Not the loveliest capital in Europe

The boys marching in their very silly hats
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We travelled for about three hours to get to Sofia on the bus and it was a very pleasant trip on our fancy coach. We passed through a lot of very bland looking countryside and stopped at a lot of very small towns to pick up people. There has been quite a lot of snow in Bulgaria in the last day or so and we saw a lot in the hills north of Sofia.

We arrived at the very shiny bus station and got some taxis to take us to our hotel in the middle of town. The hotel is very unique and one of the strangest that I have seen in my trip. It is in the back of a random building and it is a blast from the past. It's a bit like staying at your grandma's house only sharing a bathroom with more people. It even has a grandma like woman running the place. She insisted in just chattering away to us in Bulgarian even though we clearly had no idea what she was going on about. In the end we worked out that the rooms weren't ready for us yet so we all had to put our luggage into the one room and come back later in the afternoon and sort out where everyone was going to sleep.

Not something that you would be keen to do after standing still in the cold for an hour.
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So we headed out to find some lunch and have a look around. Being a Sunday the tourist information centre was closed which meant that we had one map between all of us, which wasn't hugely helpful. We did find a place to eat fairly easily though. There was a takeaway pizza place that sold enormous slices of pizza just around the corner from the hotel. We stood around outside and ate semi cold pizza before heading in the direction of the main sights.

We walked what seemed like the long way around to get to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral. We passed a few other sights on the way. There is the presidential palace which has some very amusing soldiers out the front. They have some very special hats with feathers sticking out of the top (looking somewhat like a seagull feather). We went past a few of the museums but didn't go into any at this stage.

One of the smaller churches in Sofia
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The Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia is one of the more impressive Alexander Nevski Cathedrals in Europe. It is really very large and has very shiny domes. The inside is free to visit and is very dark. There are pretty much only candles lighting the interior which gives great atmosphere but isn't so good for actually looking at the murals, many of which are in need of a good clean. It's very lovely though and there are some impressive paintings. Next door to the church in the former crypt is the art museums collection of icons and altarpieces from around Bulgaria. There must have been some impressively large cathedrals around given the number and size of the pieces in the collection. It's 6 Leva to get in but is definitely worth it. The collection is in very good condition and contains a range of pieces from several centuries. It was difficult to pick a favourite but I think that it would have to be the Life of St George. We all know the story about St George and the Dragon but I hadn't heard about all the other things that happened to him. The picture had a large picture of St George killing the dragon in the middle and around the edge had scenes from his life and martyrdom. He seems to have been the saint that just wouldn't die! They flogged him, they put him on the wheel with spikes, they burned him in a fire, did strange things to his feet with large sets of pliers, before finally they beheaded him (that is a particularly awesome little picture). Definitely not the story that we were told as children. They have a few icons that appear frequently that I haven't seen much of in the other orthodox churches. They particularly love the Wresting of the soul of a rich man by the Archangel Michael and the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary is also popular. They also have a lot of the Life of St George and the Life of St Demetrious who seemed to have done something with a large scorpion at some stage.

One of the theatres in the centre of Sofia. They were having a political rally in the square in front of it.
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From the icon museum we headed to the Saint Sofia Church after which the city is named. It's a byzantine church and is very plain on the inside. We didn't go all the way in because there was a funeral going on. We stood in the entrance and listened to the choir singing for a while and then headed back out. It was nice seeing the church all lit up with candles. We had a quick look at the war memorial (tomb of the unknown soldier) which is next to the church. They must be working on it at the moment because the flame was a portable gas flame plugged into a tube that was coming out of a window in the building behind the memorial.

Saint Sofia, patron saint of the city.
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We were feeling in need of some sustenance at this stage and it was starting to get quite cold so we had a quick walk down to the Presidential Palace to see the changing of the guard (the usual Eastern Bloc goosestepping) before going to a cafe for hot drinks and cake. We went to a quite flash looking place opposite the museums and just down from one of the smaller churches. It had really really good looking cakes and nice smelling coffee. I ordered the interestingly named creme brulee cake but ended up with just creme brulee. It was really really good though and was made pretty much from just cream and eggs and sugar. Feeling vastly improved for some food and warmth, we headed back out into town to find the internet cafe. We did eventually find somewhere that was not well signposted but had one of the best connections that I've used in Europe. After checking our emails and doing some other bits and pieces, so people went shopping and the rest of us headed back to the hotel to sort out the rooms.

The Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia
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We got back to the hotel and tried to help the woman at reception sort out who should be in which rooms. It was made more confusing by the fact that some of the room numbers were repeated as there were two buildings in the hotel. It didn't help either that she had no idea who any of us were. In the end we decided that it would be easier if we just went to the rooms and sorted out who was sleeping where when everyone got back from town. So the four of us followed the man (presumably the woman's husband) and headed into the other building. It's being renovated at the moment so there were bags of plaster in the hallway. The rooms in this section of the building were newer and really large. We dumped our bags and waited for the others to arrive. In the end not everyone ended up in the one building which caused a bit of confusion but we sorted it out in the end. Chingy and I flipped a coin for the room that we had ended up in as it had the biggest TV I had ever seen in a hotel in it. I won and I was glad about that. The TV must have been worth more than all the other contents of the room combined.

They seem to be able to do anything that they want in public advertising in Bulgaria
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We went out for dinner at a hotel that I think was called Pri Yafata and was in the centre of town just off the main shopping street. It was a quaint little family restaurant with lots of little rooms and really good food. It was raining when we came out so we pretty much just headed back to the hotel. The others came into our room to watch the enormous TV for a while but unfortunately despite the many channels there was nothing on.

The next morning it was bucketing rain when we got up but we headed out anyway to try and find the Ladies Market. This is supposedly a large outdoor market that sells all sorts of stuff including food. We walked down the street where we had been told that it was but couldn't find it. We found a big indoor food court but that was it. It didn't help that none of us had a map though! We found Bill and Marge who did have a map of the city but it didn't mark the market by name at all. There was a little fruit and vegie symbol a couple of streets back but that was it. It was starting to rain more heavily so we decided to give up on the market and go to the Maccas which at least had hot coffee and was warm and dry. We had a quick breakfast and then I headed back to the internet cafe to chat on Skype. It was a brilliant connection because I was the only person using it for the first hour.

It was still raining but less heavily when I came out of the internet and headed back to the hotel to pack up my stuff. I sat and watched the giant TV for a while and then headed out again to get myself some lunch before we got on the bus to Rila. I got some pizza again at the place around the corner from the hotel and then had to run back to stop it from getting too wet.

The bus turned up and wasn't the minibus that we had all been expecting. It was a full sized tour bus. It was very useful as we could spread out and try to get our stuff dry during the journey. Go to the next entry to hear more about the monastery at Rila.