July 19, 2016 by Rae

First Weekend in Sofia, the Communist Tour (by The 365)

There is no way I can do justice to Daniel’s nearly four-hour long tour about Communism in Bulgaria, but I suppose sharing a bit is better than sharing nothing…

Daniel was born in the late ’80s, as Communism collapsed. So his personal story is what his parents told him and more about the period of reconstruction than actually remembering what it was like to live under the regime.

To start, it’s a misnomer to call Communist countries Communist. Communism was a utopia that was aspired to, but the countries we think of as being Communist (like Russia) were instead hard core socialist states aiming to be Communist. This period in Bulgarian history started after the Second World War, during which Bulgaria was half-heartedly aligned with the Axis powers.

By the way, both Nikola and Daniel shared the darkly funny story of how Russia was pressuring Bulgaria to be more aggressive during WWII, so they decided to declare war on the country the farthest from them, figuring they wouldn’t be found on the map: the United States. Well, they were found and the US bombed the hell out of them…

Another thing about Bulgaria during this time that I should have mentioned in my last post is what happened to the Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust. There was immense pressure from Hitler to deport them to the death camps. Bulgaria’s leaders stalled, claiming that they needed their Jews for reconstruction work. They stalled so much that the entire Jewish population in Bulgaria was spared, something that Bulgaria, deservedly, is very proud of!

The Communist tour started at the court house, but our first stop was the old Princess Korek building. There is no consensus on where the name came from and it is incredible the sign is still up. This building used to be a department store where certain people could buy luxury goods, which were anything not made in Bulgaria, from a Tic Tac to a Rolls Royce. You could only shop in there if you had US dollars and only a small group could have US dollars. Daniel’s parents said that shopping there was a matter of knowing someone who knew someone.

The building hides this small church. Expressions of religion were frowned upon during the Communist era, but not outwardly banned as that would have turned religion into something of a forbidden fruit. It was still something very private that you did not discuss with neighbours. Another guide was baptised in this church and it was done at night with a very small group of people. The Princess Korec building was built in such a way as to hide the cross from the street.

The Church of St. George is another example of a church that was hidden in plain sight. This is the only view of it not obstructed by other buildings.

And here’s another sneaky church.

We turned into this alley and the atmosphere was suddenly sinister. The picture does not do justice to how oppressive this alley felt.

As it turned out, my gut feeling was correct. This building that is now a night club is where agents would “interrogate” (read, torture) dissidents of the state.

This is the Bulgarian parliament, a few blocks from the Communist headquarters.

The Communist headquarters were built in the solid “Communist style,” with three types of Greek columns marking the evolution of Communism. Daniels showed us pictures of the complex being built and then of the red star being removed. It is apparently on display in a museum in Sofia. There was a fourth building planned, but they ran out of money so, instead, there was a statue of Lenin.

This is the Monument to the Tsar Liberator, for Russian Emperor Alexander II who liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. It is in front of the Parliament building.

We paused here to discuss some positive benefits of life under Bulgarian Communist rule:

There was financial security under Communism. Daniel’s parents lost everything after Bulgaria became a democracy and the currency was devalued. Things they had taken for granted, like food, suddenly became scarce.
Education was free, even if there was a lot of propaganda.
There was gender equality, so much so that Bulgaria has one of the smallest wage gender gaps in the world, maybe even smaller than that of the Scandinavian countries.
Many social programs, like a generous maternity leave, still exist today.

At another stop , we discussed some of the negative aspects of living under Communism, like limited freedom of expression, but, to be honest, I don’t remember any extensive discussion of the cons like the pros. It was more something that we gleaned as the tour progressed.

One thing I found interesting was how housing was attributed by the government and you could wait for years to get an apartment. Daniel’s parents waited for years for their own place and raised Daniel and his brother in the same small apartment where one of his parents had grown up, sharing it with his grandparents; three generations living under one roof.

From our spot in front of the Parliament building, we could see Sofia University.

We moved on to the controversial “monument to Communism,” showing a peasant, worker, and soldier.

Notice that there is more brasswork to the bottom right. Hold that thought.

The monument is in front of a skatepark. Kids tried to run up the sides, but failed.

