So So Sofia

We had a quick overnight visit to Sophia.  For a capital city it was fairly low key and although pleasant enough didn’t hit any keys with us.  We arrived about midday and treated ourselves to a nice hotel.  We dropped off our bags and hit the streets. 

View from our hotel

We first came upon a bizarre monument that from what we could piece together seems to have been built after tearing down a memorial to WWII soldiers.  Very strange but then Bulgaria did fight against the Russians so there would have been no love lost.

One of the ugliest monuments

However Western consumerism is well entrenched in the city.

City park - note the multinational food brands

The streetscape was looking a bit grim until we came upon the National Theatre and the Art Gallery.

National Theatre with Christmas decorations

Sculpture outside the art gallery

Then we came to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral which was quite impressive.  There was a flea market along the boulevard leading up to the cathedral with amazing WWII paraphernalia, old violins and a surfeit of icons.

Alexander Nevski Cathedral in the late afternoon sun

Icons on display

The short winter days meant our sightseeing of the city was brief but we did discover a few nuggets of interest. 

Bulgaria is doing it tough.  The countryside is poor and the cities run down outside the tourist areas.  The population is haemorrhaging, losing 5% annually for the last 20 years.  Politically and economically it has struggled to make the transition from Communism.  In recent years the economy and government corruption has improved.  We could see a lot of potential in the country.  The people are lovely and if they could just hang in there and keep the recent improvements growing, I suspect the next 10 years will see Bulgaria as an up and coming Eastern European country.  At least I hope so.