Sofia

Most people who visit Bulgaria probably go to the Black Sea beach resorts which the country is known for. However, I’m not a big fan of beach vacations. I’m more interested in culture and sightseeing. Particularly during November, when it’s too cold to go to the beach! I hadn’t yet been to Bulgaria at all. When I found some cheap flights to Sofia for the weekend, Bulgaria was about to become the 50th country which I have visited.

FRIDAY, November 2nd

I flew to Sofia with a layover in Vienna. The flight to Vienna was quite uneventful and even landed a little bit ahead of schedule. I had about two hours in Vienna, and decided to spend most of it in the Austrian Business Lounge. I had access thanks to my frequent flyer membership.

It was disappointing as far as lounges go. There was no separate WiFi and no food at dinnertime other than soups, bread, and cake. But I get in for free and lounges are still a premium service regardless, so I can’t really complain too much. I left the lounge shortly before boarding time to get some sandwiches, in order to truly satisfy my hunger. Then I continued towards the gate for my flight to Sofia with Austrian Airlines.

Upon landing in Sofia, I realized that I had made a big mistake.

Almost always with Airbnb, you have to arrange a meeting time with the host. Sometimes you collect the keys from a key box somewhere nearby. This time, the owner would be personally greeting me. However, I had completely missed the fact that Sofia is in a different timezone. I had been in Kosovo the week prior, which is in the Central European Timezone. I assumed that it was the same timezone as well, without double-checking. This was also the weekend of the change from Daylight Savings Time to non-DST in Europe.

Add in the fact that when I load flight bookings into my mobile calendar, the start and end time displayed on the calendar overview is for the timezone in which I’m located. Only once I opened a specific calendar entry and expanded the details, would I see the scheduled arrival time in Bulgaria’s timezone. Thus, I assumed the time displayed on my calendar was correct.

Being in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria is one hour ahead of Central European Time. By the time my flight landed, it was already past the time I had arranged to meet with the owners at the apartment in downtown Sofia. Oops! I contacted them immediately once I realized. Fortunately, they were quite understanding, and had also assumed that I messed up the timezones. It was literally very embarrassing, particularly given how often I travel. I guess because I had been traveling so often around Europe, and especially the Balkans before this trip, I took it for granted that some parts of the Balkans are in a different time zone.

I took the metro from the airport to a station that was very close to the apartment. After finally arriving at the apartment and unpacking a little bit, I went out to experience the nightlife of Sofia.

SATURDAY, November 3rd

After a late night, I slept in a tiny bit. This wasn’t a huge issue, as most sights didn’t open until 10 AM, earliest at 9. I walked down to a nearby café for a light breakfast. Then I continued towards the memorial for Bulgarian national hero Vasil Levski, situated on a traffic island in the middle of a roundabout.

Levski was one of the key figures of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement. The movement wasn’t directly responsible for Bulgaria’s independence. The Russo-Turkish War of the 1870s was the reason for the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Bulgaria became independent five years after Vasil Levski was arrested and executed.

I continued towards the south, with the intention to visit the mausoleum of Alexander von Battenberg. He became the first Bulgarian ruling prince after Bulgaria won its independence. However, the opening hours differed from those I found online, and it was closed.

Instead, I spent some time at the adjacent Knyazheska Garden. It is a small park that is centered around a large monument for Soviet soldiers and citizens.

Next up I went to what is arguably Sofia’s most important sight, and definitely a symbol of the city. The Aleksander Nevski Cathedral was built between 1882 and 1912 in memory of the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting the Ottoman Empire.

The cathedral is imposing in size, and has several arches and curves in its design, topped with golden domes. The interior is more spectacular than the outside. The security guards inside are eager to require photo tickets, approaching you a few seconds after you take your phone out of your pocket.

I usually disagree with this practice and try to sneak in photos anyway. I mean, I get it, they would rather that people come to see the building for themselves and pay entrance fees, instead of seeing photos online for free and staying home. But nowadays you can find photos of pretty much everything on the internet. I don’t think there’s such an effect. It’s just an extra fee for those that visit with cameras. However, the guards were everywhere, and the interior of the Aleksander Nevski Cathedral was too significant to not photograph it. I paid the extra fee.

