Taking the Free Sofia Tour, Sofia, Bulgaria

The first stop if you're sojourning in Sofia, should be at the Tourist Infomation center in the underground passageway at the Sofia University Metro station, directly across from the McDonalds and some talented buskers.  The second stop you should make is the Free Sofia Tour.  

During the weekend I was in Sofia, we had some time off, so a couple of my friends and I took the twice daily tour (just once), meandering for a couple of hours around the increasingly charming city. 

Info:  

www.freesofiatour.com

Meeting Time: 11:00 and 18:00

Start point: Corner of the Palace of Justice

Duration: ~ 2 hours

Distance: ~ 4 km

The tour is free (obviously), and run by a group of volunteers.  Our guide, Filip, was in a post-grad who fell in love with Sofia, and loves showing it off.

As I've spent almost 3 weeks here over the past few months, I have to say, it's growing on me.  It's nice to spend enough time in a palce get to a point where you feel comfortable, and, while not a local per se, at least a little bit less like a tourist.

The tour starts at the Palace of Justice, identified by its prominent lions (one of whom has something wrong in its depiction...try to figure it out.)

After introductions to the city and the tour, the group of us began the wander, stopping first at St. Nedelya Cathedral. Originally constructed in the 10th Century AD, it's a fixture in the center of town.

Following this, we wandered to the statue of St. Sofia.  Originally, a statue of Lenin stood in the place where the golden woman now stands.  Ironically, Sofia the city was not named after St. Sofia.  For millennia, it was called Serdica, and only recently was "unofficially called Sofia because of a prominent nearby church. The statue of St. Sofia was actually met with some criticism, because she has 3 pagan symbols (the owl, wreath, and crown), as well as the revealing outfit she wears. Still, we saw the Lenin statue on a tour of the Museum of Totalitarian Art, and frankly, she's much easier on the eyes than old Vlad (who we saw at the Museum of Totalitarian Art).

We then began walking to the "Square of Tolerance" where, within 200 meters of one another, are a Mosque, Synagogue, Catholic Church, and Eastern Orthodox cathedral

Following this, we walked past some Roman ruins that were being excavated to Hamam (bathhouse) that was under renovation, and to the hot springs area where people come to take advantage of the mineral rich water spouting forth.  I tasted it, and found it not terribly palatable...

Underneath the imposing Communist architecture were the original gates of Serdica, and some of the older ruins under excavation and renovation.  Pretty amazing to see the centuries literally layered upon each other.  

Leaving this, we went to the St. George Church, considered to be one of the oldest buildings in the city. 

Next, the National Theater...

And Alexander Nevsky Cathedral...

And the St. Sophia Church and Tomb of the Unknown Warriors...

And finally, a trip to some delicious lunching at the Manastinska Magernitza (Monastery Kitchen) with recipes from the 161 Monasteries surrounding Sofia with some of the new friends we met on the walk.  One of them, Prashant, and I hit it off, and traveled to the Rila Monastery the next day...he too is an avid amateur photographer, and we had a lot of fun comparing notes and talking shop.

I'll be back again in February, and must say that I'm kind of looking forward to it.  Definitely want to hit that restaurant again...

Sofia Protests

While I've been in Sofia, and for the past several months, there have been protests against the government that was installed back in May.  A few weeks ago, they got somewhat violent (moreso than they have been), and a group of students locked themselves in the University a block or so away.

The protests happened daily when we were here in September, and have been nearly daily this trip.  The weather is quite cold, and I think that's taken some of the fight out of them.

Still, there have been a few manifestations.  A few nights ago, something got set on fire, but it was brief and rapidly went out or was extinguished.

Today, they were back out there. The main beef is government corruption, and the sitting government's refusal to call new elections.  It isn't as big as what's going on nearby in Kiev, but has been interesting to observe as an outsider.

I've been trying to get some photos, but am not getting too close.  I'm no photojournalist, and we've been instructed to stay away lest we get caught on camera or rolled up by the police for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

While I was out early Saturday AM, there was no one around and I had a chance to look at the different props that they have out there.  A few tanks made of cardboard, some stars, posters, banners, and a lot of flags, mainly.  There must be some folks that stay, though, as there are several tents that haven't moved since September or before.

It's interesting to see this going on, especially as a foreigner...great, in a way, as 25 years ago, none of this would have been possible.  We've had nearly front-row seats to it, as our hotel is nearby.  Hopefully, grievances will be properly, and non-violently fixed; 

Museum of Totalitarian Art

The first real "Touristy" thing we did was visit the Museum of Totalitarian Art.  Truly, this was a fascinating place.  Most of the statues were taken after the fall and erected here in a garden.  One still sees that style statue around, but I think they rounded up the main ones and stashed them here.

Not much grace...nothing slim and smooth and flowing, everything was angles and rough hewn figures.  Some triumphantly striding, holding aloft weapons, or saying goodbye to go face the evil Nazis/Capitalists/insert foe here.

