We said a sad goodbye to Azize at the famous Serkeci Railway Station (aka Istanbul Orient Express station) and boarded our sleeper train (just like Hercule Poirot did in “Murder on the Orient Express”) for the ten hour over night trip from Istanbul to Sofia. We booked a private cabin on the train (but folks, not the super expensive train!) which follows the route of the famous Orient Express which ran from Istanbul to Paris. It was cute and comfortable. Sofa seats morphing into little bunk beds with crisp white sheets and soft pillows. There was a tiny sink, desk and fridge. Very fun we loved it… until the border.
At 3AM there was a loud knock on our cabin door “Passporta, Passporta.” Bleary eyed passengers (only about 30 of us as it turned out) turfed out onto the platform at the Turkish/Bulgarian border town of Kapikule. A rather dark platform with a lot of armed police? guards? border patrol? all standing around staring at us smoking, and kicking at the the stray dogs that were hanging around – A bit intimidating to say the least. We were told to stand in a line at an empty window. We waited for 20 minutes until a car drove up and a uniformed guy got out and sat behind the window and started the procedure of checking our passports. Then the train set off again for 20 minutes and then again stopped and all our passports were taken away for the second check. Then one more check an hour later by a two police on the train with a handwritten list of our names. All in all it took 3 hours to cross the border !!
Eventually our train lumbered into what seemed to be a town at about 8.30 am. All our fellow passengers came out of their cabins into the corridor. We were all asking “Is this Sofia?” The time seemed right but the view didn’t – Dilapidated factories, crumbling industrial chimneys, piles of garbage and a poor dead horse dumped on the tracks – This can’t be Sofia we all said but the train came to a complete stop. Lord we had arrived. Not the best first impression and maybe this coloured our stay here for… Sofia daaarling you were NOT our favourite gal but we will try to be positive. 🙂
Okay… The highlights. Aleksander Nevski Cathedral. This huge, golden domed cathedral was built between 1882 and 1912 in memory of the 200,000 Russian soldiers who died fighting for Bulgaria’s independence during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78). It is named in honour of a 13th-century Russian warrior-prince.
We saw some stairs leading down to the crypt where there was a huge collection of Bulgarian religious iconography. No tourists but us. No one else interested in medieval religious icons?…weird. So we paid the nominal fee and went inside. After wandering around for a few minutes not understanding much, a woman approached us and asked us if we had any questions. We said we didn’t know anything and could she tell us about some of the icons. She told us she had studied them her whole academic life and would enjoy taking us around the museum.
We spent 2 hours with her it was fascinating to learn all about the hidden symbols in the icons. Many re-telling pagan stories, and making them part of the Christian story – Just like we saw in Ephesus, the layering of religious ideas, a seamless marketing strategy, persuading people from one ideology to the next. A particularly memorable example was the Greek story of Demeter, we saw her temple in Paros a cult celebrated 3,000 years ago, and here she is in Bulgaria however she is no longer a she. As the feminine symbol of fertility and agriculture. In Christianity she was changed to male and named Dimitrios now pictured as a male saint that rode a red horse. His red horse is the sign, the connection to the colour of the divine feminine. Demeter equals red. The ancient colour of birth and reproduction. The colour that symbolized harvest and growing, pregnancy and birth – now longer feminine but masculine. Women being pushed from centre stage to the sidelines. It used to be equal, but with the new religion, men reigned supreme.
St. Demetrius. He’s the new guy, gender changed everything all good to go – He had a twin brother named St. George he rides a white horse, symbol for pure and divine. The twins divided the year in two equal halves. St. George received the spring summer and St. Demetrius – the autumn and winter. This division applies to the farming year – Gergiovden (St. George’s Feast) the spring-summer cycle of farming work begins and Dimitrovden (St. Demetrius’s Feast) – the autumn-winter one.
We know George he was the guy that killed that annoying Dragon. But pre Christianity, in pagan stories the dragon was not a terrible creature, he/she just had a horrible habit of drinking up all the water in the spring when the farmers needed it for their crops. So the only way to release all this water was to shove a spear down the dragons throat and make him/her vomit up all the water onto the crops. Notice in the icons George is not killing the dragon but just making him/her release water.
The story always has an echo, it is never an original. And we learn, almost always manipulated for the benefit of the new act in town.
Just outside the catherdral was a Sunday flea market. We had great fun looking at all the stuff lots of old Russian jewelry, pocket watches and silver. Also this seemed to be the place to pick up this seasons essential fashion and home decor items a Nazi cigarette case, Nazi medal, Nazi helmet or a pic of good old Stalin. Christmas …done
The Communist People’s Republic of Bulgaria existed from 1946 to 1990. In the centre of the city are the imposing communist party buildings. But Sofia or Serdica as it was called in Roman times is a mix of eras just like all the other places we have visited. In this pic as you can see the Roman remains of Serdica then the next layer a christian Medieval church (the oldest working church in Europe) and then the communist parliament building. And before all this artifacts found from 8,000 years ago in the neolithic period. Madly love their pottery, hearts in my eyes.
In between the occupation of the Turks and the Communist regime. There was a little window for some pretty architecture. Mainly imported architects from Germany and Vienna, created some lovely squares, neighbourhoods fountains and parks. Which make for a very pleasant afternoon sitting in a cafe drinking an ice cold beer. Which we did.
Sofia was very empty a bit of a ghost city and therefore rather eerie. Where all the people were in this capital city we never found out. There were massive thunderstorms and torrential rains every evening. Apparently it was very unusual and during the day it was horrifically humid. We found it really difficult to get around too as we couldn’t read the Cyrillic alphabet for example Sofia looks like this СОФИЯ. So a C is an S a backward N is and I and a backwards R is an A, so confusing- we should have learned a bit before arriving totally our bad. Unfortunately the apartment we rented was seriously awful!! -it looked good on the internet – but in reality in a grimy old communist block, really grubby, no air con and on the fifth floor. The kitchen window even fell off its hinges. Yikes! seven days here 🙁 Pretty glad to leave not our fave place sorry Sofia don’t think we will be back. Although we know people who love you… so hunny its not you, it’s probably us.