The interior is covered from top to bottom in murals of various Orthodox Christian icons, some of which are rather faded. The extravagant chandeliers light up the otherwise relatively dark interior of the church. Inside the cathedral there are also several alabaster thrones and decorations.

Like most other Orthodox churches, the interior is decorated in an elaborate fashion. The colors don’t stand out much on the murals anymore. If you walk up close to them though, the level of detail becomes apparent. What also sets the Aleksander Nevski Cathedral apart is its impressive size.

Beneath the building is a crypt with a few religious artworks on display. It seemed uninteresting when viewed from the entrance, so I didn’t enter. Instead, I went to a different church literally just down the street from the Aleksander Nevski, the Sveta Sofia Church. Construction first began here in 311 AD during the time of the Roman Empire. It was initially built as a small church which was gradually expanded over the following centuries. The current structure is the result of the fifth building phase, which was carried out in the 6th century AD.

In the 14th century, the St. Sofia Church gave its name to the city. The church was used as a mosque during the Ottoman Empire. It was finally reconstructed in 1930 and has served as a functioning church ever since. As a result, there’s not much inside the church itself that remains from the Roman Empire. Some of the brick walls are dating from the 6th century. However, apart from the exposed bricks, the church has a whitewashed, relatively modest interior for an Orthodox church.

Its basement museum is perhaps the biggest draw. It features the remains of the first four building phases of the church. This includes ruins of the churches built during the Roman Empire.

There are also 56 tombs buried underneath the church. Some of these have their structural remains visible in the underground museum. Some tombs even have unearthed frescoes made with colored tiles.

After seeing the Sveta Sofia, I continued to the Ethnographic Museum. It is housed inside the former royal palace. The museum’s two floors feature exhibits with a detailed look into Bulgarian traditions and culture.

There are several displays with traditional jewelry and crafts. Folk customs and rural holidays are also covered.

Masks and tools used for masquerade festivals.

Another focus is on textiles, be it traditional carpets or historical clothing and dresses.

One object that I found particularly interesting was a gramophone purchased from a manufacturer in New York in 1939.

It was used by staff members of the Ethnographic Museum back then to record folk songs and the sounds from folklore. They traveled to different rural villages with the device.

Towards the end of the museum are several modern poster-sized photos of young Bulgarians wearing traditional clothing.

I can only assume that these photos are from traditional cultural festivals, but the descriptions were only written in Bulgarian.

After I finished up at the Ethnographic Museum, I was starting to get hungry. I walked past the Sofia City Garden towards the MoMa restaurant, which I had sought out for lunch. The Sofia City Garden is an urban park in the city center, and it seemed quite popular with locals. There were plenty of people out enjoying a surprisingly warm November weekend.

One part of the park that definitely stands out is the National Theatre. The theatre is a neoclassical building located in one corner of the City Garden.

Once I arrived at the MoMa restaurant, it quickly became evident that it was a good choice for lunch. I always try to eat local food when I travel. The restaurant’s dining area was decorated in a manner that blended traditional elements with modern-day style. There were even some pictures of people wearing folk costumes, similar to those I had just seen at the Ethnographic Museum.

The restaurant’s menu was indeed also typically Bulgarian, which is a meat-heavy type of cuisine with lots of grilled dishes. I decided on a BBQ spear, which proved to be a tasty choice.

After lunch, I walked north to the Sveti Georgi Rotunda, which is the oldest preserved building in all of Sofia. It was constructed during the 4th century AD, when Sofia was known as Serdica and ruled by the Roman Empire. Surrounding the small red-brick church are ruins of buildings that are as old as the church.

The Sveti Georgi Rotunda is found inside an enclosed courtyard, surrounded by modern apartment buildings and a luxury hotel. It’s truly an interesting juxtaposition to see how the city has developed. Everything has modernized around this Roman-built church and the archaeological ruins that surround it. The Sveti Georgi Rotunda is still a working church today. The murals on the inside walls were painted between the 10th and 14th centuries.

After seeing the oldest preserved building in Sofia, I entered the nearby National Archaeological Museum. The museum was just one block away, placed inside a converted former mosque. The collection was a lot larger than I expected. It was spread across the main hall of the building and numerous adjoining rooms on two floors.

Inside the main hall was a large collection of clay vases and figurines from pre-Roman times. Some of the items dated as far back as the 6th century BC. There were also several stone tablets with inscriptions on display. Most of these were tombstones unearthed from a former Roman burial ground.

