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Banya Boshi Mosque from time when
Sofia was under Ottoman rule |
Another weekend and another bus ride... Several of my friends and I searched Thessaloniki high and low this past week for a bus or train to get Sofia, Bulgaria. No one really wanted to tell us where to buy tickets, where it left from, or when we could go. I thinks it's a pretty accurate reflection of how things are run in Greece--not very efficiently at all.
Sofia was beautiful. It's nestled in the Balkan Mountains, so just the 5.5 hour bus ride made for a breath-taking trip. The city has it's own special charm, but it took a while to embrace it. The bus ride into town was a bit of a let down. We saw a lot of crumbling, derelict buildings that didn't look inhabitable. After we got off the bus and tried to get to the our Hostel we made the mistake of asking for the bus to Makedonia Square. People didn't really speak English though and we almost ended up on a bus to the country of Macedonia. Once we got a chance to walk through the center of the city (the place is very walkable--you can get from one end to the next in no time) did I get a chance to see what the place had to offer. The first thing I noticed was how slowly the people stroll through the streets, as if they have nowhere else in the world to be. Also the cars yield to pedestrians! Something unheard of in Thessaloniki.
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| Bulgarian Orthodox Church |
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| St. Sofia--recently built to replace a statue of Lenin |
We did a free walking tour led by residents who want to share Sofia's history with anyone willing to hang around for three hours. It was definitely a lot of history, but really informative. We even ended up on the city's news channel because the tours have become such a big deal. We saw a parade of socialist protestors marching through town and many churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. The tour guide was boasting about the religious tolerance of the city--in one square there were Bulgarian Orthodox, Catholic, Islamic, and Jewish places of worship. Yet apparently most of the people in the city claim to be atheist.
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| GO SWITZERLAND!! |
Saturday night I got to go to my first European football game: Bulgaria v. Switzerland. The Swiss team seems to travel well and we ended up sitting in their section with a lot of crazy fans. We actually got to stay with some of the Swiss fans in our hostel. There was a group of about seven of them who were just a little bit older than me. One of them tried to politely explain why the Swiss didn't really like Americans. He claims that we think we are better than everyone else... Needless to say we didn't become great friends.
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| Lions are representative of Sofia--plus I just like lion photos (i.e. London) |
Out hostel was one of the best parts about the trip. It's the best one I've gotten to stay in yet, so if you ever find yourself in Bulgaria make sure you stay at Hostel Mostel. For only 10 euro a night we got free breakfast, dinner, beer (they really like to take care of you), and a private dorm room just for our group. Plus everyone who travels to Sofia seems to lead the most interesting lives. We met a kid from Texas who just graduated from high school and and took a year off to backpack through Europe alone and farm for a month in Hungary. There was a young couple from Australia who are both studying to be doctors, but decided to also travel for a year. The girl, Lucy, told me that, "Life was too short to be uninspired," and I needed to do what I really enjoyed with my life. If only I knew with as much confidence as she did what that was. A boy from California was there for the weekend to see a dentist--he's in the Peace Corps somewhere in the Bulgaria. They all made me feel like I should just put my life on hold and travel for months on end... if only we all had that option.
Top right: Alexander Nevski Cathedral, below is the Cathedral of St. Joseph (the first stone was laid by Pope John Paul II), to the right is the Ivan Vanov National Theatre
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