Sofia (bis)

Finally, Sofia. I left a bit early -hum, it was at least 9AM!- to start my tour. Knowing the museum wouldn't open until 10AM, I chose to see first the St-Alexander Nevsky cathedral. I had the cathedral almost to myself; I think I could have counted the people in it on both hands. The style was too baroque for my taste, but it is still a beautiful place.

St-Alexander Nevsky cathedral

Having gone around it, and being barred from taking pictures, I left quickly and took myself to a bench behind the Russian church to wait for the museums' opening time.

Russian Church

My second choice, the Ethnographic Museum, was the first on my way. For a modest price, I had a modest exhibition on traditional Bulgarian costumes and customs. Once again I was alone in the gallery. Since the legends are exclusively in Bulgarian, which is still beyond my amazing language skills, I was prepared to admire blindly the items exposed, but I was saved by a member of the staff ( I still don't know what was his exact job, guide, guardian?) who explained in broken English what I was seeing.

There is a special jug to trick the groom on his wedding: it is opened on the bottom, and there are four openings on the top. The bride fills it by turning it upside down; when it is back to its standing position, the wine is trapped in a special pocket. The groom must then choose one of the four openings to drink: if he chooses wrongly, he spills wine on his shirt. The guide called it Russian roulette.

There is a short video about a tradition which comes twice a year: to ward off evil spirits, between the end of December and St John (January 6th), bachelors put on a costume and a mask, they wear cowbells at the waist, and they go through every house to chase evil spirits and bring prosperity. They are awaited and welcomed with drinks.

Afterwards, I tried to be inspired at the museum shop, but didn't succeed. If it was beautiful, it was expensive (for me) and, often, bulky, and if it was affordable, I didn't like it. Since my guide was praising this boutique as authentic and affordable, it doesn't bode well for my future souvenir shopping.

My next stop, the National Archeological Museum, was both better and worse. It is bigger, expensive for a Bulgarian museum (around 5 euros), and full of fascinating artifacts... of which half are well explained (with an English version) and a quarter have no English legend. Luckily, the most interesting pieces are the best explained. Some of the English translation might make me want to send an English archeological student make an internship and relabel everything, but that may be my job speaking.

So, after looking (in peace, since there were again hardly an handful of visitors) sometimes more dutifully than otherwise at stones, burial markers, weapons, golden jewels (no duty at all there!), carved, shaped, stamped artifacts, I left the museum before midday. My whole visit wrapped in half a day. So I lunched on a public bench -I love public benches-, went out in the heat once again to brave the Lady's Market, where I didn't buy anything, and I went back to the hostel for a break... and my backpack.

Two poets