Sofia, Bulgaria. Not as charming as Plovdiv, but still pretty nice, in its centre anyway. Again, a variety of architecture. What impressed me most was the underpass under the Boulevard Kniaz Aleksandar Dondukov. There is the Roman street of big slabs – seems you can’t strike a spade in the Balkans without digging up something that the Romans built – but also the underpass is an agreeable space with shops, totally unvandalized and very clean. As well as the Roman bricks there are portions of a painted interior of an orthodox church with a few offerings on the little altar – can you imagine how long that would last here?
Also a view of a hefty, rebarbative building of the communist period from the underpass.
Byzantine. Under Communism churches were often concealed by other buildings. Lenin’s statue has been replaced by Saint Sophia, as in Tbilisi he’s been replaced by Saint George.
Bulgaria makes a lot of products from rose petals. These are popular with tourists, and they waft rose scent in the streets and underpasses.
City gardens. Civilisation is a public space, where even the beggars can beg unmolested, the buskers busk, the limping and swollen old sit in the sun, the eccentrics flaunt their off-beatedness, and friends take a selfie of themselves with the bride at her modest wedding.
Bric-a-brac market in Sofia, Bulgaria, near Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. I sneaked these photos of one stall. Most stalls had Nazi stuff - postcards and busts of Hitler and swastikas on drinks flasks. Very unsettling seeing casual heaps of images which are taboo in our culture. My sister picked up an army shoe cleaning kit in excellent condition. Leather case with swastika stamp and shoe horn and brushes inside. She shuddered and wiped her prints off the case.
The 365 tour of Sofia was excellent, the guide an actor with colloquial English and an actor’s instinct of audience. I asked him about the Nazi stuff at the bric-a-brac stalls and he said that it was mostly repro. Talked about Bulgaria’s involvement WWII – either allying with Germany or be invaded by them as a route to Greece; stalled the transport of the Jews eastwards to death. Some bombing by the Allies of the city centre.
He also spoke with pleased anticipation that Ryanair and other cheap carriers were flying to Sofia. I shuddered at that of course. The beer here is cheap.
Sitting in Sofia airport on the way home I could hear a chorus of flat voices, “It’s coming home, it’s coming home.” It was Friday and I wondered if the first stag parties were on their way.
Sofia, Plovdiv, Kavala – waiting for the tourist euro – economic salvation meaning the spoiling of their cities.
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