The Balkans: Day 1 – Sofia, Bulgaria.

After 30 hours of travel time – we made it! Blogless Sandy and I are in Europe.

Fortunate Frogdancer struck again. We arrived here mid-morning, with the official tour starting tomorrow, which meant that today was a free day. Todor, a Bulgarian friend I made on the Greenland tour last year, offered to show me around.
Speaking of Greenland, the cruise ship that has had the hantavirus outbreak is the same one that I went to Antarctica in 2022 and Greenland only last year. I guess I got lucky with the timing of those trips! Who knew?

Blogless Sandy headed off with Brian and Quinh, who were on our Taiwanese trip in March, while Todor and I jumped in his car and went looking for a parking space near the sights.

As we were walking along, he pointed out this building. It was originally like a Master Craftsman building, where if you are given the nod as being a skilled worker, you had to work on the building in some capacity to showcase your talents. Nowadays, it’s a bank.

We walked to the door and entered, only to be told by a doorman that we couldn’t come in. There was a bit of back and forth in Bulgarian, then Todor pulled out his phone and made a call. The doorman instantly changed his tune when he saw who came down the stairs to greet us.

We were shown some lovely period details.

The colours! The ceilings that were so high you could have fitted another whole floor in!

They seem to be fond of the gold leaf in this country.

Look at this stunning wisteria! The trunk was huge, so it must’ve been there for ages.

”You’ve chosen the right time to come to Sofia,” said Todor. I was pleased. It’s the first thing I google when I’m considering a place to travel to.

Sofia has lots of parks and trees, as well as plenty of paved squares for people to gather together. Like Melbourne, it has its fair share of graffiti. Blogless Sandy said that Brian said that if they cleaned the place up a bit and gave everything a fresh lick of paint, it would be a stunning city.

It has a lot of buildings that were put up in the late 1800’s, with that simple, classical design.

Not that this is an example of simplicity.

The first church we went into was the Russian church, with the fabulous name of The Church of St Nicholas The Miraclemaker. It’s a Russian Orthodox Church.

It had art everywhere, covering the walls and ceilings. The lighting was dim, but maybe that was the fault of the day being a bit overcast.

It’s a bit hard to miss this cathedral… the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. He was a Russian saint who defended the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Catholics in the 13th century. Bulgaria was part of the Ottoman Empire until very late in the game, with the city of Sofia being designated as the official border between the two brands of Christianity.

Consequently, Bulgaria has very few Catholic churches.

I’m sure Nevsky would appreciate this church being given his name. It’s a landmark – you can see the gold domes from our hotel room.

But for me, the pick of the churches was the one that the actual city of Sofia was been named for.

The church of St Sofia was built in the 4th century and is still in use today. There was a funeral going on when we were there, which is why I don’t have many photos of the interior. I want to come back tomorrow to really have a good look around. That brickwork is stunning.

It’s had a tempestuous history, starting off as Christian, then becoming a mosque in the 16th century before reverting back to the Christians in the 19th century.

However, the crypts underneath the church are interesting, with the work coming from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

The graves are all empty now.

Still pretty.

I took this video to show you how it felt being underground in the place where who knows how many people have been laid to rest, hearing the funeral being performed above my head. It was quite eerie and beautiful.

I was wearing the same ring back in 2015 when I touched Jane Austen’s writing desk.

A statue of Mercury.

A puppet in a shop window.

St Sofia in the middle of town.

Like in Rome, Sofia still has a flourishing water system from thousands of years ago. These fountains continuously provide hot mineral water, with people leaving big plastic bottles there so people can take some home.

Naturally, I took the chance to fill in my water bottle.

This is the very elegant bathing building for the hot springs, where you can almost see all of the Regency ladies moving in and out, taking the waters for their health.

The Banya Bashi mosque.

Luckily for me, they had a selection of head scarves out the front.

The acoustics were pretty good. I coughed, and the sound wasn’t lost. It must sound amazing in here when they’re preaching.

I’m really starting to struggle with jet lag, so the rest of this post will be brief.

A while ago, Sofia discovered the remains of the Roman ancient city when they were building a subway. The station exists side by side with the ruins, with archeological discoveries continuing to be made.

I love the way Sofia has accommodated the past into the present.

This little old church was built at a time when there was a law stating that a church wasn’t allowed to have a roof taller than a warrior on a horse. So rather than have churches where everyone had to crouch to fit in, they simply built them on high ground and then dug the ground out from under them, rather like digging for a basement.

There’s always a way around anything, isn’t there?

And to finish – a few murals.

Phew! Finished.
I’m getting really sleepy, but we agreed to go out for dinner with Brian and Quinh at 6pm. That’s only 20 minutes away, but with Melbourne time being 12:40 am, we’re going to struggle.

I hope I don’t face plant into my dinner…

Dad joke of the day: