Plovdiv (the beginning)

Being advised to take the bus to Plovdiv rather than the train (the bus being reputedly faster and air-conditioned), I endured 2 hours and a half of mashed knees, cramps, sleeping spells and "never again!".

But everything was forgotten the ;inute I was shown my dorm, which is blessedly air-conditioned... (It is more than 30 degrees outside).

The hostel is less fun than their sister hostel in Sofia, but it is still friendly and welcoming. Though smaller, I met again with some of the travelers who were in Rila with me (some arriving before me, and some after).

We have again all-you-can-eat breakfast, a modest dinner, and free internet.

I spent the morning visiting the city before the main heat, I don't know how successfully, and I am spending the afternoon holed up in my room and trying to organize the next few days: I am leaving Plovdiv tomorrow morning, but I am only expected in Brasov the 10th... and I can still change that reservation. Shall I go to Varna and the Black Sea, then take an overnight train to Bucarest? Or should I try to go straight to Romania and spend more time in the Transylvanian Mountains? I have a few more hours to decide.

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

Rila

Since we were enough to form a group, we went to the Rila Monastery yesterday. Basically, we were driven there by two Bulgarian in their car (we were enough to fill two cars). We went first to the cave where St Ivan of Rila spent years as an hermite; it is... cramped. Nowadays, the main rock shelf is an altar where people can light candles. Around the cave, people put bits of paper with prayers in every crevice possible; some are written on paper, some on anything: piece of cigarette pack... To leave the cave, two choices: to go back down the stairs, where the ceiling is so low one cannot stand, or to go up a ladder and through a natural chimney -which I had to decline, being to tall to fit in it!

It is a short hike to this place, up the mountain. There is also a small spring, also surrounded by prayers, with a cup to drink from it. In the monastery itself there are numerous fountains, and all have a cup or a ladle to drink from them.

We were lucky, I think, to share the visit with few tourists. It meant being able to move freely and see things quietly. Of course, women had to have their shoulder covered, which I took care of by having a pareo (Eric, you brought that one back from Hawai!) with me.

There are several exhibitions inside the monastery, each with a different entrance fee, which starts to add up! I chose to see an exhibit a farming implements and the gallery of icons, but maybe I should have chosen the main museum and the bell tower! But I saw an icon of St Demetrius of Thessaloniki from the 19th century.

The church is beautiful, very orthodox (hum... the fact that it is an orthodox monastery may explain it!). I think that every inch of wall or ceiling is covered in frescoes or icons. Inside and out.

I had my first Bulgarian lunch, where I avoided the traditional salad but still fell prey to the ubiquitous goat cheese: having asked for potatoes with cheese, I got fries with grated goat cheese (a first for me). People who know me know of my great love -or lack thereof- for goat cheese.

The journey back was as uneventful as the journey in; there are many roadside vendors with watermelons and, near the mountains, selling honey, sometimes with nuts in it. The villages we drove through are a mixture of decrepit houses and beautiful greenery, and we saw storks (cigognes) in their nest in one of them.

Now, it's time to catch some breakfast, and maybe a few more minutes of sleep...

Breakfast conversation

Indian guy sitting at the table: - And you, where are you from?

Irish guy: - Oh, from Ireland, and I'm walking around the world. I started in Scotland and I'll go to New Zealand.

French guy who arrived this morning: - Hey, are you that guy walking around the world? I saw you in Hungary, I'm walking around the world too!

Australian couple: - And we thought our friends bicycling around the world were adventurous...

Me: - Hi, I'm taking the train for three weeks and I suddenly feel like I'm touring my backyard...

Sofia!

First, and that's a new one for me, I have to tell you that my writing interface adapted to the local country: it's in Cyrillic characters. It's lucky that I know the layout. But if I press "delete" by mistake, it's going to become a lot less fun!

And of course, I'm looking forward to having the same problem in all the countries I'm going to visit.

Sofia.

I landed safely yesterday evening, and I was welcomed by the heat -at least 10 more degrees that what we have been having in Paris lately. Having the right instructions, I bought the right bus tickets, took the right bus, went out at the right stop (when there is a Starbuck's on the left and a park on the right), and started looking for the right street. Helpfully, street signs are often written in both Cyrillic and English characters. (But thank God I took Greek and not Latin at school!)

The city struck me as sad. Maybe I was in the wrong place to start a visit, but the first buildings I passed were dark and dirty, some in a sorry state. Some buildings are run-down. And in between the official buildings are tall, clean, and really, really stand out.

Maybe it was the weight of my backpack weighing on my imagination! My real visit of the city may yet change my mind!

But if the city looks outwardly sad, the people are everything but. I got great help from a passing lady, and the people at the hostel are outstanding. In half an hour, I had a bed, a locker, a shower and instructions on what to do -by day, and by night!- in that order. I'm also signed-up on a visit to the Rila Monastery today, although we will only go if we are enough.

The day between

Got up at 4:30 AM to be on time at the airport. Result, I was early -and sleepy. I used successfully my wiremesh: a special net to put my backpack in.

First leg to Vienna: ok. I'm still wonder-struck by the power of a plane tacking off.

Went to the city centre to pass the time. Bought the wrong ticket. Obviously, I haven't forgotten where things lay (and I found myself in front of our favourite silberschmuck shop after a few minutes!).

Back to the airport for the final leg to Sofia. And hopefully (but writing after the fact, I know it doesn't happen), a full night's sleep.

The day before

I'm already leaving tomorrow, and I'm scrambling to finish everything on time! Packing is not really the problem -I have the backpack on one side, stuff on the other, whatever can't fit stays behind.

But I have still to decide which pages of my travel guides I'm going to copy so that I can leave them behind -without forgetting important informations.

So, back to scrambling.