No 15 Email – Sofia – Bulgaria
The trip from Skopje to Sofia took about 6 hours. Of those hours about 40 minutes were spent at the border between Macedonia and Bulgaria, most of it in Bulgaria. There was practically no traffic at the border and our bus had about 8 passengers. First they took our passports, then they gave them back, then they wanted to see each one of us in turn and they brought a laptop in the bus. They spent several minutes trying to work it, then they gave up and went back to their control room. Then we had to get off the bus and approach the control point one at the time with our passport. The all scene apparently was very funny to the border control people and the drivers from our bus because they seem to be telling jokes and laughing all of the time.
An explanation might be that Bulgaria is part of the European Common Market (EC) while Macedonia is not. When Macedonia will be able to join, the border between the two countries will, for all purpose, be totally open with little or no control. Weird isn’t it.
In Sofia, I decided to take my chances in an 8-bed dorm in a popular youth hostel. What I did not realize is that the location of Sofia makes it a natural stop-over point for travelling from one country to another.
So, this hostel is always practically full. The lack of a curfew makes it also a cozy place for all-night drinking parties! The end result is that people come in and out of the dorms at anytime of the nite, and sleeping is somewhat difficult. Is too bad because there are some nice pluses in favor of staying here. The rooms are cheap, the price includes breakfasts with a choice of cheeses, meats, tomatoes, olives, breads, etc..
Each evening they offer pasta with tomatoes sauce. They also provide free beer (a perfect way to promote and start the all night party!).
I have been in Sofia before, shortly after the communist regime left, Bulgarian Airline bought some Boeing 737. I was part of a small team that Boeing sent here to assist the airline with airplane maintenance.
Sofia was a very different place then. At that time, all the big squares where practically empty, and there was no traffic in the streets. The restaurant had no menu, they offered whatever they could get in the scares market places. Personally, I was well treated as I stayed in the Sheraton where all kinds of food was available.
Today, the traffic is bad and the squares have become parking lots chock-full of cars.
In Sofia, I visited the numerous churches, mosques, and I revisited the massive gold-domed Russian-style Aleksander Nevski Church.
I went to the incredible Rila Monastery located high in the mountains. This Unesco World heritage is 120 km away from Sofia and somewhat hard to reach by public transports. I teamed up with a couple, a French woman and her Italian husband and we went with a private car. As they did not really understand English, we had a three-way conversation going on. The driver would tell me something in English, I would repeat it to the woman in French, and she would repeat it to her husband in Italian.
This remained me of a somewhat similar scene in a movie with Peter Sellers.
The Rila Monastery is an amazingly interesting place. I really love the fact that the church has an outside gallery full of frescoes going around the church. The best thing is that one can take photos of the icons, something which is not allowed inside of a church (generally). I bought their booklet so that I can understand the story told by the frescoes.
In short, I had a great day!
I wish I could express the same thoughts about my stay in the hostel! Win a few, loose a few. Learn from each new experience!!
The left picture is of a Rila Frescoe,the right is the Rila Monastry and the third is the Gold-domed Aleksander Nevski Church.
Next Plovdiv.
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