This guy didn’t. Wow!

The statues below the monument to Communism have been the subject of vandalism. This happened in 2011. Notice Ronald McDonald!

Here it is today, cleaned up, but you can still see traces of the pink paint from another assault on it. The monument is now guarded by a video camera monitored by the “Friends of Russia.” I don’t dare look that up. 😀

I didn’t take any more pictures of the National Palace of Culture, but we did talk about it a bit. It’s a convention centre and folks are polarised over its utility, or lack thereof. Daniel also talked about the monument to 13 centuries of Bulgaria and how it was built over a monument to WWI veterans. The monument was poorly constructed and fell apart quickly. Currently, the plan is to raze it to… build a monument to WWI veterans.

We continued to this little church…

In front of which is the monument to all those who died during the Communist era. Thousands of names etched in stone…

Our final stop was this piece of the Berlin Wall…

At the end, Daniel gave us all a little pin to remember our tour by. Pins were apparently very popular at one time and he had quite a collection. We picked ours at random. He wasn’t sure what mine symbolises. мая is May, as in the month. I just popped the tiny letters into Google Translate and got “Patriotic War.” Nice little souvenir!

This post does not even remotely do justice to Daniel’s tour. We learned about leaders of Bulgaria, assassination plots, conspiracy theories, and more. The tour had a fairly neutral point of view and ended with a brief description of how and why Bulgaria has managed to move into the West, with it being a member of the EU, while other nearby countries, like Serbia, have not and are aligned with Russia. It made me realise that I cannot leave this region without visiting other Balkan states.

I have to add something I should have mentioned on the free tour post. The Cyrillic alphabet is linked with Russia but guess what? It started in Bulgaria and Russia later adopted it! I was really surprised to learn that.

Well, if you’ve done the math, I started my day around 9AM and it was now almost 8PM and I had walked who knows how many kilometres. As you can imagine, I was very glad that the tour ended just a few blocks from the hotel. I thought we’d be much further away and had planned on taking a cab home. I was not even remotely hungry so I went straight back to the hotel and crashed. It wasn’t a matter of being too tired to look for food since there was a convenience store right by the hotel where I could have picked up munchies, but I was just beat and still digesting all that pizza and cake!

Sunday was a ridiculously full day, but a really good use of my time in Sofia. I really hope it won’t be my only chance to visit Sofia, but if it is, I hit all the main points.

July 19, 2016 by Rae

First Weekend in Sofia, Free Sofia Tour Sunday Morning

Checking into the hotel on Saturday afternoon, I saw a flyer advertising a walking tour. I realised that that would be the best way to get to know the city. So I got on Google to see what English-language tours were available (I never trust anything advertised at the hotel) and found the Free Sofia Tour. It’s a great business model — you get a super high quality tour by a qualified guide who will take you to everything you need to see in Sofia and then then they tell you about their paid themed tours. I did one of those tours Sunday afternoon and hope to be back for the other one at a later day! Even though the free tour is free, I, of course, gave my guide a decent tip.

The free tour started at the court house at 11AM. It was a huge crowd and we were split into three groups. The tour takes two hours so there is no way I am going to remember everything our guide, Nikola, told us, but I will do my best! Follow the links if you want more information.

Our first stop was the Eastern Orthodox Holy Sunday Church, which was razed during an assault in 1925 and subsequently rebuilt. It was the worst terrorist attack in history up to that point, especially considering that high ranking members of the military and government were assassinated. It was an attempt to kill the king, who happened to be late to the service.

Our next stop was the statue of Saint Sofia, which is an embarrassment since Sofia was not named for this saint, but rather for a church. Adding insult to injury, the statue has pagan symbols and the woman’s dress is too revealing. Sofians are rather divided over this statue being the new symbol of their city. Personally, I love it. 🙂

This is the only Catholic Church in Sofia. It will have importance in a moment.

The tourist info centre is in the pedestrian underpass across from the Saint Sofia statue.

This is Church of St. Petka of the Saddlers. What’s interesting in this location is that you see how Sofia is a city that was built in layers and this is a prime location to see the major layers, from Roman to modern times. I was rather reminded of Seattle, actually. The church was built in medieval times from Roman structures. Those rocks out front are part of those Roman structures.

