{"id":6650,"date":"2014-12-14T09:33:35","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T17:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=6650"},"modified":"2014-12-14T09:33:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T17:33:35","slug":"day-sofia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2014\/12\/day-sofia\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in Sofia"},"content":{"rendered":"

i went to grad school with a lot of Bulgarians (rumor had it the head of the department did a lot of recruiting here, for some reason) and for almost a decade now, i’ve wanted to visit just to see what it’s like. during the taxi ride from the airport to the city center i was reminded a lot of Sarajevo<\/a> in that you could see a heavy historical Ottoman influence but with recent socialist\/communist build-up (and wide boulevards), but here there’s a lot of Eastern Orthodox thrown into the mix here as well. the center is very navigable, either by walking for short distances (pretty much all the main sights) or by subway for anything further out.<\/p>\n

sidebar: the metro<\/a><\/strong> the subway is relatively easy to use. buy a ticket (1 lev, or about 64 US cents, no matter the distance) from the manned ticket window (if you’re not planning to ride too often, single tickets are fine; there’s a discount when you buy 10 for the price of 8). insert the ticket barcode(!) up into the slot on the center front (not top) panel of the turnstile and pull it back out when it’s read. walk through the turnstile on the right<\/em>. i didn’t see any fare control agents, but might as well keep the ticket until you exit your destination station just in case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

i did the morning Free Sofia Tour<\/a> (free walking tour — meets at the Palace of Justice which has two big lions in front) but it’s so rushed — as most free walking tours are — you don’t have a chance to actually see anything, so i went back to the hotel afterwards, got my hat (it was 17 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chill), and went back out to revisit everything at a slower pace. alas, the interiors of the churches and cathedrals aren’t as stunning as, say, St. Petersburg (or Istanbul), i think mostly because they haven’t gotten cleaned up and restored, but on the flip side, they definitely LOOK like they have withstood years of history and they’re that much more mystical because of it.<\/p>\n

sidebar: the Sofia Hotel Balkan<\/a><\/strong> (commonly known as “The Sheraton” by locals, even on signs, though it’s now a Luxury Collection Hotel) — a bit of old school charm in a perfectly central location. nice, but not amazing. the furniture is overdue for replacement. (click through all the way to get the panorama version of the first picture)<\/p>\n

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Still so foggy out. The view from my hotel room. Second picture (from last night) shows building. I'm that top floor. pic.twitter.com\/suwMvFp4En<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jonathan Khoo (@jonk) December 14, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n