Circus Bulgaria

Michael and I took a pleasant, early morning, three and half hour flight to Sofia.  A half hour train journey on the brand new metro rail service and a short walk took us to the Premier City Hotel where we checked in for our stay.  We then headed out to familiarise ourselves with the city.

 

Sofia is a strange mixture of various architectural styles, including Roman ruins, crumbling Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings and huge edifices from the communist era.  The main boulevards are very wide however the streets seem very quiet with little traffic or people.  We had a good walk around before the early morning start got the better of me and I retired to our hotel, leaving Michael to dine on kebabs at a nearby restaurant.

 

The following morning we took a walking tour of the city, which took in various points of interest.  Our guide was very informative and explained the historical significance of the sites and buildings in Sofia.  The main area that interested me, were the many Roman ruins of the ancient town of Serdica.  We saw the Roman Rotunda, a red brick building, which has been transformed into the St George Church.  There were also remains of the East Gate of Serdica and we were able to walk on the original Roman street, covered by large stone plates.  We spent the rest of the day revisiting some of the sites covered on the tour to take a closer look for ourselves.

 

The next day, Michael took a cultural walking tour.  He thoroughly enjoyed himself trying the local yoghurt and fermented wheat drink along with rakia (Bulgarian brandy).  I didn’t join him on this tour as the group had to learn and perform a Bulgarian folk dance and as we should all know by now, I don’t pay to be the entertainment!  Instead, I spent a very pleasant couple of hours sitting in the glorious sunshine in a beautiful park being entertained by a jazz band.  It was lovely watching all of the families enjoying themselves.  Unfortunately there are many stray dogs living in the parks and streets of Sofia.  It is sad to think of them living like that, especially when it snows during the winter. 

 

We dined at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant in the evening and Michael enjoyed his roasted leg of deer.  We also tried some Bulgarian red wine that Michael liked however, I found it a little heavy.  Even though it was a very fancy restaurant, there were many children.  Bulgarians are very much like the Spanish in the way that children are welcome and expected to be boisterous. 

 

Michael and I took a tour out of the city to visit a church and monastery and to see some of the surrounding countryside.  The first stop was the Boyana Church, a mediaeval Orthodox church.  The church was originally constructed in the late 10^th century.  There are 89 scenes with 240 human images depicted on the church walls.  The frescoes are lovely and it was interesting to see that the eyes on the lower saints had been rubbed off.  This was because worshippers would touch the eyes to feel closer to God when they prayed.

 

The next stop was the Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila.  This is the largest Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria.  The monastery was founded in the 10^th century and still houses approximately 60 monks today.  The main church of the monastery was erected in the middle of the 19^th century.  Every inch of the church walls are covered in frescoes and there are a number of valuable icons held there.  The church is very beautiful and many Bulgarians make a pilgrimage there to pray.

 

We saw some lovely puppies roaming around the complex and our guide told us that they are given away for free by the monks.  I did ask Michael if I could have one however he pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to bring it back to Ireland with us.  I really hope that they have been adopted by now.

 

Our guide took us to a restaurant for a traditional Bulgarian lunch.  Imagine my horror when I was served bean soup as the entrée.  Luckily the waiter swapped the bean soup for a cold cucumber and yoghurt soup just for me.  This was followed by pan fried chicken and potatoes which was very tasty.

 

The next day was a very long day for us.  Michael wanted to see the town of Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, so we took a soviet era train to the township, which crawled along for three hours.  We arrived in time to join a walking tour of the city.  The guide was informative and took us to various points of interest.  Highlights for me were the many Roman ruins including the Roman theatre, Roman odeon, Roman aqueduct and the Roman stadium.  The city has been named the European Capital of Culture for 2019 and there are many works being undertaken to restore and beautify the town.  The old town area was particularly lovely to walk around with cobbled streets and interesting buildings.  Unfortunately we really didn’t have enough time to spend there in order to see everything, as it was soon time to board the train home.  When we were on the train, the ticket inspector saw that our return ticket had not been stamped at the station office in Plovdiv (no one had told us that this was necessary).  One of our fellow passengers acted as our translator and told us that we must pay a fine equivalent to the original cost of our tickets.  We duly paid the fine and the inspector apologised profusely, even returning to apologise again at the end of our journey and shake our hands.  It was hard to be annoyed when he was so polite about our misfortune.  I simply can’t imagine being treated with the same courtesy by Melbourne train inspectors.

