Sofia could not have been a more perfect place for our first stop in Europe. We expected to be exhausted from our crazy trip over from Buenos Aires- and we were. Two nights in a row of “air-hotels” was not ideal. We did get to ride on a double decker plane on our Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt which was cool- it was the first time for both of us and it seemed to be a much smoother ride. But even on a luxurious double decker plane we didn’t sleep well and were walking zombies when we got to Sofia. Fortunately, we had been emailing back and forth with a friend of Aunt Pants and he volunteered to pick us up from the ariport and get us where we needed to be. So, we met the gregarious and wonderful Mr. Eren Can at the airport in Sofia and he made sure we got our zombie selves where we needed to be.
After a short nap we decided to go explore the city. Our hotel was in the ideal location, right near the city center with tons of restaurants, shopping and historical sights all within a short walk. Sofia has a very compact city center and tons of history mixed with the newer constructions. In fact, you can walk into the brand new subway line and see the excavation of ancient Roman ruins and then on the way to catch your train walk across the original stone pathway that served as the entrance to the ancient walled city. A Roman colosseum, said to be second in size THE Colosseum in Rome was found recently, but is buried beneath 20th century buildings so cannot be fully excavated. No problem, one of the hotels in the area has an elevator down to partially excavated colosseum if you want to take a look! (Which we did, it was cool but you can’t see much which is a bummer). It is truly old and new side by side. Because it was so small we were able to explore most of it in 2 days, which gave us several days to catch up on sleep and take care of many other things. There are tons of beautiful gardens with lots of trees, flowerbeds and fountains and they all have sidewalk cafes. I love sidewalk cafes and this went above and beyond my expectation. It seemed as though every restaurant had outdoor seating, either in a hidden away courtyard or along the sidewalk for excellent people watching. The cafes were so wonderful and crazy cheap and the food was all excellent. We also found the farmers market where they had fresh figs for 3.50 leva per kilo. Fresh figs for less than $1 per pound?!?! We bought so many figs.
Roman Colosseum ruins at the bottom of the hotel.
After we had rested and explored on our own for a few days we took the Free Sofia Tour on advice of Eren and were blown away by the amount of history that Sofia has- over 6000 years of history. Apparently it was a favorite of Constantine who called it his little Rome and it was “this close” to becoming the economic hub that Istanbul became instead. Our tour started at the Court of Justice where we saw the damage to the building from WWII. Our guide told us that Bulgaria was on all possible sides during WWII- they started neutral, then when the Germans came through they sided with the Germans and declared war on the two countries furthest away (our guide explained they didn’t actually want to be part of the war, it was just easier to side with Germany when they showed up at your border). \those countries were the UK & the US- the countries who ended up bombing them and leaving shrapnel damage on their justice palace. Bulgaria later sided with Russia in the war. Our guide ended by saying they were not very good allies but also mentioned that most politicians tend to be pretty flexible. Bulgaria was a communist country until the Berlin wall fell in 1989. We saw a statue of Saint Sophia who is in no way connected to the city of Sofia, but after communism ceased in Bulgaria the large statue they had of Lenin was removed, this left a need for a statue, so in cam Saint Sophia who just happens to share a name with the city. This actually caused a bit of a scandal as Saint Sophia was a Christian martyr but is displayed with numerous pagan symbols and dressed, according to the old people, a little too provocatively! Sofia itself was named after a church called Sofia. Back when the city was walled, the church was outside the wall and it was the first thing that people coming to visit would see, gradually the city became synonymous with the church. Interestingly enough a Bulgarian tradition is to ring a bells to welcome people and put on a great show to impress visiting countries and dignitaries. Poor Sofia church does not have a bell tower though! So a bell was hung in a nearby tree instead. It is painted green to blend in and it sure does!
We walked past the Sveta Nedelya (Holy Sunday Church) which was originally built in the 10th century but has been rebuilt many times since, most recently in 1927 after a terrorist attack destroyed its roof and killed 125 people. We saw old bath houses no longer in use and drank water from hot springs beneath the city. We saw Sofia only Catholic church (the cornerstone of which was laid by Pope John Paul II), its largest mosque and synagogue and of course, several orthodox churches. They are all within a several block radius called the “square of tolerance”. We saw the beautiful Alexader Nevski Church which used to be the highest church in the Balkans, an honor which was recently taken away and bestowed on another church. Not to worry, our guide informed us, their church is empty still but Alexsander Nevski Church is fully decorated and full of beautiful art so theirs doesn’t really count and Bulgaria still wins. Apparently there is some competitiveness between the Balkan countries.
Sofia is a beautiful city, very walkable and full of history. Like I said, it was definitely the right choice for our first stop in Europe.
Other notable things about Sofia:
A head nod means no, a headshake means yes. It is one thing to switch to a new language but quite another to switch something that we often do completely unconsciously. And it was very confusing when we asked for our check at a cafe and the waitress shook her head at us. I am sure we confused everyone by shaking our heads when we meant “no”.
One afternoon we were sitting at an outdoor cafe with Eren and counted no less then 10 wedding parties walking around being photographed in front of the fountains. It was nuts, I have never seen that many in one day!
We had the best donners of our lives there! (well, I did. Nick thinks the ones he had in Greece are better. Doubt it)
Its super cheap- 1 leva is ~ $0.67. A good beer was around 2.50lv and food ranged from 1.50lv for a slice of pizza to 3.50lv for a donner or 5.00lv for an entree at a sit down restaurant.
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