Out of the window and into the world: Sofia

As I arrived in Sofia pretty late, covered in dirt and sweat, all I did on the first evening was having dinner with my host Burak in a super posh rooftop bar around the corner - in my hiking trousers. Then I fell into bed (actually, into the couch) and slept till 10 the next morning.

I wouldn't make it to the 11 am-walking tour anyway, so I took my time with breakfast, and eventually started walking towards the city center through the huge South Park that stretches from the neighbourhood I stayed in right up to Sofia's main shopping street. And don't think of parks like in Vienna now, with neatly cut trees here and there; I'm speaking of a forest, with dozens of small paths, little lakes, and various bridges crossing small streams running through the park. Walking through, I almost forgot that I'm in a city!

In general, Sofia is SUPER green. I spent the second day actively looking for a street that didn't have a tree in it - I didn't find one.

Vitosha Boulevard (said shopping street) was bustling with people when I eventually arrived there. The cafés were literally full, except from the reserved tables, with people of all ages sipping their coffees, chatting, and, of course, smoking (Tuesday at noon!!).

(I really don't know why it looks so empty here xD)

I couldn't find a tourist information, so I got two different maps from a hostel called Canapé Connection, at which I would've stayed if I hadn't found a host. Then I basically just walked around into whichever street seemed nice (all of them), trying to evade the broken pavement on the sidewalks.

(I saw graffiti like these all over the place - what's wrong with you guys!?)

(Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia's main sight if one wants to decide)

I had lunch in a place called "Made in Home", which had so many mouthwatering dishes on the menu that I almost couldn't decide. I went for the spinach lasagna in the end, it was perfect!

I then went on to see the Sephardic Synagogue and the attached museum. It is the largest synagogue in the Balkans and the third biggest in Europe. It was built by an Austrian architect, and is, according to the map, a smaller replica of the Sephardic Synagogue of Vienna, which was destroyed in WWII.

But it was closed -_-

I took this as the final reason to stay on Sofia for another day - there was so many streets I hadn't seen yet, so many dishes I still had to try, and finally the Synagogue to see.

After a disappointingly average cake at the recommended "Cakey Bakey" I went back to the Palace of Justice to meet up with the Free Sofia Walking Tour.

The tour was good when it comes to the places we visited, because I thought I had seen a lot, but found that I had passed the remainings of the old city walls (it was called "Serdika" back then) several times without knowing. Lots of other ruins were found when the city was building tunnels for the new metro line, and can be seen almost unprotected against vandalism. A proper exhibition was announced for 2013, but that doesn't really seem to have worked out.

We also visited Rotunda church, which was built in 4th century and is now located in the backward of the Presidency building.

Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the guide's way of taking, and the tour was generally way too slow for me. We could've easily done this 2 1/2 hours tour in 1 1/2 if we has just walked a bit faster.

The next day I had to get up at 6, because Burak had to leave for work so early. The sun had only started to rise when I entered the McDonalds on Vitosha, ordered a Cappucchino, and then waited for Dimitar, my host for the night, to meet me. It took him until around 11:30 am to get to his office in the city center, which was a real torture for me, because I couldn't walk around with bags and couldn't sleep either, but I'm not in the position to complain here.

So when I was finally freed from the burden of my backpack, I went straight for lunch at "Sun and Moon", which has various branches in the city and offers "home-made vegetarian healthfood". I went for some vegetable stew with bulgur, which was lacking some spices, but felt super healthy - there would definitely be some space for dessert ;D

Task of the day was obviously visiting the Synagogue, so that's where I went afterwards. No wait - I got a tattoo first :D

But then I went to the Synagogue, only to find the museum closed again - because "the lady" who was apparently responsible wasn't there. Seriously?? So I just entered the Synagogue, which was stunning. An elderly man was talking to another guy in the front, and when I told him that I'm from Germany, he offered to tell us something about the building - for me "specially".

The construction of the building was started in 1906 and finished in 1909, when the Jewish population of Sofia counted over 50,000 people. The synagogue was opened with the king of Bulgaria being present. Although Bulgaria allied with Germany in WWII, said king refused to send "his" Jews to the gas chambers. After the war almost all of them emigrated though - lots of them for money from the Jewish Agency - to Israel and America, so that the community now counts around 3,000 people.

The architect was the same who constructed the destroyed temple in Vienna; according to my map, the synagogue in Sofia is a smaller version of it. Leon, the elderly man, told us lots of details about the candles, columns and ornaments, which I all forgot, but the architect surely understood a lot about Jewish symbols and numerology.