IT SEEMED like a good idea at the time. Pop over from the Caucasus for a quick look, but fly out of Turkiye. It just wasn’t that interesting.
The idea was we'd have a quick look at Bulgaria, which for some reason we kind of wanted to see, and then travel over the border to Edirne, Turkey.
Another peek behind the long-gone iron curtain.
A mix of Ottoman, Christian, Greek, Roman and more histories.
Maybe we should have found it more interesting than we did, but six days there was probably at least four too many.
To be fair, Sofia did have a lot of impressive architecture, and some good parks.
The Patriarchal Cathedral St. Alexander Nevsky is one of the most impressive churches I've seen anywhere.
And collection of Greek, Roman, and other stuff at the main museum was worth an afternoon.
I've seen far too many museums in my time, but I was pleasantry surprised by this one.
But behind the mask of great buildings, Sofia was a bit of a shithole with far too many sketchy DFIs around.
The Banya Bashi Ottoman mosque took seconds to see, but the churches were worth a bit more time.
Big Nev's church was the main sight, but other than the museum, I just didn't find anything in Sofia particularly interesting.
Of course, I was well and truly burnt out on travel by the time we got to Bulgaria.
Plovdiv is one of Europe's oldest and most historic cities, and fortunately more pleasant than Sofia.
I did like the food, although it didn't differ from Caucasus cuisine much. Can't remember what this was called, a nice meat and cheese dish.
In the old town centre, there are many historic Ottoman era house-museums, churches and mosques, as well as Roman ruins.
A bit out of the town centre, the Soviet Art Museum had an outdoor section of sculptures....
....as well as the main exhibit of paintings and propaganda posters from across the communist family.
Rather odd and unique, but like many things I have seen in Europe, smaller than I expected.
Hindlian house museum is one of 4 or so preserved 19th-century Bulgarian National Revival homes now functioning as museums.
Consisiting of perhaps four open rooms, it was undoubtedly beautiful, grand in its time, but after a few minutes, I wondered if that was it. Much like Bulgaria itself.