We’re Still Here

Sunday, February 11

Well, the rain and snow were a non-event.  It seems that weather forecasting is as accurate here in Bulgaria as it is everywhere else: terrible.  Still, we didn’t do much today.  We just stayed in the apartment and watched the Olympics.

Distance walked: 0.17 miles

Monday, February 12

We’ve decided for the next few days we’re just going to walk about different parts of the city in order to see as much as possible.  There don’t seem to be defined neighborhoods like you see in most cities.

Our travels took us to a large, American style shopping mall.  We could easily recognize it from the outside as it had a parking garage – something you don’t normally see in these parts.  It was called, “Serdika Center” after the ancient name of the city.

The mall had three levels of shops, a food court, restaurants and a grocery store.  Most of the shop signs were written in English and a few were in Italian. It was nice to see writing in something other than Cyrillic for a change.  Many of the shops would be recognizable to most Americans.  They included stores like Benetton, The Gap, The North Face and Nike.  There were also some stores we never heard of before.  Likely these were local/European only brands.

We had lunch at the food court.  It was a little challenging because most of the vendors didn’t have English language menus.  We opted for something that seemed authentic Bulgarian; what we actually got was going to be a surprise.  To our delight we wound up with something like chicken cordon bleu and a pork cutlet with melted cheese and boiled potatoes.  They were both delicious.  Our choices for lunch also included KFC, Burger King and Subway .  How disappointing.

After leaving the mall we walked over to a pastry shop that we discovered when walking to/from the tennis match.  The shop is called, “Nedelya” but we remembered it as the place that had a big sign in English saying, “Eat Cake”.

After we were seated the waitress gave us menus in Bulgarian.  We’ve come to depend on Google Translate during our travels.  We’ve discovered a nifty little feature – you can just point it toward anything that’s written down and it will automatically give you the English equivalent.  There’s no need to try to type in the words, which is particularly helpful because, even with the Cyrillic keyboard installed on my iPhone it can be very difficult to type hunt and peck in another language.

Seeing our predicament the waitress took pity on us and gave us menus printed in English.  What a relief!  We had seen the amazing looking cakes when we walked in but now we could actually tell what they were made of.  I ordered a chocolate cake with profiteroles baked inside with ganache frosting and even more profiteroles on top.  Deborah ordered a meringue cake.  It had layers of chocolate chip meringue separated with thick cream.  The cake slices were huge.  Yum!  We also sampled their cappuccino which was comparatively rather small.  We’ll be back.

Many people have suggested we talk more about what we’ve been eating and show some pictures.  We’re trying to oblige.

(Cake and Coffee)

Given our caloric intake we decided we needed to walk some more so we headed back to  the center of Town to a place called The Elephant Bookstore.  It’s a small shop packed with all sorts of quirky, nerdy things.  We felt right at home.  We saw things like mugs with scientific formulas, Game of Thrones paraphernalia, classic National Geographics from the 1940s and so much more.  It was a lot of fun to browse.

As we were leaving we noticed a beautiful church called the Church of Sveti Sedmochislenitsi.  It was built in 1528 as a Mosque during the Ottoman occupation but was converted to a church in 1901.  Inside the church is decorated in typical Eastern Orthodox style.  No photography was permitted.

(Church of Sveti Sedmochislenitsi)

Distance walked: 9.5 miles

Tuesday, February 13

Today we went to another one of the National Galleries: Square 500.  This one specializes in European art.  The collection is housed in a large, stately building with very high ceilings encompassing three floors.  We suspected that at one time it served as a palace.

Surprisingly, the first floor contained a large collection of Dutch paintings from  the Flemish school.  They also had paintings from many other traditional Western European artists.

The second floor displayed mainly Bulargian art from the 18th and 19th centuries.  The third floor exhibits were from the 20th century and included a large number of bronzes by Rodin.  We were impressed with the size and the quality of the collection.

(One of our favorites: Portrait of Grigoriy Metropolitan of Dorstol and Cherven by Fulop Laszlo von Lombox)

For lunch we went to a popular place called Corso.  It had been recommended to us and we had a 10% discount we found in one of the guidebooks.  The first floor houses a lovely little cafe.  The second floor has a bar and on the third floor is a fancy restaurant.  We ate at the cafe.

The food was excellent.  I had a bowl of saffron risotto with chicken and vegetables and Deborah had a baguette stuffed with avocado, feta cheese, pickled onions and onion rings.  It was fabulous.  We were too full for coffee and cake but decided to return to try them out another time.

Distance walked: 5.2 miles

Wednesday, February 14

Happy Valentines Day!  They also celebrate that here; we’ve been seeing advertisements for it on TV for weeks.  All the stores and restaurants are decorated for the occasion.  It reminded us of home (wherever that is).