The separate rooms focused on different topics. One of them displayed mostly golden jewelry and vases from the former Serdica town.

Another room focused on clay objects and figurines from as far back as the Chalcolithic period, 5000 years BC.

Elsewhere in the museum, there were Muslim prayer vessels made of bronze from the 17th century. These are used for the process of cleaning oneself before entering mosques.

Another peculiar item was a gilded funeral mask from the 5th century BC.

One of the last rooms had several icon paintings and frescoes from various Orthodox churches.

After spending over an hour at the archaeology museum, I walked past a couple of monumental buildings nearby. The most imposing of these is the Party House. The Party House was constructed in 1953 in grand Stalinist style as the headquarters for the Bulgarian Communist Party. Today it still houses government offices.

The spire on top of the building used to have a red star on top of it. The star has been taken down and is now in a museum, which I was going to visit the following day. The communist star has been replaced with the flag of Bulgaria. Next to the Party House is what’s today the Council of Ministers. It was built in a similar fashion, around the same time as the Party House.

Next, I walked past the Sofia Monument. The monument stands on the square in front of the Party House. It was erected in 2001, on the same spot where a massive statue of Lenin was formerly located. The bronze female with a victory wreath in one hand, and an owl on the other arm, is supposed to symbolize the city of Sofia as a personification of wisdom and fate.

One block north of the square with the Sofia Monument is the Sofia City Museum. It is inside the former Turkish Mineral Baths, a bathhouse that was built in 1913. As the name suggests, the museum deals with the history of the city. The most interesting parts of the exhibit focus on the former Bulgarian Royal Family of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A former horse carriage used by the royals is on display. Also found here is a souvenir cup with the railroad networks of Bulgaria, presented to King Ferdinand I in 1912. There is also a ceremonial sword that he wore for special occasions.

The royal insignia and crown jewels from 1928 are also found inside the museum.

Bulgaria wasn’t ruled by royals for a long time. It became a principality in the late 1870s after the Russo-Turkish War. After World War II it was made into a communist republic.

Not far from the Sofia City Museum was the city’s main synagogue. I was anyway walking in that direction, so I walked past to see if perhaps it would be open. However, it was closed for visitors as the day was a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

I continued towards the north and took a stroll through the Ladies’ Market. Despite the name, men are more than welcome to visit, and several of the vendors are male too. I’m assuming the name might have come from a large number of female vendors at the market in older times.

The Ladies’ Market is a large produce and food market that has a bit of a Middle-Eastern bazaar vibe. That’s not a coincidence, as the market came to be during the period of Ottoman rule. Some other stalls and vendors sell textiles and smaller household appliances.

At this point it was shortly before 4 PM. I walked back to the city center and swung by the President’s Building. Every hour there is a change of the guard, so I wanted to see that. It wasn’t overly spectacular, compared to some other change of guard “ceremonies”, but nonetheless cool to witness.

My next point of interest became the Sveta Nedelya Cathedral, which was quite busy with worshippers.

The cathedral dates from 1863 and has an exceptionally beautiful interior. Unlike the Aleksander Nevski Cathedral which had relatively faded murals, the icons and frescoes inside the Sveta Nedelya were vibrantly colorful.

Unfortunately, the large bright chandeliers didn’t provide optimal light for photography.

The Sveta Nedelya is known for its rich collections of Byzantine-style murals. The cathedral’s interior decorations are truly works of art.

By now it had become dark outside. However, I still took some time to explore the nearby ruins from the town of Serdica, as Sofia was known during Roman times. These particular ruins are quite special. They were discovered between 2010 and 2012 when construction began on a nearby metro station. The metro station became known as Serdica for this reason. Most of the entrances were built around the ruins, which were left in place.

Every time you enter the metro station, you’ll walk past the Roman ruins. However, it’s possible to walk through some of the ruins too. The ruins are partially outdoors in the open and partially found in a large complex that’s now housed indoors below street level.

There are fragments of eight former streets, an early Christian church, baths, and houses dating from between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. The entire complex is quite well preserved. The location right next to the metro station’s entrance doors is unique in itself.