 

Michael and I flew out of Sofia airport and back to Dublin.  It would be interesting to return to Sofia in a few years to see the development.  Tourism is still a relatively new industry and they are not quite as advanced as say Bucharest or Budapest.  Nevertheless, it was a nice city to visit.  

A London Trip

 

It was time for another trip to London to visit James and Amber.  I flew out from Dublin a day ahead of Michael as we had a slight hiccup with my ticket (we forgot to book my flight).  It was a good excuse to enable me to spend an extra day in my favourite city.  I arrived at James and Amber’s home to be greeted with a glass of wine and a bowl of my favourite Afghan lamb curry, so the trip was off to a very good start indeed.

I had the entire Friday at my disposal, as Michael was not arriving until late in the evening and James and Amber were busy with work and studies.  I had intended to visit Kensington Palace as an exhibition of Diana’s clothes had just opened however I was dismayed to find that there were no tickets available for the next month.  Twenty years have passed since her death and she can still pull a crowd.  I would just have to enact plan B.

I have wanted to tour St Bartholomew’s Hospital for a while now, however the tours only take place on Friday afternoons and now I had the perfect opportunity.  I met the tour guide at the King Henry VIII Gate and was astonished to find that I was to be the only member of the public to attend that afternoon.  We were joined by another gentleman, who also happened to be a tour guide and had come along just for the fun of it.  St Bart’s was founded in 1123 and is the oldest London hospital to operate continuously on the same site (St Thomas’ is older however it relocated at some point in its history).   Of the four original blocks only three survive one of which includes the Great Hall and the Hogarth murals, which was the main purpose of my visit.  We visited the small museum, which was full of interesting information on the history of the hospital, before making our way up the grand staircase past the Hogarth murals.  The hospital wanted to commission a Venetian artist to paint giant murals alongside the staircase.  William Hogarth heard this, and wanting to prove that an English artist could produce fine works on a large scale, offered his services for free.  The results are two magnificent pieces of work, The Pool of Bethesda and The Good Samaritan.  Both murals are lovely however The Pool of Bethesda is particularly interesting and it is believed that Hogarth used hospital patients as his models and various doctors have speculated as to the different diseases that the artist has depicted.  At the top of the staircase is the Great Hall, which is beautifully decorated in the Baroque style.  The walls are covered in plaques detailing the donations given by the hospital’s many benefactors.  It was all very interesting.  We also had a look at St Bartholomew-the Less, a chapel of ease in the hospital grounds.  The church’s tower dates back to the 15^th century and is the oldest structure in the grounds.  It is a small church with some lovely stained glass windows, one of which is dedicated to doctors whilst another is dedicated to nurses.  The tour was very interesting and I was really glad that I had the opportunity to visit.

Amber was studying for her exams so James and I headed to the Old Spitalfields Rugby Night Market.  There were lots of market stalls, street food and an enormous blow up tv screen broadcasting the Six Nations rugby game of Ireland versus Wales.  We settled down to a delicious meal of Turkish lamb, wine and baklava and then watched part of the game before moving onto another pub to continue our viewing.  My cheering for Ireland was all for nothing as Wales won the game comfortably.

 

Saturday morning we all walked along the canal (Michael having joined us the night before) to a lovely café called Brunswick East.  James and Amber had selected this venue for brunch, as they felt sure that with a Melbourne name like that, it would be owned by Australians.  This proved to be true and we enjoyed excellent food and great coffee before heading off to explore Victoria Park.  What a difference a month makes.  On our last visit, we could barely tolerate the cold long enough to walk a fraction of the paths on offer.  This time the sun was shining and it was really pleasant walking through the gardens and admiring the daffodils.  The cherry blossoms and magnolias look as though they will burst into bloom in the next week or so.  Amber left us at the park as she was heading out to see the Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre whilst the three of us continued our walk to Stratford.  We hadn’t been out that way before and it was interesting seeing the development that had taken place for the London Olympics, with more still underway. 

 

James had booked a London East End walking tour for the afternoon and we had a very interesting guide showing us the area with a special emphasis on the street art.  It was fascinating hearing the stories about some of the artists and even more so when a number of hidden pieces were pointed out to us.  My personal favourite is the artist Jonesy, who has hidden a number of bronze and wood sculptures in plain view.  His intricate sculptures are usually placed high up on the top of street signs and walls.  Next time I am in London, I am going to try to find as many of his sculptures as possible.

