I had originally planned to go back to the hotel for a bit, but once I was out I figured I may as well head to the city center to do some exploring before an afternoon meeting to look at some apartments. I made my way to the ticket kiosk and managed to communicate that I wanted to buy two bus tickets, but had no luck asking which bus would take me to the university. So, I approached a couple of younger people and unleashed one of my handful of Bulgarian phrases to ask if they spoke English. The answer was yes, which was great, but they knew very little about Sofia's bus system. Fortunately, a young woman overheard the conversation and told me to go to the second stop on the 306.
Onboard the bus, not knowing how to validate my ticket in the little ticket-validating gizmo, I managed to enlist the help of an older man (who I suspect might have known less English than I know Bulgarian) by asking "please, where?" in Bulgarian while waving my ticket. Turns out I was inserting the ticket in the right gizmo, but unlike gizmos elsewhere that stamp your ticket with the time, you lift a lever on a Sofia gizmo to manually punch four holes in your ticket. So, lesson learned and crisis averted.
The 306 dropped me right outside Sofia University, where I will start lecturing next week. I spent the next two hours or so wandering from the university toward the heart of the city center. It was quite enjoyable. Central Sofia has some impressive churches, grand buildings, ancient ruins, and nice parks. It doesn't feel as manicured or tourist-oriented as some other European capitals, but it is pleasant and seems to have potential. One of the more interesting aspects is the ruins, some of which date back to Roman times. These are mostly below street level, and some are incorporated into the many under-street walkways (which are also full of shops).
I had a nice lunch at a restaurant in the courtyard of one of the government buildings, and then walked back to the university to meet our property agent, Iana, to begin our apartment search. The four options I looked at were all in an area known as Doktor's Garden, north and east of the university. This area was recommended to us by several contacts since it would be walking distance to the univeristy, parks, and the city center. I'm hopeful that one of these will work out.
On the bus ride back to the hotel I was able to see one of Sofia's huge parks that sits on the south side of the boulevard. The streets of Sofia don't seem very conducive to jogging, but this park might be a prime spot.
By the time I got back to my room, caught up with the world back home, and got cleaned up, it was quite late and I was quite hungry. For dinner I had grilled Balkan trout, which was very tasty, and a strangely sweet lemon beer that would make Leinie's Summer Shandy look like a dark beer. Dinner was, of course, followed by the obligatory rakia.
It was a good day. I'm feeling good about the apartment search, and about Sofia in general. It's always a challange to be in a new place, especially one where you don't speak the language or even understand the alphabet, but also good to keep it in perspective - lots of people face that every day and without the resources I have to cope with it. It's also always reassuring to me to get out in a new place and realize that people all around the world are pretty much interested in the same things - making a living, enjoying the little things, spending time with friends and family... There's something reassuring about that.
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| Alexander Nevski Cathedral |
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| Sofia University |
Sounds like Sofia is much like Goose Lake.
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