2020 - A Goofy Trip to Europe
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The Hendersons 2020 - A Goofy Trip to Europe - Bulgaria |
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2020 - A Goofy Trip to Europe |
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March 9, 2020 We got up very early to catch our flight
to Sofia. The ever-reliable Michael was at the hotel in time. Hiring him was a
very good decision given traffic and road conditions on Malta.
We checked in, had a spot of breakfast and boarded
for the flight, no problems. We landed in Vienna on time, and found that our
departure gate was at the opposite end of the airport. No harm, we made it on
time.
Sofia reminds me of Soviet era cities.
Horrible architecture in many areas, what Tom and I call Soviet era brutal, no
grace or charm. Added are extensive graffiti and roads that are in poor repair.
Our hotel,
the Niky, is nice enough, but very modest. We had lunch in
our hotel, but the 4:30 am wake up tired us, so we took a nap. We tried to find
a dinner spot close by, but the Indian restaurant we had identified was closed,
so we had dinner in the hotel. Tom’s chicken had a lovely lemon, butter and
mustard sauce which complemented nicely with his broccoli and carrots. I had a
pork shank, which was way more food than I needed because I also had grilled
vegetables. Son Tom had beef slices in a sauce similar to his dad’s but without
the mustard. He also had black rice, we expected wild rice, but it was a short
grain rice with something we couldn’t identify to make it black. The server’s
English isn’t great, so we didn’t want to frustrate or embarrass him with
questions.
Ordering wine was challenging, the wine list is in
Bulgarian. March 10, 2020 Our guide, Boris, met us at the hotel and we began a walking tour. One of our first stops was a small shop, underground. It was cold and wet and Tom and I needed head protection.
During the Soviet era people would come from the countryside to shop for things not available in their home towns. I’m suspicious that only the highly placed had the money and connections to buy much. We walked around the older part of Sofia, taking in the interior of a very old church, built when Bulgaria was part of the ottoman empire. There is also Banya Bashi Mosque and Sofia Synagogue. Boris was proud that his country, even though allied with the Germans, didn’t send the Jews to the German death camps.
We stopped for coffee in one of the shopping malls, then continued our walk past the various official buildings. Boris told us that after the fall of the Soviets the Bulgarians set up a unicameral legislature and that there were over 200 political parties, including the Red Wine Party and the White Wine Party. We had a nice lunch at an upscale café called Corso. The food portions are huge, the food is tasty, especially the various breads, but our food must have a lot of salt, I’ve found that my face is puffy. The highlight of the day was the Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral, which isn’t as large as I had envisioned. The interior is very dark and the icons are covered in smoke, as people light candles for prayers. I suspect if they were cleaned they’d be beautiful.
We met our driver for a short trip to Boyana Church, a UNESCO Heritage site. The church is small, but charming. It was built in three separate stages which is very obvious both from exterior and interior. The iconography is beautiful and Boris was proud to point out that the paintings were renaissance-like, but many years before the renaissance.
Boris and Yuli, the driver, left us at the hotel and we opted for dinner at an upscale Bulgarian restaurant. Once again the portions were enormous. Given how much people eat, I would have expected them to be grossly obese, but generally they aren’t. March 11, 2020 Today we had a drive to another UNESCO site, Rila Monastery, about two hours from Sofia. There are fields that seem to be very productive, but also many obviously poor areas with the depressing Soviet era construction. The monastery is at the lower elevations of the mountains that ring the area. There are ski resorts, we were told, but we couldn’t see them.
Rila is beautiful, with a very well done museum. It was established in the 10th century by Ivan of Rila and currently only has a few monks. Boris told us that there are many candidates for the order, but few last beyond a few months, preferring to have more interaction with people.
The iconography is beautiful and I was particularly struck by the series of panels where a person was presented with his sins and triumphs on pieces of paper by the devils and angels. Hopefully there were more triumphs than sins, else he’d be condemned to eternal damnation.
Like Aleksandar Nevski, the interior is dark, although there has been an effort to clean some of the icons.
We drove back to Sofia and stopped at the National Natural History Museum. I had read that the Bulgarians were especially gifted goldsmiths, but hadn’t realized that their gifts went back to Thracian times and before. The museum houses some amazingly beautiful pieces.
Back to the hotel, we opted for Italian. Sadly they weren’t serving cacio e pepe which we were craving. March 12, 2020 A rude awakening at 3:30 am. Matt called us to let us know that President Trump had forbidden people who are not citizens or legal residents to come to the USA from all of Europe except the UK because of the coronavirus. Tom and I had a mad scramble, but managed to book a flight to London in the afternoon, thank heavens we had a number of frequent flyer points. We got a flight booked to the USA on the 14th, meaning a two-night stay in London. We opted for the Hyatt Place which is close to Heathrow. We booked business class on the flight so we had dinner onboard. The situation with the virus is very scary as it is spreading rapidly.
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