Sofia lies over the site of the ancient city of Serdica. While excavating for the new subway lines, all manner of ruins were found and delayed the project. The exposed ruins have been made part of a “pedestrian zone” and you can walk through them. We will see more of them shortly!

Behind the ruins is the only mosque in Sofia, complete with a minaret. I had hoped to visit inside, but they are doing renovations and weren’t allowing in tourists this weekend. I would have been welcomed under normal circumstances since I was dressed appropriately. Sofia does not have a large Muslim population and this is why there is only one mosque. There were others in the past, which were destroyed or repurposed.

And here is the roof of the Sofia synagogue.

So there is are an Eastern Orthodox and Catholic church, a mosque, and a synagogue all within sight of each other in Sofia, forming the “Square of Tolerance.” This was my favourite part of Sofia!

Next stop was the former bathhouse where people would come for a day to pamper themselves and chat.

I didn’t have time to go in this weekend, but appreciated my guide’s reaction when I painstakingly read the sign and said, “Oh, it’s the Sofia history museum!”

The bathhouse was left to fall into ruin, but was very recently made into the museum. The inside is apparently glorious. It’s on my list for my next trip!

Here is Nikola filling his water bottle at the mineral spring outside the bathhouse. The water is hot and very stinky!

Now, we come to the three buildings I photographed the day before not realising their importance. That one in the middle used to have a big red star at the top where the Bulgarian flag now flies. It was the former headquarters of the Communist party and now has government offices.

This is the Presidency Building and the one across from it is the Council of Ministers building. Now, we will go underground and see what that glass dome is covering!

Tah-dah! More ruins of Serdica!

This is the eastern gate into Serdica.

Guards standing in front of the presidency building. Let’s see if I can remember what Nikola had to say because it was hilarious. Something along the lines of, “There’s a changing of the guards you can see. It’s not Buckingham Palace, but it’s cute.” Bulgaria has both a president and a prime minister and the latter is the one with real power.

Behind the presidency building is a treasure, the Church of St. George, dating back to the 4th century. Apparently, it’s still the original roof?! The church is known for its frescoes, but I didn’t get to go in on this trip.

This is the national theatre.

I loved this building with its cheery colour!

This former police station became the royal palace…

This is where we stopped to do a bit of a reenactment of Bulgarian governance in the 20th century, with members of the group reluctantly agreeing to be the German and Austrian who would each become a monarch of Bulgaria, the Italian who married the Austrian and produced the first true Bulgarian monarch in a long time, and the Bulgarian monarch. Once all these roles were cast, Nikola asked for someone to play the Communist. Yours truly promptly volunteered. 😀 As it turns out, “I” did better than all the others in governing Bulgaria the longest since “I” was able to transition into democracy. Fun fact about Bulgaria: it is (as far as I know) the only country in the world that democratically elected a former king to be its prime minster!

The tour ended with Sofia’s famous Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

There was a wedding at the Saint Sofia Church, from which the city got its name, so we weren’t able to get good photographs of it.

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is amazing!

This is where the tour ended. I have not even come close to conveying all the information I got about Bulgaria and Sofia. This is a country with a very messy history and I couldn’t do justice to Nikola’s attempts to unravel it all for us. I will have more when I move to my review of the Communist tour.

Nikola gave me a discount coupon for their the Communist tour later that afternoon and then I headed off to find some lunch.

I found myself back the Council of Minsters building. I will have more to say about these buildings when I review the Communist tour!

The pink building was not part of the complex, but was tied into it.

These ramps are used to move goods up and down into the underpasses. Women also use them for their push chairs.

These are really fancy. I saw some others that were just a metal rail going down the stairs.

I went back and got more exterior shots of the Church of St. George.

I thought this building was neat, with the way the windows were craved out of the corner.