There was a large park southeast of the city center, called Borisova Gradina, that I wanted to visit as well. It was located next to the main sports stadium, the Vasil Levski National Stadium. I got off the metro near the stadium and began walking through the park.

The reason for visiting was a section with Soviet-era statues and monuments. However, I quickly realized that this section of the park would have no lighting, and it was pitch black outside. I figured I’d try again the following day if I had time.

I walked to a restaurant in a neighborhood not too far from the Borisova Gradina park. The restaurant, Manastirska Magernitsa, specialized in traditional Bulgarian dishes. Without a reservation, I had to take a table outside. It was a bit chilly but okay.

The service was quite slow despite sitting right in front of the door where waiters kept going in and out. However, the food was tasty. After dinner, I returned to my Airbnb apartment.

SUNDAY, November 4th

I was checking out of the apartment but my flight was later in the evening. I needed somewhere to lock up my suitcase for the day. According to online information there was no left luggage service at the airport, which would have been most convenient. I decided to go to Sofia’s train station instead, where there was a luggage depot. Getting there proved a bit more difficult though.

The nearest metro station to the apartment was completely closed, with only a Bulgarian-language paper notice on the door. I also saw some other locals walking up and being confused. The second entrance at the same metro station was also closed. A different station, near the Vasil Levski National Stadium, was open. However, trains were only going to the airport, not towards the city center. I later found out this was due to construction work.

Instead, I got on a bus. I got to the train station well over an hour later than planned. After the entire ordeal, I had breakfast in the train station at a bakery shop.

For the day’s sightseeing, I first stopped by the Sofia Synagogue for a look inside. It is the second-largest Sephardic synagogue in Europe, built in 1909. The synagogue was partly under reconstruction. Some parts on the inside were cordoned off, and there were a few holes in the floor. Despite this, it was still possible to appreciate the colorful interior. The chandelier is the largest in Bulgaria, weighing 2,250 kg (~5,000lb).

Following the synagogue, I took a tram and a bus out to the Boyana suburb. I was going there for two sights, the first of them being the National Museum of History. The museum featured a large collection of archaeological items, some of them several thousands of years old.

One of the highlights in the archaeological section is the Panagyurishte Treasure. It is named after the nearest town to where it was found. All of the nine items are gold, many of them being rhyton-style containers. The golden objects are believed to have been made in a Thracian workshop. Archaeologists have theorized that the items used to belong to famous Odrysian king Seuthes III, who ruled from 330-300 BC.

Another important find on display in the archaeology section of the National Museum of History was even older. It’s a cache of jewelry and ceramics uncovered in four burial mounds. The items are dating from the end of the early Bronze Age, around 3,000 BC.

The story of the National Museum of History itself is quite interesting too. The museum is housed in the building that used to be the presidential palace during the communist era. Of course, the building has been remodeled since, to be fit for the museum’s purposes. There are still some extravagant design features left from the former palace though.

Also part of the building’s history is the large plenary hall in the middle of the complex. It was the site of a plenum of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party on November 10, 1989. In the meeting, it was decided to remove then-president Todor Zhivkov from power. It was essentially the beginning of the end for communist rule in Bulgaria.

There are several rooms dedicated to the more modern history of the country as well. These rooms have a focus on the two world wars, particularly World War II. Among other things, there’s a pilot’s uniform used by the Bulgarian Air Force during World War II on display.

World War II became a turning point for Bulgaria. The war transformed the country from a kingdom into a communist republic. The flag of the new “People’s Republic of Bulgaria” which was proclaimed following World War II is also here. Communist insignia were added to the original Bulgarian flag.

The constitution of communist Bulgaria is also exhibited. However, there weren’t as many items from the communist period of the late 20th century as I had hoped. Most probably it’s a section of the country’s history that the country is not proud of. Perhaps therefore there are only a few items from that era.

The Boyana suburb where the National Museum of History is found is quite residential. As a result, there weren’t any restaurants nearby. To save time, particularly after the chaos with public transport earlier that morning, I decided to have lunch at a nearby gas station. There was a small convenience store at the station with a few tables and chairs in the corner. I bought a couple of sandwiches, and just sat down to eat them right there.

After my quick lunch, I wanted to go by public transport to the Boyana Church. However, I had to walk due to the bus schedule having infrequent service on a Sunday.

