Sweet Sofia

I was greatly surprised to find myself boarding a plane and leaving India. In my head I knew that leaving was inevitable (after all it is not our home country, we had chosen a date of departure and booked plane tickets), but somehow in my heart I felt that we wouldn’t be leaving. I had a strong sense of unfinished business, as though I didn’t understand India well enough yet and that by leaving I was giving up. But nevertheless, we did indeed depart for the gentle city of Sofia, Bulgaria.

It was so so lovely to be in a place where we could blend into a crowd, drink tap water, wear shorts in hot weather, reacquaint ourselves with alcohol and where I could go out in public without my trusty chaperone (as much as I love his company, it’s not always convenient to have to do everything together). But Sofia was much more than a place to resume our western lifestyles – it is a fascinating city in its own right. The architecture was intriguing and usually beautiful, spanning from Roman ruins to communist era apartment blocks. The streets were boulevards – tree lined, cobble stoned and pedestrian friendly. The coffee was strong, the war memorials were mammoth, the cheese was abundant and the churches were orthodox. But the best thing about Sofia was the joy that the locals took in their city – there were old men playing chess in the parks with a rapt audience gathered around, traditional musicians on street corners with their listeners clapping in time, people chatting merrily away while filling up water bottles at the natural mineral water springs, free walking tours of the city provided by students who clearly love what they are doing (http://www.freesofiatour.com)... every public space that we visited was filled with people of all ages talking, feasting and laughing and it was completely delightful. As a town planner and as a human being, it warmed my heart.


During our 11 hour stop-over in Kiev airport this was about as much of the Ukraine we saw... I could have actually left the airport on my American passport but decided to keep Soph company. So we lay about, stretched out across seats and on the floor until we we were finally released from our transit prison. A young lady with her faithful companion playing the violin on the main street, so quaint.

Our first day was a little grey... but made the most of it and went wandering with out new Australian buddy to see some of the town.


On day 2 we went on a free walking tour of Sofia, hosted by the lovely lady on the left.  As a bonus we also witnessed our first epileptic fit - luckily the man was alright.

Chess is quite the action sport here...
Our guide dropped in a few pop quizzes along the way, Dan used his enormous brain to win me a bottle of the famous local rose oil by answering a tough question... later down the track we came across this building and he also was the first to tell which song was written up the top there... any guesses? Winner gets a present!

Just before leaving Bulgaria, we paid a little visit to the cute little town of Plovdiv. On the left is our interesting lunch called 'lamb inwards'.

Our first amphitheatre experience. It was in the process of being lovingly restored for use as a theatre again.

Wandering through the cobbled streets and checking out the local hotties... so quaint.

Pretty odd photo I know, but just love it for some reason.

Sophie getting creative on the way back to Sofia... and Sophie getting drunk back in Sofia, the Irish bar downstairs from the hostel was a fantastic place to get re-acquainted with our old friend. Oh alcohol how we missed you!