Bulgaria’s current capital

We had booked the 1030 bus from Veliko Tarnovo’s station to Sofia.  We walked downhill to the station.  The 3h bus ride was all smooth except Kim needed the toilet as a result of the diuretic effect of his blood pressure medication.  The driver obliged with a stop since the onboard toilet was locked off.  Like other rides in the region, the countryside was full of beautiful sunflowers in full bloom.

The taxi to the hotel was interesting.  The old lady driver know the way and we directed her with Google Maps.  She kept making signs of the cross on her forehead, chest and shoulders along the way.

That got us safely to Hotel Light, which was a little pricey for my budget but very central.  Like previous hotels, they set up double beds with two single blankets  🙂

We grabbed a very yummy and cheap lunch at the local markets.  A stirfry of chicken, peppers and olives plus a salad of tomato, cucumber and cheese only cost BGN6.50 (about NZD5).

Later in the afternoon we walked to the Sveta Nedelya cathedral (cathedral for the capital Sophia) for a short visit before commencing the walking tour of the city.  Again the guide was excellent but having done one Bulgarian walking tour, some of the history aspects were already known to us.  Aspects that were new to us included:

• Sofia does not have an old town but it has old Roman ruins (of the historical city of Serdika) set amongst the contemporary and historical buildings in the city centre.
• There is an old church of Ayasofya on the edge of the old city which gave the city its name.
• The capital’s name is pronounced by locals as Sofia with emphasis on the “So” while the saint’s name has the emphasis on the “phia” (as with the original Greek pronunciation).