I wanted pizza for lunch, something that is so ubiquitous in Bulgaria that the guide on my next tour said that it’s practically “Bulgarian food.” So I had lots of options on Vitosha Boulevard and only had to try two restaurants before I got service. I ordered a large beer and Margherita pizza (sauce and cheese). I wish I’d had more of that tomato on it because, dang! The pizza was the real thing. Mmm…

I’d walked for nearly three hours on the tour and knew the next tour would be three to four hours, so I decided to go all hog and order chocolate cake and an espresso after eating that entire pizza. I did not need to eat again all of Sunday, not even a before bed snack! So 15CAD for the meal, including a tip, was really good value!

I like how the restaurant built its roof around this tree:

So this takes us to about 3PM Sunday, with my next tour starting at 4PM. More after I do some work today!

June 28, 2016 by Rae

Afternoon Tea at the Wolseley

I just happened to find myself in London on the anniversary of five years of running my transcription business and wanted to do something special to celebrate surviving all those lean years. Afternoon tea felt like the right thing, but I was intimidated by the prices and the fact that you have to dress up. I did a lot of research my first night in London, during those long hours when I couldn’t fall back asleep, and The Wolseley seemed to be perfect for me. It was the least expensive tea I found that was still in an upscale, by my standards, place and they didn’t seem too snotty about people dressing up. The cost was just over £30 with the service charge. I could have had tea for £10 (or more!) less at a small informal café, but I wanted the whole experience.

The Wolseley is located right next to the Ritz, between Piccadilly Circle and Green Park, but much closer to the latter.

I wore a long black skirt, a plain dark grey top, my walking sandals (not too sporty), and earrings and felt chicer than most of the patrons there, many of whom stood out from the elegant art deco surroundings in their jeans and sneakers. I was greeted like a valued customer and promptly seated and served. They don’t like folks to take pictures, so I respected that (although I did sneak a picture of my meal!). The atmosphere was comfortable. Definitely upscale, but not intimidating.

When I booked online, I had made a point to say that I have an intolerance to eggs, so I didn’t want mayonnaise, egg salad, or meringue, but a bit of egg wash or egg in a cake was fine. Someone came out to confirm that the kitchen got my order and told me the proposed menu, which was fine.

There didn’t seem to be that much food when it all came, but it was enough even though I was offered more!

I was surprised that they replaced my egg salad sandwich with a second of smoked salmon instead of something cheaper, like cucumber. All the sandwiches were great. I think the chicken with tarragon (on my plate) was my favourite, but the smoked salmon with butter was a close second!

The cakes layer had a chewy chocolate and nut thing that I didn’t care much for (difficult to eat), but I loved the strawberry tart and the cake with marzipan around it, so much so that I did accept a second piece of it! I finished my meal with the two raisin scones with jam and clotted cream.

For tea, I chose their Wolseley afternoon blend. It seemed really pale in the cup, but had a good strong flavour that paired beautifully with my food.

Service was stellar and attentive all throughout the meal. I had asked for water and every time my glass was empty, it would magically fill up.

My celebratory afternoon tea at the Wolseley was even better and more special than I could have hoped for. It will be my fondest memory of my brief trip to London.

I then decided to go check out Piccadilly Circus. On route, I checked out a menu that reminded me of something I wanted to share that has surprised me. Look at the coffee and tea prices.

Coffee has been consistently cheaper than tea. I wonder if that’s because you get a whole pot of tea?

I passed Fortnum & Mason, but wasn’t tempted to go in.

So strange to see a Mexican bank here in London.

Piccadilly Circus was hopping and there were buskers…

Until it started to rain. My rain coat is great!

I wanted to go check out Soho, but it really started to pour, so I headed home. Piccadilly Circus is on the Bakerloo line, so I didn’t have to change trains again until Queen’s Park. For some reason, even though the Bakerloo line goes much further, you have to do it in two trains. Kind of a pain when I’m only one station from Queen’s Park.

It was an awesome last day in London! Now, I am trying to work up the energy to walk the 20 minutes round trip to the nearest pub for a final pint…

I will do a sum up post of London later, as well as a write-up about Oyster. I don’t think I’ll do much tomorrow since I’ll have my luggage with me.

June 26, 2016 by Rae

A Canadian in Belgravia

From the London Eye, I headed back towards the Palace of Westminster to just scope out the area, see what I would come across, and find some lunch. Then, I would head back to Baker Street in the late afternoon to view Madame Tussaud’s, have supper, and then return home.

