Monday, July 6th - Sofia, Bulgaria

For the last four days I have been in Sofia, Bulgaria. On my train, which took over two hours longer than anticipated, I met two girls from the United States and one from Sweden. Incredibly, the two girls from the US were studying in Nicosia, Cyprus during the summer and we talked all the way there about what the city was like and what I can expect upon arrival! This was perfect as I had recently decided to spend the first two days in Cyprus at more of a beach area since my friend Katie Koenig would be joining me. They gave me a lot of good advice that will make the transition to Cypriot life that much easier. The Swedish girl was only going to be in Sofia for the morning before she left for the Czech Republic.

Many of you are probably curious as to why I came here, and after being here for the week I have many reasons for anyone to visit! Sofia is the capital city of Bulgaria, which became a European Union nation in 2007 after a long struggle against neighboring countries and empires, but also against communism which only ended around two decades ago. As it stands today, I see Sofia as a “poor man’s Paris” because of its layered historic landscape, layout of the center city, and specifically the numerous baroque buildings that line the streets. Meanwhile, the city has developed faster than it can handle and also maintains some of the old housing complexes of the communist era. My identification of it being for a “poor man” relates to the fact that Bulgaria has yet to pick up the Euro as its currency and at this time use the Leva as their method of payment. It is about 2:1 Lava to the Euro and bartering can definitely be done in the free market economy of markets in the public squares and a cab ride (if unmetered). The language barrier can make living for a few days a little bit difficult as many speak only Bulgarian as tourism is not a major source of income.

Around the city lie beautiful Orthodox churches with foundations from as early as the 6^th century and size rivaling that of Hagia Sofia (which is the epitome of byzantine architecture found in Istanbul, Turkey). The largest church that I just mentioned, called St. Alexander Nevski is one of the biggest in the Balkans, and was built to commemorate the 200,000 Russian troops that died for the freedom of Bulgaria from Turkish control in the late 19^th century. The earliest church is that of St. George, which exists in the courtyard of the presidency, has five cycles of wall paintings in its history, and continues to be used today.

I met Katie at the airport the following day and finally began to explore that night more extensively. During our time we checked out many of the most important buildings in the city, but also took advantage of what I consider Sofia’s most important attribute: public space. There are parks all over the city that have endless area to walk, stop for a coffee, or have a picnic lunch, and are dotted with communist monuments (most of which celebrate the working man) representing how well this country has developed. Most people are out enjoying the comfortable weather that comes with the summer season and during our time there it seemed as though weekdays were a more prominent time to hang out than weekends.

Yesterday we decided to take a cab to the Vitosha Mountain National Park which is about 20 km outside the city center to do some hiking for the day. We hiked all afternoon through some of the most incredible wilderness and scenic natural views that I’ve ever seen (which is saying something when I’ve been to Colorado, Alaska, Greek Islands, etc.). It took us around 4 hours to get all the way from our start point to the summit of Cherni Vruh, which was at an elevation of 2290m (900m up from our start point)! There are mountain bike tours down the mountain available and the hill is used as a ski slope in the winter. Glaciers have left winding rivers of massive boulders all the way down the landscape. Near the summit, in one of the winding rivers of boulders, there was an area where snow was still melting. We had walked all the way up in T-shirts and were standing, in early JULY on part of a glacier!!! It was an absolutely miraculous site and the photos are great (but still won’t do them justice).

We took a chair lift down the mountain from that point, allowing us to see all the way across the capital city. After the chair lift, there was an opportunity for a gondola ride, but we thought we were up to the task of walking the hill. On the way down, we decided to hitch a ride from a Bulgarian girl our age that told us this mountain is nothing compared to many other places away from the capital of the country. It definitely got me thinking about a return trip one day, allowing time for the natural beauty of the rest of the country to go along with its interesting history. Is there the possibility of a biking trip in the Balkans stopping along the way for sleep, food, water, and pictures???