The only statues that seemed to have an air of humanity to them were those of the first post-WWII Communist leader, Giorgi Dimitrov, who was rather non-cooperative with his Soviet overlords and had a "heart attack" when he visited Moscow.  Kind of like when Carmine the Bowler fell down an elevator shaft...onto some bullets (see the movie Mystery Men).  Dimitrov appears to have been well regarded, as he brought Bulgaria from the ashes of WWII and to success; they like him enough still to name a Metro station for him.

Inside were propaganda posters from around the Communist world, including North Korea, China, Africa and the Eastern Bloc countries.

And who can resist a statue of Stalin that just seems to say, "Pull my finger! Or I'll kill you."

Our last stop was at the theater where we watched some short propaganda films that were truncated abruptly with scenes from post-Iron Curtain reactions (generally, the destruction of prominent Communist memorials).

A fascinating museum, it should be on the list if you visit.

Info:
Museum of Totalitarian Art (sometimes called Socialist Art)
Address:  7, "Lachezar Stanchev" str, Sofia
How to get there:  Take the Metro from Sofia University Station 3 stops to GM Dimitrov station.  Walk up the street (back the way you came) one block and take a right; museum is about 250 meters on the right (back a bit from the street...look for the Red Star and the statues).
Opening hours: 10:00-17:30, closed Mondays
Entry fee: 6 Leva (about 3 Euro/$4.50)

Les Invalides, Paris

One of my favorite places in Paris is Les Invalides, the final resting place for one of the world's great Generals, Napoleon Bonaparte.  It is a physically beautiful building and, as a military guy, being in the presence of one like Napoleon, and able to pay my respects (cheesy as that sounds), was something of a moving experience.

We Americans don't have anything quite like this, except perhaps JFK's tomb. We don't tend to venerate our leaders in the same way as the French do Napoleon. A shame, really.  Don't we have Generals who are as significant to our own military history?

Anyhow, some photos...I love this place. 

At long last, Paris...

Paris...one of my absolute favorite places on our big old Earth. We've been itching to get there on this European experience, and we finally made it. Twice.

The last time I was there was in 1997 when I was on my 25 days long backpacking Euro-trip.  That time, before I made it to Paris, I spent a week in Nice at a French language home-stay with the Figliuzzi family (including Lulu the Dachshund).  Mrs. Figliuzzi tutored me in French for 3 hours a day, and the rest of the time was mine to kick around the Cote D'Azure.

I hadn't had any formal French in almost 15 years before showing up at her house, and after a dismal 40/100 score on my assessment, she had her work cut out. Still, immersion is the best teacher, and I made enough improvement that I was able to take care of all the essentials (la Biere, la Baguette, le Bathroom) without much problem. I even had a local reply to me in French, so that was money well spent. But I digress...

Last month, we went twice, once on a "date" (having left Isabella with my cousin in Belgium), and again over the Thanksgiving weekend (having the traditional Thanksgiving Pizza) and trying to hit some of the sites found in the Madeline stories that Isabella loves.  We covered a fair bit of the city among the two trips, and even had the chance to link up with Ginny, one of our friends from our days in Japan.

The past 15 years has been good for Paris...nary a single deposit of dog leavings was seen (a true hazard in the 90s).  The streets were clean, the service in restaurants pleasant, and the only thing that made it slightly unpleasant was running into a group of quintessentially "ugly Americans" at the ice skating rink. Otherwise, it was amazing. The practice I got working with the French Hospital in Kabul, as well as some self-paced study paid off, and we again survived.  I'm making an admission here...I'm a proud, lover of France and all things French (well, a lot of things, anyway; le Socialism...not so much). They are "freedom fries" no longer!

We drove in for the first trip, an interesting endeavor, but took the train for Thanksgiving, much more enjoyable.  Lots less traffic when you take the train, although we had to stop for about two hours because someone decided to jump in front of a train (not ours) a bit farther up the track. We chilled out at the Meuse Station (literally, since it was about 35 degrees and foggy).

We finally got into town, grabbed our Thanksgiving Pizza, and then settled in for a bit of rest before tackling the town.  Since Isabella was the main focus of this trip, and she loves bike taxis, we took several rides around town in them.  While not as cheap as the hop-on/hop-off bus, it was a good way to get around while able to see a lot around you at a reasonable pace.  And, in rush hour, they were both cheaper and faster than a taxi.  With a 5 year old who was about at the end of her rope after a tough day of Christmas Markets, ice skating, and bungee-slingshot-trampolining, that was a good thing. 

The first time we went, we visited the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, a great little place that was the haunt of literary greats like Hemingway and Fitzgerald.  We liked it so much, we went back, and Isabella loved it as much as we did.  She got to see and work on an actual typewriter, and got lost in all the nooks of books.  Right next to the Notre Dame Cathedral, it should be on all book lovers' bucket list.

Had a willing model and a great place to shoot her as well...

Managed to get out to La Defence early one morning to grab some Eiffel Tower photos.  Nice cloudy, it was a great chance to get some moody photos...

All in all, both trips were fantastic with far too many photos to post properly here in one go.  I'll be presenting a few of the other keepers in the next few posts.