Bulgaria, Sofia: A city that can be done in 1-day

Alternative title:
Bulgaria, Sofia: bells, baked goods, big day, burgers, busy bees, buckets of rain, and buuuttuglyppl

Firstly, I'm really really really sorry if anybody I know or anybody reading this or anybody knowing of any Bulgarian is offended, but my initial reaction, and one I just couldn't shake all day, was how really unattractive-not-pleasant-looking the people in this country are. I think maybe it's the strong features, or the fact that almost all of them smoke, or all the really gross bakery products...

Baked goods - arrived in Sofia at 6:30 am this morning after taking an overnight bus from Istanbul. Bus ride passed quickly as I slept the entire way, with one exception of trying to 'roll over in bed' and falling onto the ground. Yes, chuckling at my expense is permissible. Got into the bus station, found the train station by making the sound 'choo choo' to a local, and searched for food. Found a cheap baked-good place, looked ok, for shhuurree was the grossest bread-cheese combination of pastry I've ever had. Ugh. I seriously feel the gag reflex when I think about it now.

Bells - roamed the streets on my own for a bit--and heard-----church bells! An unexpected change from and much more melodic sound than the Muslim call to prayer. Found the oh-so-venerated Bulgarian mountain (Mount Vitosha), decided I'd likely seen better ;) and headed back to the train station for Sofia's event of the week - Aussie Liz was coming to town!



(Focusing on directions.....man, a whole new group of butttugly people....)

Big day - I met Liz 2 nights ago in Istanbul, we'd already booked separate travels to Sofia, but were on the same page about seeing it all in a day. And cleary, the fact that we were both there, was the best thing to happen to Sofia all week- oh, my apologies, second only to their hosting of the international chess finals.



Burgers - well large meat balls with more tasty stuff stuffed inside (spices, pepper, and cheese!) And a shared salad plate of eggplant, more cheese, pepper-type trempette, and olives. Mmmmm other-culture's-food.



(wow, our waiter, decent looking, rest of the restaurant-folk, oi not so much)

Busy bee's were we the rest of the afternoon finding gems amidst the boring, bu'gly people. We saw the outside of the Ethnographic museum and St. Nedelia Church, sauntered through the fruit and veggie markets, peeked at the mounds of ice cream at Jimmy's, strode along the mall of the National Palace of Culture, and finally marveled at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the largest church in eastern Europe.




(by this time we'd walked the whole city, the bu'uglies were everywhere)

Buckets of - I dropped Liz off at her hostel (better looking people, not from Bulgaria) just in time for the thunderstorm and buckets of pouring rain. As we had seen churches & mosques, I wanted to find the synagoge on the so-called list of sightseeing highlights. This was easier said than done as my map, along with my bag, shoes, and self, got soaked with rain. (the rain didn't do wonders for the bu'gly people either). I was getting absolutely soaked and was just about to give up searchi....(that's a lie, it just sounds like how the story should go). Truthfully though, thought the synagogue was a mosque until I noticed the little stars of David sticking up from the domes.



Et voilà, Sofia fini ! Trudge back to train station, do some bag-balancing, gross-bathroom-area-dodging, dry-clothes-switching tricks, buy snacks with my last few Lev's and I'm on the overnight train to Belgrade!

... Away from the bu'gly people?!