 

James and Michael were thirsty after our walking tour, so we headed over to the Ten Bells for a pint and to watch the rugby match between England and Scotland (England absolutely thumped the poor old Scots).  The pub is famous for its Jack the Ripper connections with two of his victims being seen there shortly before being murdered.  In fact, the pub changed its name in 1976 to “The Jack the Ripper” however the brewery ordered that it change back to its original name in 1988 after a long campaign by Reclaim the Night which demanded that a murderer of women should not be commemorated in such a fashion.  We finished the evening with a fabulous Punjabi meal at Tayyabs, a restaurant that had been recommended by our East End tour guide.

On Sunday we ventured to the Natural History Museum hoping to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.  Unfortunately, the exhibition was completely booked out for the day, so we walked across to the Victoria and Albert Museum and showed James and Amber a few of our favourite displays.  We then had a drink at a nearby pub the Anglesea Arms, which had been frequented by Thackeray and Dickens in the past.

Next, it was time for a surprise activity organised by Amber.  We knew nothing about what she had in store, although Michael had been concerned that she may have organised a session of hot yoga for us.  It turned out that a cheese and wine tasting had been booked for us and we spent the afternoon trying various wines paired with a lovely selection of cheeses.  One thing that I learned during the afternoon is that you should never serve grapes with wine, as apparently it is the one fruit that does not pair well with wine.  I wish I had known this back in the ’80’s when I always served frozen grapes with a cheese board, thinking that I was being very sophisticated.  Live and learn.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were very happy with our surprise activity.  Dinner was at a nearby restaurant, The Elk in the Woods where we shared a number of tasty dishes.

Michael and I headed out to Highgate Cemetery which had long been on my London “to do” list.  My main reason for wanting to see the cemetery was that it supposedly influenced Bram Stoker when he was writing Dracula.  I have since read that no one knows for sure whether it did or didn’t however I was still interested in viewing the cemetery for myself.  The cemetery is divided into two parts, the East and West cemetery.  You can only visit the West Cemetery as part of a guided tour so Michael and I headed to the East Cemetery where we could explore on our own.  The most famous burial in the East cemetery is Karl Marx whose tomb was the site of attempted bombings in 1965 and 1970.  We also saw Douglas Adams’ grave and Michael added a pen to the collection of pens and pencils which have been placed there by his fans.  We spent quite a while wandering around the peaceful burial grounds before heading over to Hampstead Heath to take advantage of the sunshine.

 

The day was so lovely that after lunching in Camden we headed over to Little Venice to enjoy a cream tea alongside the canal.  Then it was back to Angel for a quick cocktail before meeting up with Amber and James for dinner at The Pig and Butcher where we all ordered the onglet for dinner.  The meal was superb and a fitting venue for our farewell dinner.  James was heading to Brighton very early the next morning for work so we said our goodbyes to him.

Michael and I spent our last day visiting London Charterhouse.  The Charterhouse was founded in 1371 as a Carthusian priory and was largely rebuilt as a mansion in 1545.  It then became an Almshouse and school in 1611.  The school is no more however it continues to serve as an Almhouse to 40 male pensioners known as Brothers, who are in need of financial support.  In fact, the Queen is mentor to one of the Brothers and pops in to see him now and again.  It was a fascinating visit and I would love to take part in a guided tour of the complex on a future visit to London.

Hanging around the city Pest House. Maybe they closed it too soon.

 

Lunch was a real treat for me as Michael surprised me with a meal at the George and Vulture. Charles Dickens frequently drank here and of course it was mentioned numerous times in the Pickwick Papers.  We shared a Yorkshire pudding with potted beef as an entrée followed by a lovely steak and kidney pie.  It was absolutely thrilling to dine in such historical surrounds and Michael was curious as to how the tavern came by its name and asked one of the staff if she knew the origins.  It turns out that it was originally known as the George Inn and leased part of the premises to a wine merchant who had lost his shop in the Great Fire.  Unfortunately his shop sign was a large live vulture, which he tethered over the doorway, which was a little off putting for the clientele of The George.  It was agreed that if the wine merchant released the vulture, the landlord would change the name of the pub to the George and Vulture and that is how the tavern came by its name.

 

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to Amber and make our way to Gatwick for our flight home.  Once again we had a wonderful trip to London and we are so lucky to have James and Amber living so close to us.  Now if only Tim and Jess would move to the United Kingdom or perhaps the Republic of Ireland, life would be perfect.