Christmas Market

Christmas markets are not a tradition in Bulgaria, but Sofia has been trying to establish an annual market.  They've hosted a small market for a few years now, and this year is the second year that Sofia's Christmas market has been sponsored by the German Embassy.  We ventured down on Monday night for the official opening of the market by the German ambassador.  The market is small - 22 stalls - but a good attempt to capture the essence of Christmas market-ness, based on our experiences in Prague and Dresden a few years back. 

We arrived a bit before the scheduled opening at 6:00 p.m.  There was a band, a reindeer and snowman, mulled wine, bratwurts, and free German flags - pretty much everything you could ask for, right?   But no electricity, and no ambassador.  At about 6:40 we realized it was getting quite cold and deided that we'd better head back home. I've been wondering what the issue was - whether there was a problem with the electrical supply which delayed the opening, or whether the ambassador was late and they were waiting for him/her to throw the switch to light the tree and stalls (given the German reputation for punctuatlity I'm inclined to think it was the former).  Either way, it was a nice time and I look forward to another visit in the next week or so.