Marching on Together

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Marching on Together. In the days of old when a team in white were worrying Europe's elite and winning more than just the highest "away" crowd average award at each venue they visited, Sofia welcomed their presence. A snow covered Moscow was deemed too cold for UEFA Cup football by the mandarins in Switzerland. On 2 December 1999, the bandwagon rolled into town. Programme Man's finest hour had arrived. He organised Marching on Together playing out of the tannoy at the Stadium. The team couldn't reward the support and were rolled over by Spartak's Brazialian forwards.

For the first time on the trip, the sun was shining when we ventured out of the hotel. The city was waking up and the stalls for a book fair were setting up further along Vitosha Boulevard. The dome of the Church of Sveta Nedelya stood out in the sun in the distance. We cut off down Neofit Rilski Street. I was keen to check whether the restaurant in the Hotel Niky was still open for business. The other half and I had stayed there in 2009. The garden restaurant in the rear of the hotel was a bit of a gem. Invisible from the street, it seemed only known to the locals and those who stumbled upon it. It appeared open. We made a mental note to return.

The city was displaying more signs of prosperity than in my last visit. The Metro might look sparkling, there are some new trams on the routes, but other aspects of life remain unchanged. I called my very first Sofia blog, Chasing Pavements.

https://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/Sofia-City-/Sofia/blog-458880.html

They are still looking for them. Bulgaria seems to be content with huge great holes in them, loose slabs and just general uneven surfaces. It is fair to say that there are a number of trip hazards. Alcohol can add to the problem. The concept of the footway has not been totally embraced. We picked our way along the uneven surface on to Hristo Botev Boulevard. We re-emerged into the old centre of Serdika by the Courts of Justice. A group of young people were busy planting trees outside the front entrance. It was all very similar to the propaganda film we had watched the previous day at the Museum of Socialist Art. The return of the socialistic times? Maybe not - a smartphone nestled neatly into the back pocket of the attractive photographer! The statue of Sofia glistened in the sun by the Serdika Metro. A drone buzzed around overhead. A few inquisitive folk waved their hands to attract it's attention. As at home, the tolerance to these things flying low over built up areas, football grounds et al will surely evaporate very quickly. We wandered into the indoor market, which was all open for business. The Man in the Middle is usually commissioned to find another Eastern European fridge magnet for a work colleague. He secured another one for their collection. The synagogue was all locked up. Closed for the next 2 days. Sorry for the inconvenience. It was ironically closed in 2009. We revisited the former Communist Party HQ and on to the Rotunda St George. The small church is surrounded by a vast government building. A cunning plan by those Russian masters to make their structures the most dominant. Vitosha Boulevard had completely come to life by now. The locals were promenading, contemplating where to stop for their expensive coffee or ice-cream. We returned to the hotel to leave the SLR camera. The long lense sometimes doesn't go down well with the stewards and the Police at higher level football matches.

We took the Metro back to Serdika and walked round the back of the Courts of Justice to the tram terminus. The planting of trees had finished, at least for this week. A Number 5 rolled up on schedule and we trundled off down Tsar Boris 111 towards the district of Slavia. We alighted at the bus station. The Slavia Stadium lay behind the trees. The satellite TV crews were just setting up for the afternoon outside the main stand. Cables were laid out across the footway from the TV van. Health and safety would have had a field day. A few early morning fans wandered. The riot police loitered around with nothing to do. The man in the club shop - well a loose decription - interrupted his mobile phone call to offer no consolation in pin badge hunt. I already had one from the previous trip, but the Man in the Middle was to keen to add one for his collection. A key ring was offered as a poor substitute and declined. Shop man returned to his mobile phone.

We walked away from the ground in search of a refreshment. The fitness club section of Slavia could only offer bottles of Tuborg. We moved on to the Slavia bistro. Local beer was also off the menu here, so we settled for a Czech bottle. Customers were scarce - us and another couple. He looked old enough to be her father. The hand contact suggested the relationship was something a bit more intense. The population of the bistro increased. The riot police arrived. They trooped in. Shades on. Batons twirling. Helmets in hand. They sat down and ordered. A spot of lunch and a beer. Guilty as charged, your honour. Drunk in charge of a football crowd. It would perhaps be sensible to be cautious of these guys, if it all kicked off later. The lunch was interrupted by a radio call to one of the sergeants. The majority reluctantly moved out, leaving just two who had made a more complex dining order of 2 courses. I gazed out the window. There didn't seem too much activity, but perhaps the impending arrival of a few Levski warranted the disturbance to the lunch arrangements. We had studied the food arriving and decided to dine ourselves.

We entered the ground early. There was no search at all. The SLR camera could have made the trip after all. The main stand was nicely shaded. The main group of Levski fans on the far side would be baked in the sun. The Ultras Slavia wandered at will through the perimeter fence to make sure their banners were displayed exactly to their liking. The main crew took off their Boys Slavia tee shirts and risked sunburn. Levski arrived slowly on the far side. They slowly assembled a succession of banners. There appeared to be no order to proceedings, but Sector B presumably were calling the shots on how the display should show for the outside world and the watching TV cameras. As every A Liga game in Bulgaria seems to be televised, the TV cameras are always watching. A line of stewards held a line, ushering the Levski fans to avoid the section of pristine white seats that spelled out the word Slavia in cyrillic. Levski had apparently rearranged the furniture a bit last year, so Slavia were keen to keep them from a repeat. In the end, the sheer number of visitor overwhelmed the line of stewards and the plan was abandoned. Meanwhile, we were high up in the centre of the main stand next to the VIP section keeping cool. The majority of VIPs seemed to be Levski. The ladies behind to our right were more obvious in their allegiance - a Levski Girls tee shirt, blue sunglasses, blue handbag, blue shoes and the game was up.

