Wednesday, February 21
We hiked over to the other side of Town to investigate a new place for lunch. It’s called The View. The restaurant is perched on the 24th floor of a modern glass and steel office building and affords panoramic views of the city. It is probably one of the tallest buildings in the city. Very few buildings have more than three floors.
The lunch menu consisted of a buffet. In Rome and in Sofia a buffet means cafeteria style service. You march your tray down the counter and indicate your choices. A helpful member of the kitchen staff heaps food onto your plate and presents it to you near the cash register. We haven’t found the iconic American all-you-can-eat buffet so far. Our waistlines are grateful.
Deborah had a chicken cordon bleu with sliced, roasted potatoes and I had baked fish (I have no idea what kind) along with some white rice. They were both delicious. We’ve been trying to remember to take pictures of our food but we’re usually so excited to taste everything that we remember only after the plates are empty. We’ll try to do better.
The view was impressive. We could see all the way from the mountains to the airport. Incidentally, we were told that the Vitosha Mountains were about 30 miles (they probably meant 30 kilometers) from Town. From our vantage point above the city we realized that they are much closer. We’re going to trek out there one of these days. Google says they’re about six miles from our apartment. There is a UNESCO World Heritage site that we’re interested to see right at the base of the chain.
(Looking toward the Vitosha Mountain Range)
That part of Town seems a little more upscale than most – but only by a slight degree. Upscale is a relative term here. We walked around a bit and found some beautiful parks and another shopping mall. We’ll have to explore that area some more on another day.
Distance walked: 7.0 miles
Thursday, February 22
As we walk from our apartment into Town most days we pass an interesting and well reviewed coffee shop called Owllee. Today we stopped in for cappuccinos (due cappuccini – we miss Italy). The coffee was excellent, the barista was very friendly and spoke excellent English. They were, perhaps, the prettiest cappuccinos we’ve seen. The barista told us that the coffee was a special blend that was produced just for the shop. It was made from 100% arabica beans roasted in Bulgaria. It has a strong, smooth flavor with very little bitterness. We left with loyalty cards for our next visit.
(How do they get that pattern?)
Our next stop was the Hotel Arena Serdika where the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater were to be found. Inside the hotel and down a set of stairs we saw what was left of the structure. Some of the outside walls and a few seats were still visible. Inside what was left of the amphitheater the hotel displayed works of art. We also saw several tables place around the perimeter. The area was obviously used for meetings and receptions.
We were expecting to do indoor things today. The weather report called for snow followed by freezing rain. As usual they were spot on,
(A typical wintry day in Sofia)
Our featured destination of the day was the Sofia City Art Gallery. Today entry was free. The gallery is in two parts. There is a permanent collection and a rotating display featuring new works by contemporary artists.
The permanent collection contained works dating from the 1970s until the present time. The works were mostly from European artists with a few Americans sprinkled in. Many were fun and clever and we enjoyed the experience.
(“Mummies”. Can you find Dobby?)
At the front of the museum was a long line of people waiting to go upstairs to see the new featured exhibition. It was a work by a Bulgarian artist named Theodore Ushev entitled “In the Mirror, Dimly”. When we entered the room we were handed a blacklight flashlight. We used the flashlight to illuminate painted sheets of mylar that were arranged all around the room. Some were hung in a circular pattern and some were laid flat against the walls. The sheets and the walls also contained famous quotes, in a variety of languages, that could only be seen when lit by the blacklight. Some parts of the painted mylar could be seen without the flashlight but they were transformed by the blacklight. The installation was meant as a comment on hypocrisy and deceit. We loved the overall concept but the message seemed to be obscured and overshadowed by the novelty of the approach.
Distance walked: 5.9 miles
Friday, February 23
Today was the day to take care of some personal business. We took a roundabout route to the main post office in order to buy stamps. We needed to send some letters to the US. We’ve traveled all over the world and the one thing we find to be consistent is the demeanor of civil servants. Slow service and cheerless workers are a universal constant. We managed to stumble onto the correct window only after our first attempt to buy stamps was rebuffed. The entire process was a challenge as everything was written in Bulgarian. We think we bought first class airmail stamps. We’ll let you know. At least whatever we bought wasn’t too expensive. The stamps were about $1.35 each.
Distance walked: 6.5 miles
This seems like a good time to mention that we’re collecting stamps. We wanted to have a souvenir of each place we visited that was small, light, easy to carry and inexpensive. We decided on stamps. We have one from Rome that shows the Palace of Vittorio Emanulle II (“The Wedding Cake”), one from the Vatican with a portrait of Boromini and one from Sofia showing the Synagogue. We expect that we can frame them all and make a nice display if/when we ever go home (wherever that is/will be).
It turned out to be a busy day. We also booked an apartment in Plovdiv, Bulgaria for the next leg of our trip. We will be there from March 15 – April 4. After that we plan to go to Burgas and/or Varna. Both are on the Black Sea. We’ve seen some lovely condo complexes that are right on the water that be rented at reasonable rates. We could use a vacation 😉.