Ellis and Jodie's Bulgarian Adventure

One of the museums in Sofia that we had yet to see was the National Archaeological Museum , located in the city center. We finally had a chance to visit and we were very impressed. The museum had a fascinating collection of artifacts from Bulgaria's rich history, including coins, jewelry, statues, sarcophagi and more. Particulaly interesting were the collections of golden and silver Thracian treasures. One small example is pictured below.

On one of the hottest days yet this summer, we had planned to take our visitors, Shani, Binyamin and Alissa, up the cable car to the top of Mt. Vitosha, where we hoped it would be cooler, but when we arrived at the cable car station, we found it closed. We went to the Sofia Zoo instead. The Sofia Zoo is located not that far from our house. This was the first time we had visited it, but we had previously posted how a pack of stray dogs broke into the zoo in January and killed some mouflon. We didn't see any mouflon on our visit to the zoo.

We didn't really know much about the Pri Orlite Restaurant before going there on Saturday night with a group of friends. We heard that it was on the 18th floor of a building in the center of Sofia, but we didn't even think that there were tall buildings in the center. We took the elevator up to the top of the building and stepped inside the restaurant and were amazed at what we saw. All of Sofia was displayed in the restaurant windows, scenes of our adopted city that we had never seen before or even knew existed. The windows were on all sides, so we walked around the room taking it all in, including the sun setting to the west. The best views of all were from the bathrooms! The golden domes of Alexander Nevski Cathedral sparkled in the city below us. As for the restaurant itself, it was a bit pricey, apparently because you paid for what you were looking at. Jodie had duck, which was very tasty, and I had salmon, which was good but not anything special. For those prices we could...

As I (Ellis) was riding in a taxi to a meeting in the center of Sofia yesterday, the taxi driver, whose knowledge of English was very good, complained about the maintenance level of the city's streets. "There are potholes everywhere," he said. "And where there are none, the municipality is making sure to dig new holes."

In the Lozenets neighborhood of Sofia in which we live there is no shortage of drab Soviet-era tenements and multi-colored modern apartment buildings, but what really gives character to Lozenets are the few older individual homes, relics of what the neighborhood used to be like. Some of them are almost crumbling to the ground, while others have been restored and painted brightly.

Last week we had a chance to visit the National Museum of Natural History for the first time, and we were quite impressed. This museum, founded in 1889 and located in the center of Sofia, is the oldest museum in Bulgaria and the only institution in the country devoted to the preservation of scientific collections of animate and inanimate nature. Last year the museum celebrated its 120th anniversary. It was first opened to the public in 1907. During World War Two the building was destroyed by aerial bombardment but the museum collections survived, having been evacuated in time. The museum has exhibitions arranged in halls on four floors, and we noted that the steep staircase allows access to the handicapped. Most of the labels on the exhibits were also listed in English. Some of the biggest stuffed mammals on display included the largest brown bear in Europe and the last pure-blooded European bison. The museum is also connected to the ongoing scientific work of the Bulgarian Academy of ...

Cherny Vrah is the name of one of Sofia's main streets in our area of the city. Jodie travels to work on it, and I cross it every day as well. The street used to be very colorful, with trams clanging their bells as they passed in both directions, and people crowding the many small flower stores, fresh fish shops, and vegetable stands on both sides. And it was usually quite congested with traffic. Here is a picture of how we first saw Cherny Vrah . And this is what the street looks like now: The street is undergoing major repair work as part of the expansion of Sofia's Metro system. Every day there are new obstacles and obstructions on the street. Many of the small shops have been demolished in preparations for a Metro station, and the trams no longer pass by. The sidewalks have disappeared, and in some places you can't even see the narrow street due to tall barriers in front of the huge construction sites. If there is any good news from this endless project it seems to be t...

Two weeks ago we walked through a small park in the center of Sofia = Doctors' Garden. The central feature of the park is a simple monument, with chipped, inscribed stones around its four sides. The inscriptions are names, hundreds of them. According to an article in Vagabond Magazine, which we just read, we learned that the stones bear the names of 531 doctors and nurses, all of them Russian medical workers who died in the 1877-8 Russo-Turkish War which liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Also scattered around one corner of the garden are fragments of sculptures and buildings from Serdica, the Roman era town that stood at the site of Sofia. Some of Sofia's finest buildings are located around and near Doctors' Garden. Nearby are the embassies of France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the British Council. It's certainly an interesting part of Sofia.

Built in 1911, Tsentrainata Banya is closed to the public and being refurbished, maybe as a museum.

On Sunday we went with our friends Sima and Shlomo to the northern neighborhoods of Sofia to an outdoor shopping bazaar known as the Chinese Market. Stokov Bazaar, or Ilientsi, is a huge area of stalls selling everything from kitchen appliances, toys, clothing, and car parts, and at very cheap prices. Many of the shopkeepers were indeed Chinese, and it was interesting to see so many Orientals in one place, speaking Bulgarian. We managed to buy a few things we needed but it was hard to fully enjoy the experience as it was freezing cold. Either the cold, or the after-Christmas mood kept the crowds away, because we heard that the bazaar attracts many Sofia shoppers.

If you don't look quickly, you might miss it, but Sofia does have a colorful Autumn for a short period. The leaves on the trees turn color before falling down and blowing with the October winds and rains.

Under the slogan "View Past, View Future", Sofia Architecture Week was marked by a poster exhibition on the pedestrian bridge leading to the NDK, the National Center of Culture. We walked across the bridge and noted the posters, some showing remarkable buildings in Sofia from the late 1800s, and others very modern constructions. It was quite interesting to see the posters set against the background of the modern, and not always beautiful buildings of the city. The poster below shows the Europe Tower, and behind it you can see the Sofia Hilton Hotel. I particularly like this last shot, showing in the poster a tram from the 1880s and on the street below, a modern Sofia tram.

The Sofia synagogue was first dedicated on September 9, 1909, by Bulgarian Tzar Ferdinand. This week marked the synagogue's 100th year, and we attended two special events. Last night there was a concert given by the Sofia Symphony Orchestra at the Bulgaria Hall auditorium. In addition to what is listed on the program, it was quite moving when the orchestra played "Hava Nagila" and "Heveinu Shalom Aleichem'> Tonight was the ceremony at the synagogue itself. We had visited the synagogue before , and when my mother visited, we attended Saturday morning services. But both times the synagogue had been undergoing renovations. Well, the renovations are finally finished, and the building is sparkling and very beautiful, both inside and out. In attendance was the President of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov, a former prime minister, many ambassadors, important rabbis from around the world, and clergymen from Bulgaria. Also in attendance were many members of the Bulgarian Je...

Random photographs from our street. The first one shows the name = Dimitar Hadzhikotsev Street. The pothole in the intersection right outside our building. This was filled in just the other day. The wiring along the street. This can't be safe! There are many fruit trees along the street and in the neighborhood = apples, plums, cherries. Here are grapes on the vine. An old-style apartment building on the street, with a Russian-made Moskvich car parked in front. Old and new. While there are many modern apartment buildings in the neighborhood, there are also relics from the past. At the end of the street, Yuzhen Park. Berries! Yuzhen Park is green, with a stream and pathways through the woods. Plenty of benches, and on weekends, full of people.