Sofia, Bulgaria

And finally we come to Sofia, Bulgaria! For pictures, click here.

Last of our cities, Sofia had a lot to live up to. I came to appreciate stopping in Sofia, seeing it as a means to gently descend from my cloud before heading back to Romania and to work.

When we first arrived in Sofia, a man came up to me speaking in broken Romanian (which was interesting to hear) asking me if we already had tickets to where we wanted to go. We, as a group, had set the trend of buying tickets upon arrival so we could plan our day accordingly. We were planning to only stay the day in Sofia, so buying tickets was actually what we were looking to do. But I wasn't about to follow a strange guy who didn't look very official. I answered him in Romanian and attempted a mix of ignoring him and deferring to Nils. Nils started making his way to the various counters, the man "leading" the way in front of him. The man "lead" us to an agency which apparently sold international tickets. The woman behind the counter spoke some English and we explained that we were traveling on the Balkan Flexi Pass. She said we still needed to reserve seats. She punched a few things into her calculator and showed us the estimated cost for the 4 of us. Not bad... but she came across really confusing at the same time and the lack of customer service skills didn't help. Another problem was that we hadn't yet gotten any Bulgarian currency. So before we purchased tickets, Nils headed off to find an ATM, the "guide" man trailing behind him. The man directed him to the exchange counter, which Nils politely declined and continued his search for an ATM. It's interesting when people are trying to be helpful and yet come across like you have to do it their way. Nils returned and we purchased the tickets. I then asked, to make sure, whether these tickets were for a sleeper car. No, just regular seats. Then I asked how much it would cost if we wanted to return the tickets or upgrade to a sleeper. She replied that she would have to take out the 10% commission. Commission?? I didn't know we had paid commission! Then she proved to be rather flustered as she proceeded to say that out of the 30 Bulgarian Leva, we would get only 20 back. Umm... 10% of 30 is not 10. We said as much and after a few punches on the calculator she came up with a more accurate amount... 27 Bulgarian Leva back. Anyway... we decided to keep our tickets and do a little more checking before proceeding with our tour of the city. A few more inquiries proved that the agency was indeed the only place were international tickets were sold. And... to our surprise, the guy who had been guiding us around didn't even ask for a tip. Interesting.

Not having started off exactly on the right foot, but still feeling somewhat hopeful, we packed our bags into a few lockers at the train station and started off to see the sights. Sofia is a surprisingly beautiful city with many ancient buildings and plenty of history. To learn more about Sofia's extensive history, click here. We some directions and help from a local vendor and a newly purchased map. Maps sure are amazing things! We wondered for a while, sat for a while, watched pigeons in the park for a while, slept for a while.... we were all pretty tired and had slowed down considerably. But one thing I thought timely about our arrival was the fact that it was Orthodox Easter weekend. With the countless churches in the city, we saw masses of people standing in line to perform a Easter ceremony which symbolizes death and resurrection. After receiving a blessing from the priest, and a kind of branch (I'm can't remember of what plant or tree), a person crouches under a table, scoots across and stands up on the other end.

I've noted in Romania as well, and having had it affirmed in my travels, that American culture is much more traditionally diverse. And with this traditional diversity, there isn't a strong traditional culture. For example, Easter in Romania has specific, not just traditions, but actual things you do (midnight candle lighting, attending church, doing the symbolic resurrection rite, etc.), say (Christ is risen/true he is risen), and eat (cozonac, eggs, lamb and anything made of lamb, wine) to honor the holiday. In America for Easter we may have an Easter egg hunt, we may wear new Spring dresses, but it doesn't have the same touch of formality, correctness, and deeply rooted tradition that exists in other places and cultures. Being somewhat familiar with Catholicism, there is a lot of similarity between the rites and religious traditions of the Orthodox but it just isn't as nation-wide as I've seen in other countries. An interesting side note since we hit upon Easter.

We continued to wander, sampled some food (very, very good, by the way) all the while enjoying the slower pace until it was time for our train. The day went slowly and quickly. As Nils looked back at the pictures he was surprise at all the things we really did see while there.

An amazing trip... a good ending. I enjoyed it thoroughly though I have to admit I was happy to be back in Romania where I could finally understand most of what people were saying!