Day 10 - Berlin - Sofia
This morning I had a big sleep in, while Emma got up early and met an old friend Maria for breakfast. Emma also decided that her visit back to Berlin wouldn't be complete without at least seeing the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. I was happy to give these things a miss, having seen them both not long ago, so Emma rode her bike past them on the way back to the apartment.
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| Emma's tourist mission to Brandenburg Tor |
We then left the apartment by bike for another social mission, this time meeting Emma's Australian friend Natalie for coffee at cool-bar-by-night/cool-cafe-by day, 'Luzia' in Kreutzberg.
At this stage, we had about an hour or so before we had to leave the apartment for the airport. I had the idea to try a well-known kebab place that Stef had raved about, so we rode our bikes to Mehringdam and despite a warning from Stef that you always have to queue, we were pretty surprised to have to wait 20 mins at 3 in the afternoon! Wow, though. The place is called Mustafa's, and I tell ya, he knows how to make a delicious kebab. It is made with juicy chicken and fried pumpkin, potato and other veggies and topped with feta cheese and various sauces.
We then briskly rode home and got our stuff together ready to head to the airport.
All went smoothly - though Emma's slight concern about the repute of Bulgarian Airlines was not helped by the fact that the plane had no badging, home-brand style. Nonetheless, we touched down safely and smoothly in Sofia and were promptly met by a hostel representative named Ivan who drove us to our lodgings in his early 90's station wagon.
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| Our Home Brand Plane |
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| Are we gonna make it? |
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| We made it! |
After checking in to our room (we were in a private double, which was actually in an apartment 5 mins walk from the hostel), we ventured out for something to eat via a money change booth, finishing up at a 24-hour Bulgarian diner recommended by the hostel. The food was good, and we had our first Bulgarian Salad of many more to come. Delicious and fresh, packed with ingredients and of course lashings of Bulgarian Fetta on top!
Back to the apartment to sleep and prepare for a big day of Sofia sightseeing tomorrow.
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| A pretty unflattering photo of our room. |
Day 11 - Sofia
Breakfast was served in the Hostel (5 mins walk away) until 10:30, we were told yesterday. So, in fairly typical fashion, we left the apartment at 10:25. Half way there, I realised that I had forgot my bag of laundry that I meant to take so I sent Emma on without me, with instructions to hoard some food for me.
When I got there at about 10:35, poor Emma was sitting at the table with a tiny bowl of cereal and 2 spoons, whilst the grumpy Bulgarian lady was clearing all the bread, cheese and meat away, refusing to allow us any after the 10:30 deadline.
Never mind, too much food and we wouldn't be hungry for lunch!
After finishing breakfast and dropping my laundry off, we left the hostel for the town centre, where a free walking tour was beginning at 11. We joined the tour, along with about 6 or 7 other tightarses, and were guided around the main sites of the city for a good two and a half hours. Amongst other things we saw the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (the biggest in Bulgaria), the Church of St Sophia, the mineral spring taps where locals go to fill there water bottles with the tastiest water in the country (We can now vouch for that!) and a temporary exhibition of the United Buddy Bears (A traveling procession of Berlin Bears, each painted to represent a member of the United Nations).
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| Me with the Aussie Buddy Bear |
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| The coolest bear! Notice the amazing Giraffe and Cheetah on each side. Uganda I think? |
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| Filling up the water bottle |
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| Alexander Nevsky Cathedral |
After the tour finished, we hit the tour guide up for a few recommendations, among them somewhere for lunch. He sent us to a cute little tavern serving traditional Bulgarian food, and we made the mistake, the first of many repetitions of this same mistake, of ordering way too much food. When something on the menu costs the equivalent of $2-3, it's natural to assume that it will be small. Not so - Welcome to Bulgaria, where you can eat like a king for $10! Feeling sufficiently stuffed, and having tried numerous Bulgarian specialities including cold cucumber soup, we left the restaurant to explore some of the city on our own.
During the walking tour, our guide had recommended checking out a recently discovered Roman Amphitheatre half the size of the Colosseum, of which 1/6 was visible in the foyer of an upscale hotel. Apparently they stumbled upon it after the hotel was established, and the owner of the hotel thanked his lucky stars for such a blessing. So we thought we would set out looking for it. After an hour of wandering around searching for the location of the address that we had for the hotel, we gave up and instead headed for the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, keen to explore it from the inside.
It was well worth the trip back, as the inside was quite spectacular. Although photos were not permitted, we managed a sneaky pic.
After this, it was time to head back to the apartment and refresh ourselves before the evening. After an hour or so there, we headed to the hostel, where a free dinner of Spaghetti was served every night. It is a nice gesture, but the quality was pretty ordinary. We ate some and sat at the table, where we met Om, an Indian man living in Canada, who was spending a few weeks minus wife and kids backpacking through Eastern Europe, having visited his uncle in London.
We farewelled him for the evening, and set out to a bar we found on TripAdvisor called Dada Culture Bar, supposed to be a nice little hidden away bar with great atmosphere. We found it, and it was exactly as described - really funky, little bar on a quiet street serving cocktails and all the rest. Unfortunately I decided to throw caution to the wind and order a martini. Bit of a mistake there. It was half gin and half sweet vermouth, with a shrivelled black olive dropped in the middle and 3 or 4 ice cubes floating for good measure. Not good. Even so, I managed to get most of it down the gullet. Emma's Daiquiri was much better, although I would probably steer clear of cocktails next time!
After we left that bar we made the shocking discovery that we were only a block away from the hotel with the Amphitheatre! So we found it, and went in for a couple of drinks at their lobby bar, whilst looking out over 2000 year-old ruins below us. Pretty cool really.
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| A very communist-looking Square we passed on our night stroll |
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| An artistic shot at Dada Culture Bar - procrastinating finishing my martini |
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| Roman ruins in a hotel! |
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