The Mall

Several shopping malls have sprung up around Sofia in recent years.  I’ve been to the Serdika Mall, which is within walking distance of our apartment, but today was my first visit to THE MALL, Bulgaria’s largest shopping center.  This shiny rectangle of glass and steel is located near the airport on Tsarigradsko Shosse, one of the city’s major boulevards, and contains 178 stores.

We looked in just a few shops, but I was able to see quite a bit of THE MALL.    I saw a number of stores that would be at home in an American mall – Columbia, Samsonite, KFC – and many others that seemed to be the European chain equivalents to typical American brands (including a toy store with the biggest selection of Legos I’ve ever seen).  The stores present quite a contrast to the small, local shops near us on Yanko Sakazov Boulevard – they are fairly upscale and most of the store names are in English.  It is Christmas season at THE MALL, and it was kind of fun to see the lights, the reindeer, and the trees. 

THE MALL has a Starbucks, and even though it seems cliché to be Americans walking into a Starbucks in a foreign country, we decided to stop for a drink and snack.  It just sounded good, and looking at the menu board in Bulgarian and English, I realized why – I really haven’t had brewed coffee in over two months.  I ordered whatever a medium is called at Starbucks (grande?) in dark roast with a bit of milk and thoroughly enjoyed it. It smelled good, and it tasted good.  I have absolutely no complaints about Bulgarian кафе and am happily working my way through a pound of Turkish coffee I brought back from Istanbul, but there was something particularly delicious and reassuring about my cup of dark roast today.  Being abroad, maybe it just provided a connection to the holiday season back home. 

In related news, if we’re reading the information correctly, Sofia’s Christmas market opens tomorrow. The Christmas market is a relatively recent development in Sofia, and is sponsored by the German embassy.  So, fingers crossed....