Snowy Weekend

Sunday, February 25

Today we took advantage of the fact that entry to the Museum of Archeology was free.  The museum is located in the middle of Town in a building that was originally constructed as a mosque in 1494 during the Ottoman rule.  The building was converted to a museum by royal decree in the late 1800s.  The museum boasts a collection of over 35,000 pieces primarily from the Balkan region.

We’ve now visited several museums in Sofia.  None of them have metal detectors or any sort of security.  They even provide lockers and coat rooms for your convenience.  This is different from most places we’ve been.  Most of the museums in Rome had much stricter procedures.  Occasionally we felt like we were being strip searched.

The first floor housed artifacts dating from the 6th century BC through the 4th century AD and included items from the Thracian and Roman periods.  We were amazed at the number and the quality of the pieces.  The ancient artifacts in most museums are very often fragments, copies or recreations.  Here we saw complete and original pieces that were in excellent condition.  It was truly a treat.

(Bronze Head of Apollo from the 2-3rd Century AD)

The second floor housed the Treasury Room which contained a large number of gold and silver pieces found in 4th century BC burial sites.  Other rooms had displays ranging from pre-history through the copper and bronze ages mainly from excavations in Bulgaria.  These pieces were also well preserved and in excellent condition.

(Gold and Silver Drinking Horn from the 4th Century BC)

(Gold Funeral Mask from the 4th Century BC)

The museum was also hosting a very interesting art exhibit that had opened the day before.  It was called, “120 Bills” by Houben Tcherkelov, a Bulgarian artist now living in New York City.  There were 120 paintings hung all around the permitter of the balcony showing representations of portraits from currencies all around the world.  Many of them were from Bulgaria and Eastern European nations.  We had fun trying to put names to the faces.

(Portrait of Christopher Columbus from 120 Bills)

Afterwards we headed to a restaurant that is quickly becoming a favorite.  We’ve mentioned it before; it’s called Corso.  Today we tried some new menu items.  I had a burger (it’s the first time I’ve had a burger since we left the States) and Deborah had a chicken sandwich.  The burger was dressed with lettuce, tomato, red onion, cheese and some sort of dressing.  It was fresh and delicious.  It came with a tin of the tastiest french fries imaginable.  Deborah’s sandwich had grilled chicken breast with creamy feta cheese, lettuce, tomato, olives and ranch dressing.  The food at this place has been consistently delicious and the price was right at about $13 for the two of us.  In the past we’ve had the pastries and they were pretty good.  The coffee was just ok and was expensive at $2.30 per cup.

A light snow fell all day so on our way home we stopped at the grocery store.  The forecast for the next few days was not looking good and we wanted to be well stocked just in case.

Distance walked: 4.5 miles

Monday and Tuesday, February 26 and 27

Snow has been forecast on and off for weeks now and we’re happy to say that all we’ve seen were sunny days.  Today they were finally right.  It snowed all day and there was an accumulation of about 2-3 inches.  We stayed in all day.  It’s supposed to snow most of this week.  An airmass from Siberia is expected to bring temperatures in the low teens (Fahrenheit).  We’ll hope for the best.

(A View From Our Balcony)