Sofia

The history of Sofia, Buglaria's capital and largest city and our home for the past 4 months, spans thousands of years.  It's original name was Serdika.  For a short period during the 4th century BC the city was possessed by Alexander the Great. It was conquered by the Romans around 29 BC.  The foundation walls of ancient Serdika are in this area. 

The summer home of Constantine the Great was here.  He is the Roman who got the church people together who came up with the Nicene Creed in 325 A.D.  Here is a stature of Constantine -- pretty good looking, isn't he?  Makes me wonder if the artist 's fee was based on how handsome he made his subject look.

Right outside our front window - -

 . . . they are building another metro stop.  Lo and behold when they dug under the street, they discovered an old medieval church.  So the metro will be going around it.  We peeked over the wall the other day and saw a bunch of very busy Bulgarians and their archeologist friends digging up the church. 

Here's what they've found so far: a stone claw-hammer from prehistoric times, the main street of the Roman town of Serdika from the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (4th-6th century) including the sewage and water supply system; pottery, coins, and jewels from the 8th-12th century, a church dated back to the 13th century; another church dated back to the 14th century, and a total of 150 graves, mostly from the Middle Ages.

One of the reasons that Sofia was built in this area is because of a natural spring. The Turkish Baths below were built to take advantage of that water, said to have curative properties.  It is currently under renovation and is a very beautiful building.

All over the block are spigots of year-round free water.  People obviously believe the water is good for you, as you can see below.  It's amazing to think that for some thousands of years people have been coming here to drink and bathe in that water.  And we haven't even tasted it yet!!! 

I remember looking at pictures of Quetzaltenango after I had already lived there for a year or so.  I was SO impressed with the pictures -- but, I knew the truth of that town.  I knew that if there were close-ups, you'd see piles of garbage. 

Fortunately Sofia is not a dirty town.  But there are problems in the city. In the interest of fairness, I am including a few of its realities below.

The sidewalks are the Number One pain.  Stuart, who spent a lot of time this past winter sliding around on the sidewalks, is very careful about walking now that he has learned that rectangles like the one in the middle of this sidewalk below (and which occur about every 10 feet) may tip when you step on it.  And if it is icy, that's very dangerous.

Here are a few other not-so-beautiful things here.  Almost all sidewalks are irregular like this.  Consequently, unless you're into risking a broken ankle, when walking -- look down!

 Here is a potentially beautiful building right around the corner from our apartment.

And again, this is the view out our front apartment window:

And our back window.  That's our friendly Catholic Church, replete with bells that ring often.  Stuart swears they ring every hour.  I think they only ring for Church services.  But they do ring.  Right now we're listening to see if they ring at 10 p.m.  Then we'll know.

Here's another very famous Sofia landmark, Alexander Nevski Orthodox Cathedral, constructed about 1890, with Italian marble in a variety of colors, alabaster, Brazilian onxy, etc. inside.  I have tried taking pictures of the beautiful interior so far without success.  It's dark and while I haven't asked, I would imagine a camera is forbidden, since I once tried to take a picture inside a super market, The Billa, and the guard told me I couldn't do that!!!  (Shades of the past).

The dark interior comes from the some of thousands and thousands of candles that people light in memory of their dead ancestors.  The marble, onxy, and alabaster are beautiful and the frescoes (wall paintings) are quite realistic.  I may try again before we leave.

Closing shot:  A honey market.  Who'd ever guess there are that many kinds of honey and that people are very choosy about their honey.

OMIB (Our Man in Bulgaria)  is working very hard to get the judges all on the same page before we leave.  Things are moving and not always in the right direction; but movement itself is progress.

We will see "Swan Lake" ballet tomorrow and in a week will be off to Vienna for a couple of days on our own followed by 3 days in Slovakia where OMIB will do his "spit in the ocean" effort to try to help educate Slovakians on how to deal with judicial corruption.

A Lifetime First!

Note to readers:  The below blog is only of interest to women.  Male Family:  please ignore.

I needed a pair of pants.  I only brought jeans to Bulgaria.  I forgot that almost half of the time we're here would be spring/summer.  So I and my pidgeon Bulgarian went shopping yesterday. 

