Sarah goes to BULGARIA!

Dobar den from Bulgaria!  I know!  Crazy!  I haven't updated my blog in a while, so this is going to be a super-long post since I spent three days in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital, last week.  I got the chance to go after my friend Raph decided to visit his grandmother who lives in Sofia for half the year.  We left on Tuesday and came back Friday, and had the most AMAZING time.  When we got off the plane, Raph's grandmother Maria was there to greet us.  She was so excited to have us there and promptly told us she had the whole stay planned and that we were to be "acculturés" - cultured - by the time we left!  Was she ever right!  We spent two whole days wandering through wonderful museums, art galleries and cathedrals.  Needless to say, I was in heaven.  The first morning, Raph and I decided to set out on our own to explore downtown Sofia and take a look around.  As neither of us speak Bulgarian, and the writing is in Cyrillic, I was super lucky that Raph can read maps regardless of the language, cause I was lost as soon as I stepped out of the apartment!  We found our way to the Alexander Nevski cathedral right in the heart of the city, and it was absolutely stunning.  The architecture was amazing, with domed roofs and gorgeous mosaics.  From the outside it was impressive, and from the inside, even more so!  Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of the inside of the church, but there were murals that covered the entire thing.  The detail was incredible, and we were almost the only ones in the church.  The few others that came inside lit candles for prayers, which gave the cathedral an even more impressive aura.  We then went down to the crypt on the left side of the church, which has been turned into an art gallery, and saw Bulgarian art that was hundreds of years old, taken from the inside of churches all over the country.  Bulgarians really seem to like Saint Demetrios, who was always depicted on a horse stabbing the Antichrist, and Saint George, on a horse stabbing a dragon. Leaving the cathedral, we continued our walk around the capital until our toes got frosty, and then headed back for lunch (in a typical Canadian fashion, we decided to visit Sofia on the two coldest days of the year, when the temperature went down to .... minus 7!  OH NO!  We were thinking of all our friends and family suffering the minus 30 degree weather, so minus seven didn't seem all that bad!).  We walked past Sofia's university (which we mistook for parliament since we couldn't read a word on any signs), the library, theater, and a host of other beautiful pastel buildings and churches.  Back at Maria's apartment, we met our tour guide for the next couple days, Dmitri, who was Maria's best friend's grandson.  Dmitri was so lovely, and on the first afternoon took us around the city some more to look at Sofia's art gallery, housed in the last Tsar's palace, and the hot water springs.  He told us that the city was named after a Byzantine princess called Sofia who was healed by the water's powers.  I wasn't the only one who liked the water - all the pigeons were smart enough to warm their feathers there too!  Dmitri took us to a restaurant where there were a lot of classic Bulgarian dishes served, and as soon as we sat down he eagerly asked if we wanted him to recommend something.  "Of course!"  I said.  "What's your favourite thing to eat?"  Dmitri replied, "Stomach Soup!" UH OH.  Needless to say, vegetarianism and Bulgaria do not mesh very well together.  Despite my decision a couple days earlier to be more flexible and eat meat when I had to during my stay in Europe, I didn't think I was prepared to eat a soup made from the intestines of a cow.  So Raph had the soup, and I had Shopska salad (also a traditional Bulgarian dish - very good!), but I managed to try a spoonful, just because Dmitri was so keen on his favourite soup!  The next day, we met up again with Dmitri and this time, his uncle as well.  His uncle drove us up to the palace of the last Bulgarian dictator, Zhivkov, which has been turned into a Bulgarian history museum.  It was SO COOL.  There were artifacts hundreds of thousands of years old, and I learned all about the long and intense history of Bulgaria - Dmitri gave us a crash course in about three hours!  On our way back we made two more stops - one at the tiny but wonderful Boyana Church, and one on top of Mount Vitosha, the mountain that overlooks Sofia.  We saw the whole city below us, and got a wonderful view!  That night we ate at Maria's brother, Asen, and his wife, Katie's home.  Katie made a superb dish which tasted like the Bulgarian version of Spanakopita, and I tried Rakia, a type of Bulgarian brandy made from plums.  The next morning we were off on the plane home to Paris - what a wonderful couple of days!  I met some really wonderful people, and can't have had a better host.  Now, I promise my next posts won't be as long, or take too long to put up!