From the Eye, I headed back towards Jubilee Bridge. The carousel was open.

This Shakespeare quote about the Thames made me laugh.

Final glimpse!

Well said…

Lots of this signage today. I did better today than I did my first day in Glasgow when I forgot to do this and almost got creamed. I had a Canadian flag on my bag and the driver screamed at me to go back to Canada if I didn’t know how to cross a street!

The UK’s 24 Sussex Drive and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. LOTS of security, of course! But as long as you were polite and just taking pictures, the police were cool.

These arches are at the Treasury.

A few people told me to view the Churchill War Rooms, but they’re rather expensive and the queue was almost three blocks long!

Westminster Abbey.

I literally stumbled onto New Scotland Yard on my way to Buckingham Palace.

I got a chuckle at seeing this House of Fraser, a department store. When I was in the larger cities in Scotland, House of Fraser was always my reference point. I would see people walking with its bright red bag and gauge where the store was in relation to where they were coming from, then orientate myself.

Vicky, this will have to do you instead of a map. Get on Google! 😉

Aaaaand Buckingham Palace. Not too many people today.

Looking towards St. James’s Park.

I actually saw the Queen come out of the Palace of Holyroodhouse when I was in Edinburgh! She’s tiny!

I decided to head through Belgravia to Hyde Park.

There is a public transportation stop called Canada Water?!

I had my first 99 Flake! It was £1.50 outside Hyde Park, the cheapest Flake I’d seen yet!

Hyde Park is huge. I just strolled along the edge since I was getting desperate for lunch.

Came out of the park in front of a pub. How convenient! It was the Paxton’s Head in Knightbridge. I was famished and wanted something of the stick to your ribs variety. Their sausage and mash with loads of yummy gravy and sweet onion chutney at £8.99 appeared to be the best value to fill that need. I asked for a beer to go with it and the bartender actually poured me a decent sized sampler! It was a slightly bitter larger I knew would go well with my meal, so I ordered a half pint. Lunch was really yummy. I wanted to lick the plate. 😀

I was fading by this point and almost ready to head to Madame Tussaud’s. I passed a pink cab, complete with female driver, on the way to the Knightsbridge Tube station.

After consulting a map, I decided to make one more stop, Harrods Department Store.

Here is its famous Egyptian staircase. So gorgeous!

The store is very, very, very posh and carries everything you can imagine. My neighbour Caroline joked the other day that the only thing she could afford at Harrods was one cookie. She wasn’t exaggerating! I didn’t leave empty handed, though…

I wanted a Moleskine notebook for travels, but never got around to picking one up. The kind I wanted was £10.95, a better deal than if I’d bought it in Canada! I did comparison shop and was shocked that the next notebook I picked up was priced at over £300 and it was even’t even leather!

Harrods apparently has a strict dress code, something I was not aware of. I must have looked okay in my skirt, sandals, and rain coat. My coat, by the way, is perfect for English weather! I remembered from my time in Scotland that a long-sleeved teeshirt is more appropriate to the climate and that a windbreaker is often all that’s needed versus a coat. This applies to London as well (I’m visiting at the same time of year). Even when the bitterest wind blew off the Thames today, I was very comfortable without having to drag a heavy coat with me.

When I was done at Harrods, I was almost at the end of my energy reserves for the day, but wanted to visit Madame Tussaud’s. I rode the Piccadilly line to Green Park (Buckingham Palace) and then switched to the Jubilee line to Baker Street. If I hadn’t been going to Madame Tussaud’s, I would have continued on the Piccadilly line to Oxford Circle and switched to the Bakerloo line to get me straight to Queen’s Park.

Just in case I had any doubt I came out of the correct Tube station…

June 26, 2016 by Rae

Brunch and the London Sea Life Aquarium

The only plan I had for today was to see the Palace of Westminster/Big Ben and then just walk around in the general vicinity and see what came up. I told you, I am not going to go mad trying to cram in a huge list of things to see and do. I never planned to visit London and whatever I see while I’m here is a bonus!