The most amazing thing: I FOUND a pair of pants -- at a store right by our apartment!  Good color.  Good fit.  Only pair they had in my size.  I just went in for fun.  More amazing -- THEY. HANG. 6. INCHES. BELOW. THE. SOULS. OF. MY. FEET!!   A lifetime first!  Worth a blog!

Plovdiv

Plovdiv is another ancient city in Bulgaria with a 6000-year history. In 72 AD it was seized by the Romans and was incorporated into the Roman Empire, becoming an important crossroads city.

Below are two Roman amphitheaters. The first was discovered under a main street.  They left a large hole in the middle of the street so you can look down to see part of what once was there.  The rest of it disappears into the underpinnings of the street.

Below is a beautiful amphitheater that was not destroyed and is currently being used in the summer as an opera stage for one of the 9 opera companies in Bulgaria.  Ah, that we could have such an amphitheater in Midway, Utah (though it might limit what types of shows you could present)!!

 This is a closer picture of the Roman statues on the "backdrop."

Most of the houses in the Old Town in Plovdiv were built in the 1700-1800s. Because ground space was limited, when people wanted more living area, they simply added it to each floor above the ground floor by cantilevering it outward and filling it with windows (ariel windows).

Another common thing was to decorate the outside of the houses, as below.  This is a very beautiful example.

A modern example of outside decoration.

Plovdiv has the typical European corner house.

This is a very beautiful interior of one of the houses -- an art gallery and restaurant -- and the following picture is the ceiling in one of the rooms of this house.

SOFIA

Not to be outdone, Sofia has beautiful buildings as well.  This is the Russian Church in Sofia - just had a gold-overleaf redo. 

 

Next stop:  Slovakia via Vienna.  Stuart has been invited to speak to judges in Slovakia on court reform and avoiding corruption and Hungary may jump in.  I'm trying to get tickets to some cultural event in Vienna for May.  First off, the opera and a musical are both sold out three weeks ahead of the productions.  Secondly, the least expensive ticket available for any event is $50-$75!  Welcome to the real world.

The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville is incredibly fantastic! It was written by Rossini, 1792-1868, the composer of 39 operas as well as a bunch of other stuff. He normally wrote two operas a year but on occasion, he wrote more.

He finally exhausted himself and retired with $1.5 million dollars in his bank account - this was in the 1850s, mind you.

It is said that the music for "The Barber of Seville" was composed in 3 weeks! Hard to believe! I am just including a bit of the solos, but the duets/trios/group songs were incredible.




We are going to a very old Bulgarian city tomorrow, Plovdiv, where the judge will do his "spit in the ocean" effort to encourage judges in a one-hour PowerPoint presentation to adopt non-corrupt practices. He is finding judicial "bright lights" who are not afraid to step up and lead out. These people are intelligent, courageous individuals who are beginning to make a difference, but it is a long journey.

Overall progress in the rule of law in this country is principally due to a government who was elected on an anti-corruption platform. Fortunately, Appelate Court Judge Cliff Wallace happened in at the right time, recommended Stuart for the job, and here we are!

And Susan braved the hair dressers on Friday of this week. She walked out of the salon with BLACK hair! I screamed (a small scream) every time I looked in the mirror for a couple of days. I made two unsuccessful attempts to "fix" the color which made it worse.

However, my really terrific hairdresser fixed it just fine on Monday. So I am a MAJOR fan of Boby, my Bulgarian hair dresser.

Next blog: Plovdiv

You Probably Haven't Heard of Budva Either

Of course, neither had I. But it is a lovely city on the Adriatic with archeological evidence indicating it was colonized in 500 B.C.  You'll see below a warrior's helmet dating from that time. An artist in 1614 drew this picture of old Budva.

This is our view of old Budva.

We stayed in a lovely hotel in a new part of the city.  It was the off season, fortunately.  In high season we probably couldn't have gotten in.  Our view of our bay.



There is an island in Budva called Sveti Stefan.  Legend has it that it was first inhabited in 1442 by the Pastrovic clan, with one house for each of the 12 members.  It is currently under a 3-year renovation project.  The whole island will be one hotel with exteriors remaining old but interiors lavishly updated.  It's the perfect vacation spot for those who want to drop a lot of Euros.

Daytime view:

Our view when we finally found it in the dark!

 The old town is a lovely place -- as you can see from outside the city walls.

