How Bazaar

Yesterday our family visited the holiday charity bazaar hosted by the International Women's Club of Sofia.   The event was held at the Inter Expo Center near the airport on the east side of Sofia.  I was skeptical when Sara told me that we could take the Metro there, since I thought it did not run that far.  When I looked online, my skepticism grew, as the map on the Sofia Metro website showed this as a station that is planned for the future.  But it turned out that Sara was right - the expo center station, which looked brand new, is now the easternmost stop on the red line and just a few yards from the center itself.

We weren't sure what to expect from the bazaar.  We were rather surprised when we arrived to find a huge crowd standing outside waiting to buy tickets and to go through metal detectors (which, I will note, I had not encountered at past bazaars I'd gone to in Sugar Creek or Goose Lake).  Fortunately, Norah was in her stroller and for at least the tenth time over the past two months, this scored us priority access.  We listened to what Sara thought was a great cover of "Under the Bridge" on the stage in the lobby and then watched some little kids do traditional dance.  Norah danced along and made friends with some older girls who were waiting to perform.

The bazaar occupied two large halls in the expo center, and most stalls were sponsored by countries and featured traditional food, drinks, and gifts.  I suspect the embassies were involved with most of these, which probably explains the heightened security.  My first stop was for an espresso at the Cuban stand (because I couldn't get this at an international bazaar at home, right?), and then we bought some hummus at the very large Palestinian stand (how quickly UN observer state status goes to a country's head).  About that time, we saw someone walk by with a glass pint full of Guinness, and we quickly redirected ourselves to the Irish stall for our own pint and a half as well as some Irish stew.  On our way, we passed the American stand, which appeared to consist of a Dunkin' Donuts kiosk on one side and sales of Jim Beam Honey on the other.

I made a quick dash to Argentina for an empanada, and then we wandered through the second hall.  I picked up a tourism brochure for Ukraine entitled Ukraine? Ukraine!, and we looked at some gifts.  We passed on the opportunity to leave Norah in the child care area for 3 Leva, and eventually made our way back to the other hall where we finished off our extended lunch with some delicious Christmas soup from the Czech and Slovak stall, washed down with one more Guinness (in our defense, you don't see Guinness here very often).  We then bid farewell to the bazaar and read through our copy of Ukraine? Ukraine! on the Metro ride home.