While the first leg of my journey went off without a hitch, I wasn’t so lucky on my trip into Sofia. I’d been forced to check my carry on with all my clothing at the gate because of some miscommunication with the staff. I had a bad feeling as I handed over my luggage. And it turns out I was right to be nervous. When I got to Sofia, I waited at the carousel for over 15 minutes before I was forced to face the fact that my luggage had not arrived with me. To top it off, after I filled out my information, I tried to catch a train into the city and accidentally went 6 stops too far because my google maps did not work underground. So, my trip started with me, exhausted, rolling up to my hostel two and a half hours after I had landed. Luckily, the check in went smoothly, and they even offered me dinner although I arrived right as they were beginning to clean up. So I settled in with my essentials, did some writing and reading, texted my mom, and finally went to sleep.
My first real day in Sofia went a lot better. Although it was the start of my third day in the same sweaty clothes (which doubled as PJs), and it was very hot, I got to see a lot of cool stuff. And despite losing all my clothes and my hat, I still had my sunscreen, so I only got slightly sunburned. I started my day with a walk along Vitosha Boulevard, named for the mountain that overlooks Sofia. I walked up and down the boulevard waiting for my free walking tour to begin. I had some extra time, so I stopped into the first of many Orthodox Christian churches. Finally, at 11 am, the tour started. On the tour, we saw all the major sites, starting with the church I had gone into earlier. We passed the ruins of Serdika, the Thracian/Roman settlement on the site of Sofia. Then we passed a mosque and a synagogue. We learned about the complicated WWII and communist history. We continued through some parks, got to see the changing of the guard at the president’s office, stopped in front of the National theater, saw another few churches, and ended up at the main church, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where our tour ended.
The first thing I did on my own was the Cathedral, named for a Russian saint. It is a large and imposing building, a beautifully guilded exterior with a dark, painted interior.
I spent a few minutes there before heading to St. Sofia church. In addition to being a very old church, it is on the site of a necropolis and had four layers of ruins beneath it. I spend a good amount of time among the ruins.
I wandered through some parks, stopped at another church, picked up some lunch, and then headed to the National Museum of Archaeology. I got to see a treasury room, some ancient and medieval Bulgarian ruins, mosaics on loan from Rome, and a whole case dedicated to objects found in Sozopol, at the site where I will be doing my dig.
My next stop was another church, the church of St. George. This was behind the president’s office, in a nice little courtyard that was somewhat shaded from the sun. It is one of the oldest churches in the city and also had ruins on display.
After walking through the church’s ruins, I decided to walk back through the ruins of Serdika, the ancient Roman city. These ruins were found around 2010, when the city was beginning their new metro line. A few roads, baths, and buildings were among the ruins found. I was able to walk through some of these ruins, set within and around the train station.
Afterward, I visited the mosque. I wanted to visit the synagogue as well, but it was closed. Instead, I visited the only Catholic church in the city, where the ruins of the western wall of the old city were displayed.
I went back to my hostel to check to see if my baggage had arrived, and when they hadn’t, I headed out to go shopping. I got a few basic essentials, enough that I could change out of and maybe wash the dirty ones I’d been using, and then headed back to the hostel, where I face-timed my mom.
And that’s all for today. I managed to see almost everything on my list for today! I’m still exhausted from my travels, and I have to get up early for an adventure tomorrow, so after this blogpost is posted I’ll probably do a little reading and fall straight to sleep.
WANDERING 