When the subject of football was mentioned in Sofia, it was pretty much met with universal looks of bewilderment. The common response was that football was run by the mafia, the results were known beforehand and it was all fixed. "Gambling" was the usual response. There was no sign of it, as the 2 teams went about each other in a committed fashion. The skill level was fairly average, the pace might have been low ........... but there was no sign of anything unusual. In view of the heat, the lack of pace was excusable. There was no excuse for the Slavia defence, who went walk about and allowed the Levski forwards to queue up at the far post for the privilege of heading what turned out to be the only goal of the game. Slavia came close to getting an equaliser on a number of occasions. When in doubt, Levski resorted to rough and tumble and blatant fouls. A few older Slavia fans on the concourse in front of us traded insults with the Levski in the VIP section above us. The yellow card count rose until the referee had seen enough and changed his card to red. The 10 men hung on, roared on by a constant noise from the travelling group. At various stages, the Levski ultras produced a smoke show - the clouds drifted across the pitch and lingered in the nostrils. It was a shame their team was not on fire. The clouds in the sky were non-existent. The Vitosha Mountain loomed over us to our right. It has to be said, there can be few more picturesque grounds on a nice day. Levski hung on for the 1-0 win. We made a swift exit and caught a tram before the Levski masses had been allowed out of their sections. We were back in the city centre in 20 minutes, safely established in the Bar Paris on a side street off Botev. The barman was proud of his old fashioned music. It could have been a film set for Paris in the 1930s. The price was certainly right. We dined on pizza for a change.

It was another bright, sunny morning. 90 minutes at Slavia with a view of the mountain had rekindled the desire to climb in the Man in the Middle. We headed initially to the Boyana Church. A bus tour of Japanese were forming an orderly queue to get inside. We decided 10 Lev entry was over priced - you get in a football match for that or have 5 pints. The reviews suggested 2 routes to the Boyana Waterfalls - easy and longer, hard and shorter. We climbed through the houses behind the Church. The flats and apartments of downtown, give way to almost alpine villas. The initial observation at the split of the routes was that they both looked steep. The forecast was for a really warm day. The temperature was already climbing. We set off on the easy route. We would be OK - we were armed with a bottle of water. It wasn't long before the sweat started to pour. I blame the water bottle. It was heavy to carry. I suggested we abandon the plan, in favour of a more leisurely sport......... all afternoon drinking!

An hour later, we were on the pitch at Lokomotiv Sofia. The Iron Brigade have suffered a worse fate than CSKA. Financial issues saw them initially relegated to the amateur ranks of Division 3 (South West). After failing to fulfill a couple of early season fixtures, they are now in the Division 4 ranks. A lone runner ran round the athletics track. The kitman expressed an interest in Manchester United. We would see him later in the bar, so he was more George Best than Bobby Charlton. We pointed to bottles of the local brew in the fridge at the Lokomotiv bar outside. The barman recommended the draft instead. 1.70 Lev a pint. Good plan. We sat down in the shade. Barman had already excelled himself, but reached new heights bringing across a pin badge and 2 stickers each. "Lokomotiv Sofia" he proudly announced. Levski had made us welcome, CSKA had done similarly. The Man in the Middle weighed up the details - a free pin badge, 1.70 Lev a pint and a super fast wi-fi signal - Lokomotiv were rising in his affections. The club looked as did on my visit in 2009. The training pitch alas had seen better days. Weeds rose in the dugouts. Grass was sparse on the pitch. Let us hope there are better times ahead for Lokomotiv, even just to keep the bar open. Tram 12 brought us past the Bus Station and Central Train Station to the Lion Bridge. The Metro returned us to a cheap bar off Vitosha and the last supper was in the still highly recommended restaurant in the back of the Hotel Niky.



Appendix Bulgaria A PFG Liga Date: Sunday 13the September 2015 @ 1615 Hours Stadium: Slavia, Sofia Attendance: 3,600 Referee: T Krastev





Slavia Sofia 0 - 1 Levski Sofia



Scorer: O Diaby (Levski) 8 minutes



Slavia Sofia

1 G. Petkov, 25 T. Panov, 2M. Dechev, 27 E. Martinov, 6 Z. Atanasov, 66P. Krachunov, 4 I. Dimitrov, 20P. Atanasov Substituted, 71 A. Karachanakov, 7J. Manzorro

10 Y. Karabelyov Substituted

Substitutes: 17 K. Dyakov Substituted for Y. Karabelyov 62', 23 E. Stoev Substituted for P. Atanasov 82', 3 D. Pirgov Substituted for E. Martinov 88'

Levski Sofia

29 B. Jorgačević, 20 Z. Milanov, 30M. Karner, 4 V. Minev, 15 R. Procházka, 3 A. Belaïd, 70 G. Kostadinov, 10 Bedoya Substituted, 8 J. de Nooijer, 12 B. Kraev Substituted, 11 O. Diaby Substituted

Substitutes: 4 M. Orachev Substituted or B. Kraev 46' Sent Off 74 Minutes, 9 A. Kurdov Substituted for O. Diaby 68', 21R. Tsonev Substituted for Bedoya 77'

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Photos

Sofia
Marching on Together

Lokomotiv Sofia
The loneliness of the long distance runner

Lokomotiv Stadium
Bar none...............