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Published: October 1st 2007
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Colourful Square
There were so many vibrant colours around the whole city - definitely not a dreary and dull place I was dragging my feet leaving Greece, ashamed to admit that the comfort of a developed nation had enveloped me and enticed me back into a way of life I know all too well. But there was no need to worry...futile really...as I found a spring in my step as I ventured through Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, for the first time despite my lack of sleep on the overnight train journey from Thessaloniki (I thought it a waste not to stop and check out Bulgaria given I was passing through...the harvesting in Romania would wait a couple of more days!). There is a richness to Eastern Europe culture that is missing in the clean, pristine streets of its more developed neighbours - a richness that easily captures my attention and memories of Greek luxury fade into the background...
As I wandered through the city for the first time (well, as much as you can "wander" when you are lugging a backpack full of cheap Greek lentils) I loved soaking up the vibrant atmosphere of the city starting its weekend, so much so it didn't even bother me too much that the Lonely Planet map that held all promises of being helpful
No, we're not in Disneyland
But this church did have that fairytale feel about it that I could easily picture it in a place like Disneyland by publishing maps in English was immediately rendered useless as all the street signs are in Bulgarian! Experiencing a city only on a weekend is like eating dessert first...the madness and chaos of a working week behind its occupants - everybody emerging from that stress into the bliss of freedom that a weekend usually provides - you see a city at its best.
People generally seemed happy to be living here - happy to be alive in fact...I saw girls greeting each other enthusiastically with big hugs in the street, lovers cuddling up to each other in the parks, friends meeting for coffee, skateboarders doing there best on any spare piece of concrete they could find. And flowers everywhere...so many people carrying flowers that it begged the question of what occasion it was when I arrived at the hostel. Apparently its the start of school year and its customary for teachers to receive flowers to mark the occasion...it was only hours later that my confusion set in when I remembered that it was actually Saturday...what the!?
You can knock off most sights within this city easily in a couple of days (or even a day really if you
Another church...
Okay, I mentioned I am not one for churches but evidently I enjoy taking pics of them :-) have your walking shoes on or if you work out how to navigate the extensive tram network)....Not one for musuems or churches, I happily spent my time in between sights ducking into op shops (I know I am going to love a place when they have good secondhand shops!), sampling their coffee (which for you coffee addicts out there I completely rate!) and lazing about the parks reading my book and watching the Bulgarian world go by. Things are also still cheap here - one of the additional benefits of Eastern Europe that one can walk around with the equivalent of 4 pounds (AUS$10) in your pocket and feel rich.
One of the most amusing things for most foreigners in Bulgaria must be the fact that Bulgarians will nod their head to indicate "no" and shake their head for "yes"...I was having difficulties locating the ticket office downtown to book my train ticket back to Romania and I thought I was in luck when I approached a lady parking inspector, asking her if she spoke English and getting a nod in reply - "ahh, fantastic I thought!"...she must have been rather perplexed when I immediately pratled off in English
Convenience - Eastern European Style
I like how Eastern Europeans like to combine the convenience of shopping for your laundry powder with that of your gardening - genius really, ha ha ha about the difficulties I was experiencing and where I was trying to go and did she happen to know where the ticket office was around here? My turn to be confused when she replied to me in perfect Bulgarian (well, am guessing it was perfect Bulgarian - am not a professor on these things but she sounded like she had a pretty good handle on her language) and pointed me off into a direction that I understood to be "I am not really too sure where you want to go but perhaps you can try walking somewhere over that way"...as I wandered off I wondered why she just hadn't answered me in English and it was only then that I remembered the whole "nodding means no" and had a real chuckle to myself - poor old lady!
Anyway, I did end up finding the ticket office and to treat myself for the journey out of there I booked myself into a first class sleeper cabin for the overnight journey to Bucharest as I had an unfortunate misunderstanding from Greece about these cabins - the whole language barrier thing (arghh!) and wanted to avoid that again by booking BEFORE I
Hmmm coffee...
One of the coffee houses I happily wiled away time in got on the train. Was well worth it as I enjoyed the comfort of my own cabin with squishy comfy doona (duvet for all non-Australians) and was a perfect end to a perfectly relaxing and enjoyable weekend in Bulgaria.
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