Sophia, Bulgaria

May 25, 2012

We took a night flight to Sophia, Bulgaria. We had to spend some time at the small airport in Budapest where I drew a cartoon of Adam and I from the reflection in the doors a little ahead of us. When flights came in, people came through those doors and relatives or friends met them on our side. I swear, I never so so much Euro-kissing!

We took a minivan to our hostel that drove through the backstreets past row upon row of Soviet era apartment buildings that reminded me of Cabrini Green with their bleak look and shadowed windows. We drove up bumpy cobblestone streets and crossed trolley tracks that felt like climbing steps. We arrived late and woke up to a town that looked just like what it felt like the night before. We walked down sidewalks that buckled and bowed, with loose stones and holes all over them. There were many old old buildings with crumbling surfaces exposing centuries-old stone construction and more modern glass and steel structures next door or across the street. Sophia also has its fine sector where the museums and ministry buildings are all so-so nicely polished.

There are a many beggars in Sophia, mostly older and sometimes crippled. They tend to be a little aggressive and they are choosy. If one doesn't give enough, they let you know and are not nice about it. Then there are the stray dogs. They are well fed and lazy, as sleek and well cared for as the human beggars are not. They sun themselves or just rest wherever they please and the people walk around them as though it was no big thing. The dogs own Sophia, no question about it.

Bulgaria is where the Eastern Orthodox religion has its roots, though I understand Kiev may dispute that. There are several churches in Sophia. One, supposed to be the first Orthodox church, was built around 450AD. The brickwork is fascinating and one can see signs of many changes on the inside where windows were bricked in, then more built, though not in the exact place. This particular church  is rather rough, reflecting or respecting to its history. Most of the Orthodox churches are fabulous. All have interiors adorned with the most amazing frescoes on every available surface. I was very impressed. When I think about how so many of these were built as a monument to some warrior or a lasting tribute to some great noble who bled his serfs dry to pay for it, heedless to say, it makes my good red blood  boil. Adam and I went to try to take night photos of the big Alexander Nevsky church. It was so lit up that I could only get a bright yellow tint, no matter what camera setting I tied. My best photo was of our shadows on the sidewalk as we took pictures.

I really liked Sophia. It seems there was some sort of honesty about being a poor city, as if thumbing its nose at the rest of the world and simply being what it is. I really think Adam summed it up when he said, "If someone told me this was a capitol, I'd say they were lying."