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Published: September 8th 2007
Alexander Nevski Church
Built in Russian style in recognition of the Russians liberating the Bulgarians from the Turks. The church is from the 19th century but the interior looks very old from all of the candle smoke.We arrived no problem into the station this morning at about 6:30AM absolutely exhausted, only to be told that we couldn't buy our Serbia tickets at the RILA office because there were people waiting in line to buy tickets for trains departing in a few minutes. We asked about the central ticket office and if we could buy there and they said yes. So we went to the central ticket office later and it was closed. Had a sneaking suspicion that would be the case! Despite the train situation it was a good day because as soon as we walked out of the train station we spotted an OK Taxi which is the only thumbs up taxi service from the LP Guide so we jumped on him.
The people here are again a complete shift from what we've had previously, but closer to the Hungarians. They are very friendly and welcoming and will even go out of their way (in most cases) to show you something if you are confused (which is useful with all that Cyrillic signage). They also don't jump all over you if you don't follow the set path in the museums. On the
St. Nikolai Russian Church
Another one we couldn't go into because of the weddings going on - in the morning! They must really party all day and all night here. downside we've been hit up by three aggressive bums and there is a strong Russian element here selling fake everything and trying to get you to do black market money changing - always stirring up trouble those Russians :-).
The city is pretty much what we had expected, it's indifferent and a bit stale, not having the romantic liveliness of Bucharest or the picturesque plaisance of Budapest. It doesn't mean it's not a nice city, it just lacks the character of the other ones. Adding to the challenege is figuring out street names that are written in the Cyrillic alphabet and matching these up to the latin letters on our map. We've been doing okay.
The Churches As the pictures attest, the things to see in Sofia are the churches, they are all relatively recent since an earthquake in the 19th century took down a lot of the older ones. The challenge has been that just about every church we have been to has had a wedding. That's okay with us since we generally know what the insides of these look like from other ones and we were able to get into the most important one, the
Another Cat
This one in front of the St. Sofia Church. Nevsky. Besides, we've really enjoyed seeing the Bulgarian weddings. The Russian Mobster look is definitely in for some of the guys while for some of the girls, well . . . we won't go there on here! To be fair most of the people are dressed "normally" and a bride here is a bride there, just with a few differences in style.
After about 3 hours of walking this morning, we laid down for a short nap of about 5 hours, but we have rationalized this occurrence with the belief that we will be up all night paryting like the locals (yeah right). We are going out to dinner at least to enjoy traditional Bulgarian food which is supposedly similar to Turkish food, we will see if they do better than the Romanians on this! And for Bernard, yes we will gorge ourselves with yogurt hopefully!
In addition to the churches we also visited the Ethnographic Museum in the old Royal Palace. The palace is nothing much impressive, yellow painted exterior with white detailing, kind of German style. The exhibits were not impressively put together and the content was narrow but interesting. Essentially we learned about the traditional
Saint Nedelya Church at Night
This one is located on the square where our hotel is located. Bulgarian clothing and their fascination with holy bread. THe clothing is nice with similarities to regional costumes while the bread section was about when, why, how, and who kneads it, stamps it for both holy and ceremonial/life events. It was nice to see a museum about people, this was the first we had seen really.
Luxury Collection Sheraton Hotel Balkan After the Intercontinental in Bucharest we are very happy with our accommodations at the Sheraton Balkan, we thought it would be nice since it's part of Starwood's Luxury Collection but then Intercontinentals are supposed to be nice too. The guest room corridors are about 15 feet wide, the widest we've ever seen in a hotel and it really feels like you're in a palace. The ceilings in the guest room are about 15 feet high also, but the coolest thing to Jennifer is how powerful the hairdryer is and for me the mosaic tiles used in the bathroom that effervesce like a thousand small pearls. The best news is they don't try to charge you $30 for internet here. We wish there was a pool because as our napping indicates, we really need a break and Sofia seems
Sheraton Balkan at Night
Everything looked so pretty at night! to be the opportune place to get one.
Happy Bar & Grill Makes for Happy Tourists! While many judge a city based on its architecture, it's shopping and activities or its nightlife, I (Jennifer) have just one standard that determines the likability of any particular destination . . . the food. Last night, Sofia entered the ranks of France & Italy (okay, not quite, but it was darn good) with an incredible spread of four delectible dishes (enough for four Bulgarians and just one Manny/Jennifer combo), redeeming itself from its earlier impression of "staleness." In fact, the entire city seems to come alive at night, and the lights that illuminate the hotels, churches, streets and sidewalks give the city a charm, all its own. Back to the food . . .
The Happy Bar & Grill was listed in our Lonely Planet guide book, which is probably the only reason we even considered it. It's located next to our hotel and with an obvious "American" name & look, it does not present itself as authentic or local in any way. Wanting to avoid sharing a meal with nothing but tourists, we avoided it most of the day,
Biiiiiiiig Hallways!
No, you can't touch both walls at the same time! but after our five hour nap, we found ourselves venturing out for dinner at around 9:30PM, and given the time, we did not want to cross town.
When entering the restaurant, we were shocked to see it completely packed inside. Where were all these people during the day? We were also pleasantly surprised to find few tourists, mostly locals. The decor was like a Hard Rock Cafe, with guitars and photos of American musicians on the walls. The servers were all dressed in brightly colored form-fitting tops and mini skirts, which must have taken courage to wear, given the chilly temperatures outside.
Our server thankfully followed with tradition and was as warm and helpful as just about every other Bulgarian we had encountered throughout the day. Since the menu was entirely written in Cyrillic, it was helpful to have pictures of the items on the menu. Still, we asked her many questions about each dish, and she patiently described each menu item we questioned her about -- allowing us to narrow our selection to only half the menu -- instead of the entire thing, all of which looked incredible.
The first dish was a mixture of fried
Our Room at the Sheraton Balkan
Very impressive hotel, the room reminds us of the Four Seasons in Westlake. The bed is very comfortable! eggs, feta cheese with paprika (they love paprika around here), green peppers and onions. It's a great breakfast dish, but equally yummy at night. And very unique in its presentation and flavors.
Next we tried what can only be described as breaded dumplings, but inside was a mixture of cheese and paprika (see what I mean). They were very good, bar-type, finger foods, although very filling.
Manny, of course, was interested in the meat, which had a Mediterannean flare. Pork on skewers, Chicken grilled with green pepper, spicy sausage that reminded him of the meat he bought street-side in China, and finally, my choice of a kofte-type of meat that Jennifer swears was beef, but Manny thinks was pork.
Finally, I ordered bread (against Manny's advice), which turned out to be pizza with cheese and garlic. Needless to say, we got a few looks when all the food came out, and we did little to negate the impression that Americans eat too much . . .
Either way, we were glad to have splurged on this tasty meal, especially when the bill came out, and we learned that all of the food, along with about a
Bathroom at the Sheraton Balkan
We talked so much about it, here's a photo of it, but it doesn't do it justice. Anyone else photograph their hotel room's bathrooms out there? liter of beer each, came out to about $20 U.S. dollars!!!
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Yaromir
non-member comment
Ottoman Empire
Happy to see you are having a great time. I loved the sequence from the baths. In a way you are touring the areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire from 300 to 400 years: this is a long time. The liberal nature of their system comes through your descriptions where the influence of the Turks seem very peripheral! I was the one who delivered the antibiotics down the cat's throat. I am not sure who she hates most: Pat holding her or me dispensing the bitter liquid down her throat! One last thing you may have missed: last week, Michigan was beaten by a totally unranked Appalachian State! It was jubilation in town! Have fun!