Here’s Kensal Green station, where I waited a few minutes for my train this morning. Those stairs were heavy yesterday with my bags, and there’s another flight after!

Guess where I had to transfer for the Jubilee line?

From the Jubilee line, I got off at Westminster and this was what greeted me when I came out of the station:

I have to say Big Ben is nowhere near as tall as I had expected. In fact, I think Ottawa’s Peace Tower is more impressive. 😀 But wow! Now I knew for sure I was really in London!

First glimpse of the London Eye.

London is super easy to get around in. There are maps and signage galore. I never felt a need to get a paper map, ask for directions, or look up anything on my phone (which I couldn’t do anyway since I didn’t get a SIM card after all).

I was famished by this time so I eagerly looked at restaurant menus trying to find somewhere that would do something I’d actually want to eat for breakfast (ie. savoury and not involving eggs). I came to the pretty Caffe Concerto and was so grateful that I can afford to eat somewhere so pretty and with a menu that appealed to me. I’m being mindful of what I’m spending, but can relax and treat myself within reason. I know I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy London just a year ago. Can you see me in this picture?

I love the combination of teal and orange!

I enjoyed a ham and cheese croissant, perfectly grilled, with a side of mixed spring greens and a ginormous cafe americano that was so good I didn’t need to add milk to it. Note that the bill includes the tax and tip.

I resumed my walk after. Not sure what this is:

Here’s a name I recognise from Mexico! These are bike rentals.

Jubilee foot bridge. The London Eye is on the other side so I decided that with the weather being decent, I would do it then.

Pretty impressive!

Now, that’s a quintessential view of London!

On the other side of the Thames, this made me laugh.

Hee!

I had a lot of time to think as I queued to buy my ticket for the London Eye. You can combine a ticket for it with a few other attractions and save money. I’m still mad about losing all my pictures from Madame Tussaud’s in Vegas and rather wanted to see the museum here. Both attractions combined were pricy, something like £63! But I could do a combo of those two and another attraction for just £50. The only other thing on the list that interested me was the London Sea Life Aquarium, and it would essentially be free, with my getting a bit of a break for the other two attractions. So that’s what I bought. I “look forward” to seeing what that cost me in CAD!

After purchasing the ticket, I got to see the London Eye 4D video, which was a lot of fun. It goes as far as to sprinkle you with water!

You’d think I then headed for the London Eye and you’d be wrong. I was advised to do the aquarium first since you have to book a time slot for it. I went in (it’s almost right next to the ticket office for the Eye) and there was no queue and was told there weren’t many people inside. Sounded like just the right time to visit!

The aquarium was a lot smaller than I expected and not something I’d recommend paying full price for. I’ve just been to so many really good aquariums that my standards are pretty high. But it was interesting. It’s hard to get good pictures in aquariums (dark and glare-y), so here’s what I could salvage.

Jelly fish are very peculiar…

Sting ray.

I liked all the things in this tank, like this skeleton.

I’m a sucker for turtles!

I had fun watching the little guy on the right climb out of the water and then shove everybody out of the way!

There are sewage changes in the works in London. Right now, overflow sewage goes into the Thames.

Later, it will flow into a tunnel under the Thames.

I enjoyed watching the penguins swim.

Gorgeous!

This was good to know.

This was an interesting effect, where the floor would “crack” under you.

All told, I spent maybe an hour in the aquarium. One thing I liked was how they adjusted the temperature to the room. It was hot and humid in the “tropics” and down right chilly in “Antarctica!

The aquarium is basically dedicated to educating visitors about non-sustainable fishing practices and how to eat fish in a more environmentally friendly way. I’m glad I visited, but, again, it’s not worth the price of admission. Only go if you can get a deal or if you haven’t been to many aquariums before.

When I came out, it was almost noon and I got into the queue to ride the London Eye…

A Life By Design

"Sometimes in life, we reach to a right place by departing from a wrong port with a wrong ship!" ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Statues/Monuments

First Weekend in Sofia, the Communist Tour (by The 365)

First Weekend in Sofia, Free Sofia Tour Sunday Morning

Afternoon Tea at the Wolseley

A Canadian in Belgravia

Brunch and the London Sea Life Aquarium