Sofia.

No, the title does not indicate that we've chosen a baby name :) But we did manage to get away this past weekend for 2 sun filled days in Sofia, Bulgaria with our friends Josh and Angela. We originally planned on a trip to Italy for wine tasting but had heard the weather was going belly up, so Josh and Andy found a last-minute deal on Swiss Air (our fav) and off we went to one of the oldest cities in Europe.

We were super fortunate to have a friend (Matt Thompson of Walla Walla) living in Sofia for a grad-school research project. Matt had spent 2 years in Bulgaria in the Peace Corps, so his fluent Bulgarian came in very handy! He also took us to some great local restaurants and bars that we wouldn't otherwise have found.

Matt & Andy

Sofia wasn't the biggest / most exciting city we've visited (Pop. 1.3 million), but having been an epicenter of Christianity since the time of the Roman Empire...there were plenty of churches to occupy our time. We managed to pay a couple of visits to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (built in the early 20th century), as well as the Church of St. Georgi (among the oldest Christian churches in the Balkan peninsula dating back to 4th century), the medieval church of St Nedelya, and last but not least, the tiny Church of St. Nicholas the Miracle-Maker (we paid 1 Leva each to enter - about 50 cents - only to find out the room where we purchased the tickets was actually the only thing to see :)

Alexander Nevsky from the front:

Us on the side of Alexander Nevsky...Gives you an idea of how huge the church was:

St. Georgi

St. Nicholas

When we weren't wandering through endless cathedrals, we were eating heaping plates of local Bulgarian food - i.e. lots and lots of meat!

Not kidding about the heaping part!

On Saturday night we had an especially great experience at a local restaurant half-way up the Vitosha mountain. They put on a local dance presentation which included walking on hot coals (them, not us)....it sounds like a major tourist trap type of event but we were practically the only tourists in all of Sofia!

We may have eaten this for breakfast on our last day....


We had a great time - and especially enjoyed the sunshine and 70 degrees. Next weekened we're off to Scotland and Cambridge for Part II of the Ryan Adams European Groupie Tour. . . More to come.