After a road trip in the U.S. for a couple of weeks, we took off for an almost 7 months of trip. The first destination was Sofia Bulgaria via Istanbul Turkey. Bulgaria offers a special meaning to me because it marks the 100th country to visit. Yeah!!!
We checked in at a boutique hotel right next to the Egyptian Embassy. We were scheduled to join Gate1 tour to visit three countries including Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania. We arrived a few days earlier to settle down and get over the jetlag. The hotel room was tiny but had a picture of a night scene of the city on the slope and it was beautiful.
One of the city's representative landmarks is St. Alexander Novsky Cathedral. Its size and beauty were impressive.
Nearby our hotel was the
Treasury Building and a water fountain was located in front of the building and it was beautiful.
We found a Russian Orthodox church, called
St. Nikolai Russian Church, nearby our hotel. It was not so big, but the golden roof was shiny reflecting the sunlight.
As we walked around the city, here and there, we found a few statues and structures that looked interesting.
As we walked around the city center, we saw the
Presidential Office of Bulgaria. It was quite obscure among many other buildings. The guard change ceremony was also quite simple and small in scale.
Sofia has a Roman ruin in the middle of the city. This ruin, called
Serdica Roman Ruins, was discovered while they were constructing their subway and they kept them intact underground next to a subway station.
The
goddess of wisdom was holding an owl, that represented wisdom.
Sofia has the
National Museum of History on the hill side of the city. It carried many historically meaningful stuff over the history.
As I was walking around the city in all directions, I saw
National Palace of Culture. Apparently, some people love it while others hate it. It looked interesting from the outside. I did not venture into the inside.
Trying different foods are an important part of traveling. We enjoyed their foods overall. We had a little celebration for my 100th country to visit.
After we explored the city for several days, we headed out to the next city.- Jeffrey
No comments:
Post a Comment