Day 54: Sofia, Bulgaria

Welcome to not-so-communist Bulgaria (since 1990)!

We left the house early Wednesday morning… like, 6:45am. We took the train from Rijswijk to the Amsterdam Airport, and ended up being over two hours early and had a bunch of time to kill before boarding, so we found a Starbucks (wow, have I missed Starbucks!), had a coffee and relaxed before heading to the gate. Something interesting about Amsterdam Airport is that rather then having one big security post for all flights, they have individual security posts at each gate for each flight leaving the airport. Not sure what I think about that yet, but it was definitely interesting.

We flew Bulgaria Air, which was actually quite comfortable. We sat in the emergency exit seats so we had all kinds of leg room. The flight was quite good and we did get some lunch for free, which was nice.

We landed safe and sound in Sofia Airport, and although we had to wait for a good half an hour for our luggage at the carousel, everything turned out fine. As we walked out of the luggage pick-up, we wondered whether or not our driver from the hotel would be there… and he was! The first thing I saw as I walked through the doors was a great big sign reading “Robert Phillips, Scotty’s Hotel” which was pretty awesome, even though my name isn’t Robert. The man who picked us up was very nice, and even though we asked him for his name twice, (and again asked one of the receptionists at the front desk as well) we can’t for the life of us remember his name… However, he was very personable, showed us all of the places we should visit as well as where the shopping was and the landmarks for finding our way back to the hotel should we get lost.

After signing in at Scotty’s Hotel and taking a quick moment to settle into our room, we headed out to the streets to explore our new surroundings. It’s hard to explain how Bulgaria makes me feel. I did some reading on the country before we came and read about a Bulgaria trying to re-build their place in the world. I suppose that’s the kind of place this is, but since I’ve never really been to a place like that, I had no idea what to expect.

Bulgaria really is a country of opposites. The night we landed it was raining, which definitely didn’t help uplift our spirits as we wandered through broken, uneven streets between broken, uneven buildings; dodging stray cats and dogs who lay in the streets sleeping or begging for food, and the homeless beggars acting in a much similar manner. It’s hard to know how to respond to a country that went through an economic crash shortly after dropping the communist regime. The remnants of their past are never out of sight here, the idea of “curb appeal” is practically laughable, and although there seems to be so much to depress a visiting tourist, there is hope, too.


I would describe Bulgaria as being both poverty and prosperity, rich with culture. It has a shocking history and a future that seems to be so full of opportunity. What struck us most during our initial walk was that old, broken down buildings left over from the Communist rule stand crippled directly beside brand new malls and office buildings. Expensive town cars share the narrow street side parking with broken-down jalopies. There are people selling nuts out of their basement windows and alcohol on the street corners. Their Parliament buildings are clean a classic, and the buildings beside them crumble.

The street that our hotel is on holds a Turkish Mosque, a Jewish Synagogue and a Russian Orthodox Church all on the same block and we’re told that there is nothing but tolerance and acceptance where religion here is concerned.
We walked to an indoor market and used an ATM to get out some Bulgarian Lev. The exchange rate here is 1 Euro to 1.955 Lev and has been fixed to the Euro since their economic crash in ’94. That means it’s about $1.30 CND per 1 Lev. Prices here are very reasonable and the market was a very interesting experience in terms of how things are sold. Later that night, Rob and I went for dinner at a place called Happy’s Bar and Grill, which was very similar to, say, a Kelsey’s or Swiss Chalet. It took us a moment to understand the menu; they sell food by item rather than by dish, so Rob and I chose a few different salads to share and some different meat dishes, 4 pints of beer and a shared dessert… and it came out to 60 Lev, which equals about 30Euros for the both of us. We were blown away by how affordable it was, especially since we’ve gotten used to how INCREDIBLY expensive everything is in Europe. We counted our evening a success and headed back to the Hotel for a good night’s rest.

The bed was very comfortable, but I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of an army of streetcars rumbling down the road directly outside our windows. It took me a while to adjust to the noise even after closing the windows, but eventually I fell back asleep.

Our first morning in Bulgaria was crisp and dry, and we were determined to see the heart of Sofia’s historical past. We walked through the downtown core towards the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, one of the largest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world. The golden domes were built in the Neo-Byzantine style and created a stark contrast to the grey, clouded sky that morning. We walked around the building first, admiring the architectural shapes and reflecting, on closer inspection, the cracks and crumbles caused by poor upkeep. As far as European churches go, this cathedral isn’t very old. The foundation was laid in 1882 and was completed in 1898, but it seems like a church out of another world. I’ve never seen a church like it, and as we entered the sanctuary, I became even more intrigued by the building.

It was initially very dark (there was only one hanging chandelier casting light through the spacious inside), but the forms of faded figures painted on the walls began to register. Looking around, there were hundreds of icons painted on the walls, beautifully designed and lining the walls and ceilings seamlessly through the arches and windows and columns. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but the inside was sad and beautiful. Like many of the older building in Sofia, the upkeep has been lax and mostly left to the natural conditions of aging. However, the priest inside began to turn on the lights and my first impression of dark gloom and ghostly painted figures began to slowly reveal their true colours and beauty. Yes, the colours were fading. Yes, the walls had crumbled in places and had been poorly patched up. But the additional light transformed the inside for me, adding a warmth that shone off the walls and glinted off the gold plating that haloed the figures of saints. East Orthodox Christianity is very centered on Icon worship, and although I don’t really agree with the practice, it makes for a very ornately beautiful place of worship. I very much liked the Nevsky Cathedral!

From here, we continued to explore Sofia, walking past the Parliament buildings, the University of Sofia, and the much smaller Russian Orthodox Church. Across from the church we found a small private art gallery owned by Bulgarian artist Pavel Mitkov. I rather liked the gallery and his work, and we stopped and had a coffee there while we talked to the curator about the art and the artist.

From here we went to the Natural History Museum, which was a four-floor menagerie of stuffed animals from all over the world including birds, fish, snakes, mammals, and an entire floor dedicated to insects and bugs. We found the Canadian Goose and of course had to take a picture!



After the museum we went to sushi across the street and were actually pleasantly surprised! It was very tasty, and the vegetable tempura and gyozas were the best I’ve had. From there, we went to the Archeological Museum and spent a few hours marveling over the artifacts that have been uncovered in Bulgaria over thousands of years. There were pieces there that were dated from before 800 BCE. Super interesting! It gave us a bit of a background on what was in Bulgaria hundreds and thousands of years ago.

All informationed-out, we came back to the hotel and I had a nap before we headed for dinner. Rob had found a place for pasta called Pastorant (see tomorrow's post) that sounded good and we headed out in that direction… and an hour later, we still hadn’t found it. We’d even stopped at the Best Western to ask for directions, but that didn’t help. So, we abandoned the plan and found a French restaurant called Maison Godet that we had also considered in our research. It took a little courage to walk down into a seemingly deserted building, down a winding staircase lined in white shag carpet and through closed, sliding glass doors (it seemed everything was done to discourage guests from the restaurant), but once we were seated (with only one other table of people occupying and otherwise empty dining room) we were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, atmosphere and service. And the price was great. For a similar dining experience in Canada, it would have cost at least twice what we paid. A great dinner called the end to a wonderful day in Sofia!