We slept in and got up in time for lunch (it's ok to do that on your birthday, right?).
At lunch Dave ate the shopska salad he loves so much. It's simple..tomatoes, cukes, onions, while cheese, and olive oil...but delicious. We've got to learn the secret so we can make it at home. Even the Bulgarians get excited when you order this salad. And Amy had that chilled yogurt-dill-cucumber dish whose name is pronounced 'tear-ah-tore'.
We headed out for a leisurely stroll around the old town area. Old churches, big intimidating buildings from the communist era, and lots of monuments (mostly ones celebrating how the Russians came in and liberated this area from the Turkish rule). We also checked out the crypt of a church that is now converted to a museum for icons (images of Christ, Mary, and saints which is common in Orthodox Christian religions). There were 100's of them some as early as 1200's but most from 1700 and 1800's.
We had Amy's birthday dinner at Happy's (that place where all the wait staff are hot chicks in short skirts). Dave had his last shopska salad while Amy had a beet salad. We enjoyed one last rakia and some Hoegaarden Belgium beer (which btw for some reason has a higher alcohol content).
We also went to some local stores to pick up a few toiletries (toothbrushes, deodorant, etc) that were in the missing bag. Shopping for items in another country is always an interesting experience. Imagine trying to use hand signals to communicate to a non-native English speaker that you would like face lotion (oh and please the sensitive skin type with no perfumes and no SPF and in a container less than 100ml so we can take it on the airplane). Geez.
Some interesting observations in this city:
1) people here seem to be lovers of music. Lots of posters and flyers advertising upcoming shows. For example just walking around we saw ads for about a dozen shows like Yanni, Offspring, Iron Maiden, and even Steven Seagal's blues band. I better not comment on their taste in music though. :-)
2) the city seems to make attempts to preserve the historical areas. For example we could see protected sites and even excavations in progress right in the middle of the city. The tunnels used by pedestrians to cross under busy streets are lined with sections of walls from super old Roman streets and buildings and other artifacts.
3) as I mentioned before the country is struggling economically and politically. Our hotel was across the street from the Presidential building and there were people, cameras, tons of security about to monitor a big meeting that was happening there about a possible emergency election. Turmoil.
4) right before we arrived there was a run on some of the banks in Sofia. The news reported later it was some greedy folks trying to stir up trouble for their own profit. We were able to get our 200 leva out of the cash machine with no problems.
Amy's bag showed up at the hotel later that night. Just in time to 'pack' again and get to bed early for a 7:15am flight on Bulgaria Airlines.
No comments:
Post a Comment