Sofia Tourism

If you are looking for a Simon update....sorry, this post is to document our amazing Sunday in Sofia.  (this was our second day of toursim, the day before we picked up Simon!)  I must say, we took full advantage of our tourism days, thanks to our new friends in Sofia, Jennifer and Cameron!!!  We set off that morning around 11:30 I believe.  We are slow to rise people and we were still resting up from the travel.  Breakfast ends a little later on the weekend so we took full advantage of the free coffee, and had leisurely chats about our plans.

We decided to take a taxi to the museum, while we waited for Cameron to get home from church.  Then he was going to take us up the mountain.  There is a mountain in Sofia called mt Vitosha, we had heard it was beautfil and Cameron offered to take us up.  So we said, YES!  The cab from the hotel cost about 13 leva. Then we paid 10 leva a piece to get into to the museum.  It was worth EVERY penny. :)

So our first thought about the outside?  Well, it looks like a prison. :)  We were dropped at the bottom outside the gate.  We bought our tickets and started our walk up.  The view of the mountain from here was beautiful.  All along the sides were stone artifacts. Like a piece of a temple from Corinth.  I kept thinking, if this is what they keep outside, what the heck do they keep inside?  ;)1

We walked in the entryway and through miming, broken English and some experience, we found that in order to take pictures you have to pay 10 leva per camera...and we were glad that we did.  She told us to walk up the stairs and this is what we found.

WOW, what a place.  So we remembered part way through that our tour guide, Cameron, had told us the day before that this museum, was built by the communist dictator as his PALACE.  So this whole place seemed really irrie to me.  History can be very haunting at times...and this was one of those times.  These rooms were HUGE and amazing....but while this man ruled from his BEAUTIFUL PALACE, people were starving.....

 Above is a side view, meaning we walked up those stairs on the left from the front door.  Straight ahead you see one of the rooms with an exhibit.  They were divided by time period mostly. And there were huge doors into each side.

Here is a bigger view.  The ceiling was crazy.

Yet not quite as intense as this ceiling.  GOOD GRIEF, check out the size of that chandelier and those curtains.  This room was centered, overlooking his courtyard, with HUGE fountains (unfortunately they wren't turned on. 

these uniforms really creeped me out.  I just kept thinking, these are from the days when people really killed each other, like kinda face to face like.  No planes, or grenades, just one shot guns and spears.

Ruins....there are places to go in this country to see some amazing history.  This caption was in Bulgarian only...so...we aren't sure what this is.

me and a large chair.  We recognized this from the inside of churches, those churches that we whose insides we were unable to photo document :)

Pretty flowers outside the museum.  We had a bite there...it was kind of a sausagey thing on a bun and then a big water, 2 bags of processed snacks for about 10 leva, very cheap lunch for 3 people!

Here is the view from the back of the museum...there were steps up to more beauty.

Lots of places have playground equipment for the kiddos.  Gas stations, restaurants and this museum!  So Rachel and I took a swing for this photo!

Here is the back of the museum.  Can you imagine this being your house??? 

this was really old...stone something.  Sorry my history isn't so great!

check out this mask!

those doors are HUGE!

Costumes were on display upstairs.  

this map showed regional costumes based on what that region did for a living/exports.

For all those unfamiliar with the eastern orthodox church...these types of alters were inside of all the churches as well.  They would be in-front of the "holy of hollies".  Only the priest would be walking back there.  Those are icons of saints all over it.  Inside of the churches, there is a special place for the saint the church is named after.  I am not an expert, of course, this one looks a bit different...could be a special one.

Outside was a helicopter...we didn't get a close look.  

Next we went to Mt. Vitosha...it was very pretty.

Here we are by a stone river...very cool...very big.

Big rocks!

my on the rock pose.

pretty view from up the mountain.

So we drove up the mountain, stopped at the stone creek, and then got back in the car.  There was a parking lot by a restaurant and a bunch of people recreating.  It was pretty cool.

Here we are walking along the hiking paths on the mountain.

A quick picture on our walk.  Jonathan, Cameron and Rachael.

This was a cute waterfall by a little bridge.  A "senior picture" moment.  :)

YES!  

We found a little look out to see the city.  It makes me want to yell, "SERDICA!!!"

Loving my hubby's new camera and his photography "fixation".

Pose for the camera, Anna.

Us and Sofia.  What a great trip!

A view of the top from where we stood.

These siblings remembering their childhood in the mossy Northwest of the states.

Cameron's son and another missionaries son, they loved hanging out with Rachel.  They also loved picking up sticks.

car ride

We learned a lot of culture, especially about Gypsys/Roma people from our friends.  This is the top of a dumpster.  If someone is throwing out food that is fairly good, they will leave it on top so when Roma people come by to dig in the trash, they don't have to...it is right on top.  

On our way to dinner with our friends we stopped for a picture of this building.  It was built as a daycare, but something happened and it couldn't be opened as a daycare.  Now it is just a really cool apartment building.

We were a little fried out at this point.  So I tried my hand at night photography...it didn't work.  Anyway, the restaurant we went to had a very very big and nice play area for the kids, with beautiful outdoor patio seating for the parents.  It was super cool.  We need more of these in the states.  When I tried to describe this restaurant to our translator, she said, yes all restaurants have those....and I said, really?


Okay well that catches you up on our Sunday in Sofia.  It isn't likely that I will get to blog more before we fly home tomorrow.  Sorry, but you can check back for more updates once we get Simon home.  Please pray for our flight....it is a long one.