Sofia, Bulgaria

We had another nice breakfast at our hotel. I really like their french toast :)

We had time to do some planning last night, so had a little more structure to our wanderings today. We actually walked by a few of the attractions yesterday that were on our list for today.

On our way out we ran into the owner or manager of the hotel. We chatted with him for a few minutes, and he asked about our plans for the day. He suggested a couple more places to see, as well as a recommendation for lunch.

Originally we planned to start at the National Art Gallery. It was such a beautiful morning that we changed our minds and decided to do our outdoor stuff first. The Art Gallery would need to wait until the afternoon. It’s closed on Mondays otherwise we would have just visited tomorrow.

There’s a mosque, synagogue and church all within metres of each other, in what is called the Triangle of Religious Tolerance. I’ve sometimes seen it expanded to a square or quadrangle, which includes both a Roman Catholic and Orthodox Catholic, but to me that’s all under the larger umbrella of Christianity.

We first visited the synagogue. It’s covered with scaffolding and we weren’t sure how to enter or if it was even open. It turned out the non-obvious entrance was security-related. We had to ring a bell outside a gate and then ask to visit. We were then buzzed into a staging area, where we showed our id through the wrought iron fence. We just showed a scan of our passports on our phone which worked for us; it might be different for other nationalities.

Another gate opened to allow us through the staging area to the next room, where we passed through a metal detector and had our daypacks searched.

It’s a 10 EUR entrance fee, payable at the synagogue entrance. It comes with a self-guided tour accessed over the free wifi.

The synagogue is beautiful, my favourite out of the three in the triangle. It’s topped with an octagonal dome, with the side rooms containing museum-like displays on Jewish traditions and local history.

Next we walked over to the mosque, Banya Bashi. We had taken pics of the exterior of the mosque yesterday. We took off our shoes, Heather donned the loaner head scarf, and we entered. Entering was the opposite of the heavy security at the synagogue - it was just tourists inside (and only a couple at that). It’s a smaller mosque compared to those we had visited in Türkiye, but still nice to see.

On the way to the church of the triangle, we walked by Serdica subway station and the Roman ruins uncovered when the subway was being built. The ruins are quite extensive. It’s nice that they preserved this during the subway construction, as it would make a commute more interesting.

We also saw the murals surrounding Izzy’s café, the lunch place recommended by the hotel person.

Next we stopped by the ancient orthodox rotunda church, Saint George". It’s in the interior courtyard of Sofia Balkan Palace. There’s more Roman ruins here too. There was a religious ceremony in progress so we didn’t enter the church.

We stopped into a souvenir shop in the courtyard and bought some rose oil for the key shelf. Bulgaria produces over 70% of the world’s rose oil, which I didn’t even know was a thing until this trip.

We finally made it to the Cathedral of Saint Nedelya, the church of the triangle. There’s a 5 EUR charge to take pics inside. I paid it but it looked like most folks didn’t see the sign and just took pics anyways. The interior walls and ceiling are covered with elaborate frescoes.

We walked a little further east to the City Garden and Ivan Vazov National Theatre. There were families enjoying the beautiful Sunday weather in the park. There were lots of Easter eggs to be found, as ornaments in trees, or 2’-tall ones decorating the park. These were popular with little kids.

We made our way back to Izzy’s café and had lunch. I had a classic eggs Benedict and Heather had an avocado version. Both were excellent.

After lunch we walked over to the National Art Gallery. It’s not that extensive, mostly portraits and landscapes. Historically there hasn’t been much of an art scene in Bulgaria. One of the displays noted that artists were encouraged to go elsewhere where they would be more appreciated. The gallery is housed in an old palace, which I found pretty impressive.

Izzy’s café is the starting point for the popular Sofia Graffiti Tour. We ran into the tour a couple times over the next hour or so, as we did our own independent tour of street art. There’s lots to be found, and we were just exploring the neighbourhood adjacent to our hotel.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed by the Vagabond Beer Shop. There were a couple folks having a beer on a bench outside the bar. It was a great day for a beer, so we checked to see if they had any 0% beers. They had a whole fridge shelf! Heather tried a sour, and I had a choice of four IPAs. I tried a sea salt IPA from Germany. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather.

Later we had dinner at the hotel. It was a fun day wandering around Sofia. It’s a compact core and very photogenic.