Once again I played tennis.  I’m getting good at deciphering the subway signs.  My footwork was a lot better and my forehand was awesome.  I think I left my backhand somewhere in NYC.  If you find it please send it to me – I could really use it.

We had a romantic dinner at home.

Distance walked: 2.6 miles

Thursday, February 15

A date that will live in infamy.  I turned 57.  I’m not too happy about it but the alternative is rather depressing.

Our goal was to walk about Town and find an interesting place for lunch.  We happened on the Green Deli Cafe. We read that they had good coffee.  In order to save room for dessert we shared a baguette with smoked salmon, cream cheese and onions.  It was very tasty.  Afterwards we ordered two cappuccinos and a chocolate cherry mousse cake.  At least the coffee was very good.

We wound up covering a lot of ground but had no particular goal in mind other than to see parts of the city we hadn’t previously visited.

That night we had tickets to the National Ballet and Opera.  Tonight’s program was Verdi’s Opera Un Ballo in Maschera (a Masked Ball).  We had never seen this opera performed nor did we know the music.  We had been looking forward to this for days.  The tickets cost about $25 a piece.  Similar tickets at the Met in NYC start at $250 a piece.

The theater was fairly small – about the size of a typical Broadway theater.  The inside was pretty but not particularly ornate.  It’s been home of the National Opera since 1953.  It’s unclear as to when the building was constructed.

(We’ve never taken so many selfies before!)

Our seats were in the first balcony and they afforded us an excellent view of the stage.  The seats were very comfortable with plenty of legroom.  To our delight the acoustics were excellent.  We thoroughly enjoyed the opera.

The orchestra was rather small, which is in line with the time period.  They performed well.  At times the orchestra and the chorus were not together; we blame the conductor.  Programs were available for purchase and were written only in Bulgarian so we are not sure whether the leads were part of the company or guests.  They were, however, very good.  We have a special shout out for the Sorceress.  Her role was written for contralto and her deep resonating voice easily filled the hall.

Distance walked: 10.0 miles

Friday, February 16

Another day when we went walkabout.  Our intended goal was to find Chapstick brand lip balm.  We ran out of the tube we brought from the States and have had a terrible time finding it.  They don’t seem to sell it here.  We’ve tried several different brands but they are not nearly as good.  For now we’ve settled on Nivea.

We’ve been holding off on seeing more museums because many of them are free the last week of the month.

Distance walked: 5.9 miles

Saturday, February 17

We went back to Corso for lunch.  After we shared a sandwich we ordered two cappuccinos and a piece of cake.  The cake part was made from a Panettone (Italian Christmas Cake), was layered with cream cheese and was topped with Nutella.  The cake was very good but the coffee was not satisfying.  It was a very small serving and it was very strong.

Afterwards we went walkabout.  We found a shop that serves a brand of Bulgarian coffee named Dabov.  Of course the coffee is not grown here but it is roasted here.  Dabov supplies coffee to many of the better restaurants and cafes in the city.  We ordered two more cappuccinos.  The cafe only served vegan pastries so it was easy to exercise some self-control.  The coffee was very good.  We found it smooth and full flavored with little bitterness.  Next time you’re here you should try it.

Heavily caffeinated, we proceeded to walk around the city at a brisk pace.  Fortunately we were able to sleep that night.

Distance walked: 6.1 miles

Sunday, February 18

Another day of walking.  We found a road that circumnavigated the city and decided to give it a try.  The road took us through many unattractive, industrials areas.  The sidewalks were not crowded so we were able to walk at a good pace.  It was very enjoyable.  On the way home we stopped at a shop for some roasted nuts.

Distance walked: 6.4 miles

Monday, February 19

The weather was forecast to be rainy and snowy.  We decided to spend the day in the apartment doing household chores.  As usual the forecast was not too accurate but it was good to have a day off.

Distance walked: 0.29 miles

Tuesday, February 20

I played tennis again.  Nadejda, my hitting partner, was away so she recommended her “deputy” Stevan.  Stevan told me that he has played tennis his entire life.  He’s 20.  He used to play on the challenger tour until he broke his ankle playing football (American translation: soccer).

He was a lot of fun to hit with.  He tracked down every ball and got to some shots that I thought were impossible.  Since Nadejda will be away for a few more weeks I will happily play with him again.

Gossip: I learned that Nadejda is in Zanzibar, Tanzania.  Stevan thinks she has a boyfriend there.

After lunch at home we went to a Vivacom store to recharge our phones.  Unlike what we did in Italy we decided to get a pre-paid plan.  This means we have to put some money on our account occasionally.  Vivacom has been working out MUCH better than TIM.  We’ve had no issues and no annoying text messages.  Also, the rates are ridiculously cheap.  We put about $6.50 on each of our accounts and expect that to last for at least a month.

Distance walked: 4.0 miles