It would be quite a task to climb that fortress wall if you were an invader from the sea.  Here's the view looking down.

We walked the walls of the fortress and saw a little greenery outside someone's very old house.

The guard towers, as you can see, were for the shorter soldier.

This is a rectangle hole in the floor of the wall right over the entryway gate.   The shot is looking down  about 30 feet at people walking by the gate.  I wonder how many bolders, hot oil, or boiling water were dumped on invaders through this hole.

From inside the old city, it seems strange to look out and see a slew of modern hotels.

But not all modern life is outside of the city.  Old town Budva-ites don't want for modern stuff -- which just seems a bit incongruous.

Here's OMIB (Our Man in Bulgaria) enjoying the view from the fortress.

You may think the picture below is from a postcard.  Nope!  My camera.  Gorgeous day!  Beautiful city.

In the bay there is a lovely bronze statute of a ballerina.

The museum in the old city displayed Roman coins discovered in Budva -- the first on this chart was from 1 A.D., (the time of Jesus),  the second from the Reign of Caesar Agustus - A.D. 69-79.  The last is from the year 117-137 A.D.  And here is a iron warrior's helmet from B.C. 400.

And these are not the oldest remnants of civilization we've seen in Bulgaria and now Montenegro.  Is there anything in the U.S. that is as old as this helmet?  I guess the LaBrea tarpits might qualify.  But remnants of civilization? 

That's it from Bulgaria!  Tomorrow we go to the opera "The Barber of Seville."  Don't count on pictures.  We have seats on the fourth row ($15) which is good, but very bad for taking any bootlegged shots of the action!

Has Anyone Heard of Montenegro?

I hadn't.  But I've since learned the Montenegro water polo team (total of 124 players in the entire country!) won the European Water Polo Championship in 2009. 

Not only that, but Montenegrans are tall!  After a lifetime of looking over the crowd, it was shocking to find ourselves of average height.  Apparently Montenegro has one of the greatest concentrations of tall people in the world, Holland being #1 and one or two other countries coming in front of Montenegro.

Montenegro became independent from Serbia in 2008 by a majority of a very lim .44%.  Because it is on the Adriatic Sea with a lot of beautiful old cities, its principal economic enterprise is tourism.  While we weren't there principally to be tourists, we did that, too. Stuart was invited to the country to help their judges deal with corruption.  He calls it his "spit in the ocean" effort as he had some 4 hours to do the job.  It was a nice trip, however.  Really good food!

However, while we were in Montenegro, here's what happened to one of his Bulgarian judges!  Yessir!  Arrested for accepting a bribe!  (Actually, a TREMENDOUS step forward!)

KOTOR

We are standing on the docks looking up at a very old fortress built right up to the top of the mountain.  (You have to look carefully to see the walls snaking up the rocks.)  Stuart decided he wants to come to Montenegro next time on the big two-mast sailboat you can see in the foreground.

Below is a bigger picture of the walls and the fortress.  The building at the very top was built somewhere around 600 A.D.  The walls going up the mountain were built during the Venetian period in the 1400s.  Fortresses are built with several lines of defense. We located three.  The first line of defense is the city walls, second is about 1/3 of the way to the top, and at the top is the final fortress (it's almost over by then!)

My understanding is that if the enemy breaches the first line, everyone hauls their children, food, animals, and bedding up to the next level.  Since we climbed some 400 steps up to the first level, I stand in awe of women hauling several children up those stairs, undoubtedly carrying huge bundles on their backs and extra ammunition, spinning wheels, iron pots, and hubby's spare musket in their arms.  Hubby is already on the wall, of course, and can't help carry the kids!!

Below are some lovely views of the city.  You can see the Venetian influence in the picture below.

A church built in the 1100s or so.

Here's a church begun in 900 A.D.and finished in 2009 A.D.

 

Some streets are very narrow.  Here Stuart is leaning against one wall and resting his bent elbow on the other.

This is the second line of defense where we ended our upward climb.  It was very peaceful.  On the wall you can see a row of little windows where the defenders could shoot at the invaders.

Here's were hubby draws a bead on the invaders, using his ancient matchlock or musket. 

Here's the view from where we stopped climbing.

We would have had THIS view if we had kept climbing all 1350 steps.

Next blog:  Budvah, Montenegro.