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 10th 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 10th century and still houses approximately 60 monks
today. The main church of the monastery
was erected in the middle of the 19th 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.
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