A church has been located in this spot since the 10th century. The current version was a rebuild made in the 13th century, during which it was also repainted. This procedure created around 90 murals, which are some of the finest examples of Bulgarian medieval artwork.

The murals are unfortunately not all intact. The church was open for religious services until 1954, after which it was closed, except for visits. Careful restoration and preservation work has been going on ever since. The murals are listed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage.

After I had seen the Boyana Church, I jumped in a taxi to drive across Sofia to the Museum of Socialist Art. The museum features plenty of sculptures outside in its garden. Essentially they are all communist statues that were removed from their original locations around Sofia and Bulgaria.

The red star that used to be on top of the Party House is also found here. As expected, there are numerous statues of key communist figures, with Lenin being the face of most of them.

The fact that the museum is surrounded by modern glass buildings and business offices makes for an interesting juxtaposition.

The museum also has an indoor gallery. I was disappointed to find that it was showing contemporary art pieces, which criticized and ridiculed the communist era.

Don’t get me wrong, the communist era wasn’t pretty in any way, and some of these pieces were actually funny. However, I had expected to see some original propaganda posters and socialist realism paintings from the communist period, which is a very unique art form.

The museum did feature a small video room as well though. Here they were showing original documentary clips, newsreels, and photographs from the communist period. The pieces were full of original, raw propaganda.

After the Museum of Socialist Art, it slowly became time to go to the train station to pick up my bags. However, I definitely had to do one more stop.

The National Museum of Military History was much too good to pass up. It had a large collection of Soviet-built fighter jets parked outside. I had limited time to visit the indoor exhibits, but I quickly walked through them. The hour that I lost with the mess in the public transport system that morning would’ve been useful.

The indoor parts of the military museum were actually quite interesting in their own right. They displayed insignia related to Prince Alexander von Battenberg. He was the German Prince that became ruler of the Principality of Bulgaria in 1878. There was also a long list of military medals and various weapons on display in the exhibit.

Fortunately, I did have enough time to see all the MiG fighter jets, and a couple of other military vehicles outside the museum building. There were several different variants of MiG fighters, but not the entire line.

Some of the more prominent aircraft included several models of the MiG-23. There were also a pair of MiG-21s, which were developed before the MiG-23 version.

Also found outside the museum was one MiG-19 in rusty shape.

By now it was indeed time to leave Sofia. I found a taxi just outside the museum. Initially, I agreed with the driver to go to the main train station, a pretty obvious location. He got a phone call as we were getting ready to drive off. For whatever reason, this customer was more important. He asked in very broken English if my destination was near the hotel where he was picking up the other client.

I repeated “I’m going to the train station”, and he responded with “okay, problem”. He gestured that I should get out. Because he didn’t respect the first come, first serve principle, I made sure to slam the door extra hard on my way out. This is exactly one of the reasons I use Uber as much as possible (it was unavailable in Sofia). When you give regular taxis a monopoly, they offer incredibly terrible customer service and an unfriendly attitude for inflated prices.

Public transport from the Military History museum would have taken over twice the time as simply driving. I didn’t have much time to spare. I walked to a nearby shopping mall and finally found an available taxi to take me to the train station. Once there, I picked up my trolley from the luggage depot. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve just taken the metro to the airport. The closed-off stations I encountered in the morning were on the same line though. I played it safe and took another taxi to the airport. At that point, I was running a little late too, so it was the better option. In Bulgaria taxis are anyway inexpensive, compared to what I’m used to in Switzerland.

When I arrived at the airport, I learned that I had plenty of time. I was flying home via Munich, and the Lufthansa flight was delayed by about an hour. My layover in Munich was scheduled as an hour. It was looking a bit bleak whether I would make the last evening flight to Zurich (my booking) or not.

At least I had enough time to get something to eat. Unfortunately, there were no restaurants past security in Sofia, just a handful of cafés offering the same selection of hot dogs and sandwiches. I settled for a combination of those.

Eventually, we took off and landed in Munich about 45-50 minutes late. I ran out of the jetbridge and sprinted through the terminal.

Fortunately, I only had to clear the automatic passport control, but not another security check. Then I started hearing last call announcements for passengers going to Zurich on my SWISS flight, operated by Edelweiss. I kept running, but luckily the gate was close by, so I made it just in time. I did indeed get back home that evening as I had planned.