from the worsening weather. I was still reasonably tired from the night before and so after tucking into some dinner it was off to bed once more.

The next day was much of the same, I walked down to the wharf after finishing up breakfast. I found the photographic gallery I was looking for and was extremely glad I did. Sometimes I feel as though photography can be a little too simple, anyone can take a good photo. These exhibits were far more interesting than that. My favourite one paired a simple portrait of a person with a piece that the subject had written in their own handwriting. This combination allowed one to develop an emotional connection with the subjects of the piece. One gets a great impression of the person through the individuality of their handwriting. I was very fortunate to come across some honest people just after I had left the gallery. I had sat down for a little break and after getting up and leaving they came running after me to tell me that I had left my phone behind. They could have easily pocketed the phone and not said a word, I am extremely grateful for their honesty. From there I wandered back through the towns market. I love the social aspect of these markets, people are so friendly, not just with me but with the other store owners around them. I often don’t buy anything, but just enjoy something that is somewhat of a foreign concept in Australia and more specifically Alice Springs. The rain started to settle in for the evening. Foolishly, on a few levels, I decided to go for a run. I was committed to exercising though. I had made the effort to start so I was going to continue. I came back soaked, but feeling happy with the fact that I had actually motivated myself to do something positive. The only negative would be finding a place to dry my clothes, and as the weather is getting progressively wetter and colder it is going to be difficult. I treated myself with a roast chicken, an absolute treat to end the day.

Whenever I am planning to leave a place, I always try and spend the final day preparing future travel plans. There was a bus leaving for Sofia at 3:00 in the afternoon and I planned to be on it. Bulgaria is not a place many people aspire to go to, but I thought it would fascinating. So I spent the rest of the morning trying to book my ticket and watching the cricket. I had to buy the ticket at the bus station, which in the end was a blessing. I spoke briefly to mum and dad who are living a life of luxury in Adelaide, spending their days at cafes and restaurants alike. At around 1:00 I started off towards the bus station. I wasn’t too impressed with Thessaloniki, but was glad to have visited in any case. So turning up to the bus station, I happened upon Jordan and Sahra, two Aussies I had met in Athens. They were also in line to buy a ticket to Sofia (but for the next day), and so we made plans to catch up once we were both there. So I bought my ticket and boarded the bus, after trying to spend all of my Euro coins. The bus was pretty empty, it’s obviously not a huge tourist route. It took around 6 hours, and so by the time we arrived it was already pretty late. I once again showed my stupidity. I had assumed that my intended hostel would not be full, thinking that Bulgaria at this time of year would not attract that many tourists. Assumptions are dangerous. Arriving at the hostel and hearing the dreaded ‘you don’t have a booking do you?’ immediately signals that the hostel is full. So after being turned away at the door I had to look for another hostel. I found some Wi-Fi and booked at the Crosspoint Sofia Hostel. It was a bizarre place. But I was just glad to have a secure place to sleep.

After having a wonderful sleep I was greeted by extremely fresh weather. The cold has certainly settled in Sofia. The max for the next few days doesn’t get above 12 degrees. Without really knowing much about Sofia or Bulgaria, I was looking forward to discovering what the city had to offer. Lonely Planet is always a good place to start, it points you in the right direction more often than not. I went on a bit of a walk to find the Aleksander Nevski memorial church. On my way there I came across the National Gallery, housed in the old Royal Palace. There were really interesting displays in both the gallery and in the ethnological museum. The gallery exhibited both international artists as well as Bulgarian ones. I really enjoyed the work of Nikolay Nikov, a French artist who had moved to Bulgaria, and Brian Dailey, an American photographer. Both had really interesting ways of conveying their message. After spending a few hours there, making the most of the warmth as well, I continued on my way to the Memorial Church. It is pretty spectacular from the outside, less so from the inside, but still worth the visit. It was built as a thank you to the Soviets for their liberation from the Ottomans. Its magnificent golden domes are what set it apart from other buildings in Sofia. It is apparently the second largest church on the Balkan peninsular. I did come to realise, while walking around in the dark, how heavily churches rely on natural light. Because it was cloudy outside it meant that the church was not fully lit. Some churches invest in electric lighting, but many just rely on candles and the suns light. Down in the crypt of this church was an icon museum. I take an interest in icon art thanks to the passion shown for it by my Godfather Cecil. He would have loved this place. Full of interesting icons pertaining to Bulgarian history, as well as ones that were more generic. There was a fascinating documentary about the restoration of a double sided icon from the 12^th century. It had been restored three times, each time adding a layer on. During the last restoration they stripped all of the layers back and they now display the four different layers side by side. It was an interesting look at how much work goes into making sure that these treasures endure the test of time. I had not worn warm enough clothes, and so hastily made my way to the shelter of a café, where I could warm up out of the cold wind. After leaving the safety of the café I grabbed some pasta to cook up and headed back to the hostel. Jordan and Sahra were getting in at around 9:00 and so I waited for word from them. We caught up for a quick drink, but having both had pretty busy days we headed to bed not too long after. It was great to be able to catch up on what they had been doing since I had seen them in Athens.

