with at first sight. The outskirts certainly are an example of what years of foreign rule and communist regime can do to a capital. It's all tower blocks and deprivation and I think it looks worse partly because Sofia is on a huge plain, so there is nothing to break up the view. I was shocked to see children, who can't have been older than seven, smoking on the street. Up until this point we hadn't really seen children begging far away from their parents, so it was an early indication that it is a much bigger problem here.We were led to believe that the guesthouse was a purple and gold building which we discovered was a bit of an overstatement. The rooms themselves looked like they were out Psycho and we realised that we were the only people staying. None of this made us feel enormously comfortable, and looking at the prices (this guesthouse is the most expensive place we are staying on the whole trip) we decided we weren't going to stay there for the whole time. Instead, we went looking for the hostel some people we'd met in Plovdiv where we had heard that they did private rooms. Unfortunately no private rooms, so instead we ended up staying in a very nice hotel. I think they were a bit bemused by the two of us wandering in like little turtles all dishevelled and travellery while the rest of their glamorous clientele wandered round the lobby. But we are nothing if not unique. It was lovely to have a little bit of luxury for a few days, particularly in a city where there is such a mix of riches and poverty. It is not a city to be poor in.
My birthday was lovely, Lucy and I spend the morning getting our bearings a bit more and discovered that Sofia does have some beautiful buildings in its centre. We then ensconced ourselves in a coffee shop for until we met Rob at 3. Having settled into the hotel, we went for a proper look around, catching the changing of the guard and the arrival of the President of Macedonia at the Parliament buildings, before realising that all Orthadox churches have a service at 5 every day. We heard some beautiful chanting in the St Nikolai Russian Church, before heading over to see the main church of
Aleksander Nevski, which was built to commemorate those who liberated Bulagria from the Ottomans. I found it startling to see how large a part faith plays in peoples´ lives here, partiularly since the years of communist rule. It is quite moving to see little old ladies in headscarves wander in to churches alongside well dressed businessmen to light a candle and kiss an icon. The only disappointing thing is that very often you can´t see the murals inside the churches because years of incense has blackened them, although it is encouraging to realise that this is because they are living, breathing places of worship as opposed to the museums as we experienced in Istanbul. We ended my birthday with a lovely meal (although Lucy ate rabbit which was most upsetting) and were staring to feel a bit more positive about Sofia...Saturday morning saw the three of us head off towards Sofia´s synagogue, which is apparently the largest Sephardic synagogue in Europe. Despite the fairly serious renovations which were going on, you could tell that it is a really beautiful building and it is a shame that the Jewish population has been so reduced here that they now only use a little side room for their services. Bulgaria has a lot to be proud of concerning its Jewish population, Tsar Boris refused to send the country´s Jews to the death camps and as a result saved thousands of lives. This is the only coutry we are visiting that can say that.
After the synagogue, we went for a proper look round the Churches we saw yesterday as well as the Byzantine one of Saint Sofia, after which the city was named. The crypt of Aleksander Nevski church houses their national collection of icons, which are beautiful, although it is a shame they are not in the monestries where they were originally designed to be. We then decided to travel up to Mount Vitosha, Sofia´s mountain, to get a view of the city from the top. This was not an overwhelmingly successful trip. The taxi driver drove us all the way to the chairlift, allowing absolutely everything to go ahead of us, before announcing as we arrived that it was closed. So we saw the foot of the mountain, but not much more. Putting this down to experience, we headed back for a G & T and a lovely Greek meal, ready for Rila the following day.
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