Bulgaria

Well after many months of group travel I have finally ventured out on my own and I have made it all the way to Bulgaria - to the capital Sofia to be precise. Sofia is a small city for a capital in fact it is roughly the same size of York - which makes it great to walk around. Must admit it is not quite as pretty as York though. Although Bulgaria is now a republic there are so many left over reminders of Russia. Bulgarians use to love Russians because they defeated the Turks on their behalf, then after WW2 when Russia moved in - communism and the associated problems with the regime were unsurprisingly not as popular. So Sofia is a curious mixture of love / hate towards the Russians. This is the Nicolai Alexander Memorial Church - Bulgarians most popular sight whilst the 1300 year monument is in such a bad state of repair there are large chunks of it falling off. The Communist Monument has all been abandoned and a skate park has been built up around it.

Facts about Bulgaria you probably did not know:
1. The country's president used to be its former King Simeon 2nd. He was disposed just before the war at the tender kingly age of 6. His full name is Simeon Saxe - Coburg
2. Spartacus came from these parts!
So after a day or two of chilling out, enjoying the best nights sleep I have had in months I took myself off, 200km south of Sofia to the little town of Rila in the mountains. Here is situated a beautiful hidden monastery. The architecture is quite stunning and its central church is covered every inch from brightly painted murals showing biblical images. It is still a working monastery and monks dressed in outfits similar to the Greek Orthodox church wander about freely. You feel like you have stepped back in time a couple of centuries. Next to the monastery locals are tending crops by hand and getting around on mule driven carts. Its not all 18th century though - look closely and you can stop monks whipping out their mobile phones to check their text messages!. So apart from chilling, have I done anything else whilst in Bulgaria. Sofia is famed for its dance clubs but I have not been boogieing. Instead after a glass or two of rather nice Bulgarian wine, I took myself off for a night at the opera. I realized it has been a while since I did anything remotely cultural so I went to the royal opera house and watched a production of Carmen. The voices were amazing but the women were all extremely scary looking. Couldn't imagine this Carmen teasing anyone. (She looked like an aged Mrs Kemp - yes that bad). I'm afraid Easter Europe does conform to all the stereotypes where looks and dress sense are involved. The tight fitting stonewashed jeans coupled with shirt made out of shell suit material is still very fashionable as are the mullets. The people though are very friendly and find my attempts at Bulgarian extremely amusing!