It had come to my attention that Bulgaria were playing Malta in a European Qualifier that night, and so in the hope of getting a ticket I headed down to the stadium in the morning to suss it out. After checking out a controversial memorial to the Soviets (the precinct has now been turned into a skater’s domain) I walked around the stadium in the hope of finding a ticket office. I finally found a security guard, who I asked for help. He spoke perfect English (I’ve been impressed with Bulgarian competency) and directed me to the ticket office across the road from the stadium. The ticket only turned out to be 10 Leva, a good deal in my opinion. The game was due to start at 9:45 that night, I cannot understand why, especially in winter, that they would schedule a game so late on a Sunday night. After getting my ticket, I walked along the road back into the city. I sat in the main street and indulged in people watching, something that I haven’t done in a while. Bulgaria is so interesting in that it borders countries like Greece and Turkey and yet is so clearly influenced by the Soviets. On my way back to the hostel I grabbed a packet of frozen chips for dinner. Such a good decision, hot chips on a cold night made for a satisfactory meal. I met up with Jordan and Sahra at around 8:00 so that they had time to get their tickets before the game started. The wind had started to pick up and the ambient temperature plummeted. We had a fair amount of trouble finding which gate to enter. People told us everything but where we needed to enter. We eventually found the right gate, and found our seats. Not surprisingly, the crowd was pretty insubstantial due to the weather and the time of kick-off. The game was pretty dull for the most part, ending in a 1-1 draw. Malta were the far happier of the two at the final whistle. Bulgaria missed a penalty in the dying stages, something that cost them the three points in the end. There was more interest in the crowd though. Someone had pinned a t-shirt on the fence, sporting some political symbol. I couldn’t get a good look at it, but it certainly caused tension when he was asked to take it down. He ended up being roughed up and taken out of the ground. It certainly looked as though it could have gotten uglier for a little while. We then understood the heavy security presence even though the crowd was minimal. It was a really interesting situation to be involved in. After the game, which finished pretty late we grabbed a late night beer and called it a night to get out of the extremely cold weather.

I had decided to switch hostels after spending a few nights in the Crosspoint. So between checking out of the first and into the second hostel, I spent time catching up on my journal. It has become harder to keep up with my blog as my computer shuts off when not connected to the power. It’s something that is fixable with the right tools, it is just frustrating because I do not have a small enough screwdriver to solve the problem. So I checked in to the new hostel, an awesome little hole in the wall type place that was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. After getting everything all sorted out, I went on an afternoon constitutional. I ended walking a ring around the city centre, enjoying the street food on offer and the cheap coffee available. The evening was spent relaxing, watching some TV and having an early night. I didn’t achieve much, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the day and felt much more comfortable in my new surroundings. I also met a Canadian guy at the hostel who had just finished a ride from Frankfurt to Istanbul, a much more impressive effort than mine, considering the terrain along the way. It was really fun to swap war stories about experiences on the bike and the different ways we went about things while riding. It’s always nice to share the experience with someone who knows what you went through to a certain degree.

Jordan, Sahra and I decided that the free walking tour was a good way to spend the morning. It was a really interesting tour to go on, considering the limited nature of my Bulgarian history knowledge. To go on one of these tours opens your eyes to things that you would not ordinarily have picked up on while walking around by yourself. We saw some of the things that I’ve already seen but it was worth it nonetheless just to be exposed to new information about the history of Sofia. It was two hours well spent. Having finished up there, we made our way back towards the city for the afternoon. We stopped at a coffee shop for a little break from the weather. Unfortunately, this weather is overly conducive to sitting inside in the warmth and watching TV or reading a book. We felt like we had done our touristic activity for the day, and so we spent the afternoon enjoying the aforementioned activities. I was definitely glad we had decided to go on the walking tour. I booked my ticket to Veliko Tarnovo, a Bulgarian town in the mountains. It is on the way to Istanbul, so seems like an ideal place to stop off on the way. I booked the bus and the hostel, both reasonably priced. I think that will be the last stop off before I head to Turkey, unless I hear about anything amazing in between. I was looking at heading to Gallipoli, but apparently it is hard to get around without the use of a hire car. I’ll still look into it, but I think it might not be the most practical option. After getting all my affairs sorted it was time to cook up a feed. I grabbed some sausages and some yoghurt coleslaw (of sorts) and feasted on that for dinner, aided and abetted by some delicious Bulgarian beer. It was a great way to spend the last full day in the surprise packet that is Sofia. I had no idea I wold have such a good time in this relatively unknown city.

A good sleep in was followed by the arduous task of repacking everything that was strewn all over the hostel. I got it done reasonably early in order to catch up on this. I devoted the rest of the day to completing the blog, which ruefully has been neglected over the last week or so. I substituted blog writing with a little cricket watching just to numb the pain. I’m heading off to Veliko Tarnovo on the bus at 5 this evening. It’s exciting to see what this small town has to offer a tourist. I’m also getting excited to get back to Australia to see the family. It’s all happening as Bill Lawry would squawk.

Cheers,

Tikka

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