Sofia

Exiting Serbia we got our first passport stamps - Fantastic! Ben was particularly excited. First stamp he's managed to get in his British passport. Getting into Bulgaria wasn't the usual hassle-free experience one expects with the EU, with about 5 stops to get disinfected, have passports checked, insurance checked, pay road tax etc... Bulgaria is also an hour forward, so as we drove off into Bulgaria it was suddenly quite late. And although the driving was on the improve, the roads weren't, with lots of pot-holes to negotiate.
So we got to Sofia quite late. The first reasonably central hotel looked good (Bulgaria doesn't really "do" camping), and we popped in there. The attached restaurant had a singer with an amazing mullet, a retro-synthesizer style, and the speakers turned up to 11. So dinner may have tasted nice enough, but the ears did bleed a little...

Next day we set out with a hiss and a roar... well, okay, we managed to get out of the hotel before midday at least. We popped into Sveta Nedelya, a church bombed in 1925 by communists trying to assasinate the king (failed, but killed lots of innocents). Orthodox doesn't seem so dissimilar from catholic, but we're no doubt missing fine points.

Next we found St George's Rotunda famous for hosting the Serdica conference on Christianity in 343 (okay, the theology geek comment is added purely for the Rev Dr David Clark). Sofia was a thriving city by the name of Serdica in Roman times, it changed names a couple of times until before settling on Sofia in the 14th century, after the name of its most famous church (we popped in there too). St George's Rotunda has some amazing (very old) frescos, but, like all their churches, you aren't allowed photos inside - so here's the outside:


Sofia's main picture-postcard is St Alexander Nevski Cathedral, with its gold domes. It's also the biggest cathedral in the Balkans:


That being plenty enough churches we got Ben his Bulgrian drink, Rakia. In contrast to the difficulty of the previous countries, in Bulgaria there are a long list of Rakias to have with your appetiser-salad. If you don't want milk, which seems a popular bar drink here.


We moved onto dinner, with which Ben inflicted more Bulgarin culture on Joanna. But enough of the yoghurt jokes. There was a stage show of Bulgarian music and dancing, which was...


In other achievements: into the 2nd trimester and Joanna finally manages to finish a plate of food:


Next stop: Monastery in the middle of nowhere.