I woke up feeling significantly better on Monday, June 10th. Bill and I decided to walk back down to the centrum and pick up some new art and souvenirs for his grandchildren. But first, we needed breakfast. So down we went to the big restaurant on the third floor of Grand Hotel Millennium, where we had our usual room temperature repast.

While we were having breakfast, I couldn’t help but overhear two American men talking. I mean, everybody in the vicinity who didn’t have hearing problems could hear these guys… One of them was talking about his diabetes and how he takes Ozempic to control his blood sugar. The other guy was talking about similarly personal stuff. It always amazes me how completely unaware some people are when they’re in public. I see it most often with my fellow Americans, who speak loudly enough for everyone to hear what they say. It’s kind of obnoxious behavior… and trust me, I know all about being obnoxious.

After breakfast, we went to the room to prepare for the day. We ran into our very nice housekeeper, who asked us if we were checking out the next morning. We said we were, and gave her the approximate time we thought we’d be leaving. She said if she didn’t see us, that we had safe and pleasant travels. I was very impressed by how kind she was during our stay.

I put on a pair of shorts so I wouldn’t get so hot and sweaty during the day’s walk. Then we got going, and made our way to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, where I knew we could find art for the house. We made one stop at a Coffee Brothers for some fresh orange juice and a potty break. While we were there, we saw two more Bulgarian women passing us who were having very loud conversations, seemingly on the phone as they charged down Vitosha Boulevard at top speed. The women weren’t with each other. They were going in different directions, several minutes apart. One of them carried a ladle as she screamed into her cellphone and walked very fast down the crowded shopping district. I’m not sure what was going on with them.

We also saw the lovely violinist again. The same young woman who played so beautifully on Saturday came back on Monday to busk. I definitely liked her music better than the saxophonist who kept playing the same thing over and over again while we were at the Vitosha Street Bar & Dinner on Saturday afternoon. I love listening to talented musicians play music on the street. It adds so much character to European cities. I especially like buying their CDs. Unfortunately, the violinist didn’t seem to have any for sale.

Because we were going to buy some art, Bill decided to stop at an ATM. We went back the Ivan Vazov National Theater again, and I got a few more photos of the iconic building. This time, no one was playing basketball in front of it. There is a handy cash machine in the park like area around the theater.

We finally made it to the cathedral, where I noticed there weren’t as many people selling art as there had been on Saturday. We went to one stand when I noticed art that caught my eye. The colorful paintings were mostly of florals, but I noticed a couple of landscape paintings that reminded me of Sozopol, a Black Sea beach town Elaine and I visited in 1996. As soon as we approached the art, an elderly gentleman came around to speak to us. He spoke some English, although not as well as the much younger man who was with him.

It turned out the paintings that had caught my attention were of a different Black Sea town called Nesebar, which isn’t far from Sozopol. I’ve never been to Nesebar, but like Sozopol, it’s near Burgas and Varna, and is now a major resort town. The younger man told us that the paintings we were interested in were done by an artist named Violeta Stanoeva. She is an accomplished Bulgarian artist who has shown her work in France. Here is a link to her Instagram.

Bill had to go get some Bulgarian lev, so I stayed and talked to the younger guy, who kept singing the praises of the artist and the Black Sea coast. I was struck by how friendly he was, and I didn’t get the sense it was just because we were buying two paintings. I promised him that we would give a good home to Violeta’s paintings. Now that they’re hanging in my dining room, I kind of wish I’d bought another one. I really like her use of colors. I saw a few paintings on her Web site that I think are magical.

After we bought the paintings, we decided to have lunch. I noticed there was an Armenian restaurant called Egur Egur, very close to the cathedral. It’s not very often that I get to have Armenian food anymore, so we decided to go there for lunch. The restaurant is located in what used to be a music conservatory. There is even framed sheet music by the front door.

When we approached, a rather unfriendly waitress who didn’t seem to speak English pointed to a table. I would have tried Armenian with her, but she appeared to be a local, and I think she was the only one we encountered who didn’t speak English to us. I actually found it kind of refreshing… at least until she started yelling at one of the other servers, a very thin, Slavic looking young woman who managed to stay stoic. I’m not sure what the yelling was about, but it definitely changed the ambiance a bit.

I was excited to see that they offered khorovatz (Armenian kebab-shashlik-barbecue). Bill tried it for the first time in November, when we visited Armenia. It’s a very simple dish, but delicious if it’s prepared properly. So we ordered that, along with a couple of Czech beers and San Pellegrino. Bill had chicken and I had pork, and I actually asked for it by its Armenian name, which the waiter then translated for us. I don’t think he was an Armenian speaker, although he definitely looked like he could have been. Lunch was delicious, but more than we could eat! We probably should have just picked one and split it.

My only complaint about our experience at Egur Egur is that the chairs were uncomfortable for those of us wearing shorts. The hard wood dug into the backs of my thighs. A cushion would have been welcome. Otherwise, it was a very nice lunch. The waiter packed up our leftovers, although we ended up discarding them, because we couldn’t get them to refrigeration quickly enough. What you see in the last picture cost about $48.

After lunch, we started to head back toward Vitosha Boulevard, so we could find some gifts for the grandchildren. As we were walking, I noticed the yellow brick road and how striking it is in a city where there are a lot of drab looking communist era buildings. I read up on the history of the yellow brick road last night, and how it was put in to make Sofia look more like a capital city. Sofia is also unusual in that it has a church, a synagogue, and a mosque all within spitting distance of each other, and somehow they manage to coexist peacefully. If only the rest of the world could be like Sofia, when it comes to religion.

We went into a gift shop on Vitosha Boulevard and found some magnets, a mug, and a few little trinkets for the kids. That’s also where I found the wood carving pictured with the art by Violeta Stanoeva. I was lucky to spot it, as it was kind of tucked in a corner in the upstairs of the shop.

After our shopping was done, I was kind of wanting to take a cab back to the hotel, but we ended up walking… All told, it was about five miles. That’s not bad for someone with a cold and a pretty slack fitness routine. Below are a few more photos. I wish we could have seen more during our brief trip, but we have reason to go back. It better be sooner than 28 years, though, because in 28 years, I’ll be 80 years old!

One place I wish we had visited is the TSUM (Central Department Store), which was a government store that used to be THE place for Bulgarians to buy stuff. The outside of the store has an impressive facade that looks like it came straight from the fanciest communist architect, ever. I went there in 1996, when it was still operating more or less the way it did in communist times. Since then, it was renovated and turned into a mall, and right now, the mall is pretty empty. People just go there to use the clean and free bathroom facilities now. But I do remember going there and buying stuff in the 90s… and thinking it was the picture of a communist era shopping mecca.

Armenia had a similar place called GUM, where I bought some things when I lived there. Now, what was once GUM is a regular store where one can buy rugs. There is also a GUM shuka in Yerevan, Armenia that sells fresh food. It’s not the same thing as the GUM store, though. I’m writing of a Soviet era department store.

I read that the architect of the TSUM was Kosta Nikolov, and his son was murdered by the Gestapo in Germany in the 1940s. Nikolov managed to get ahold of his son’s remains and properly bury them. He kept locks of his son’s hair and a finger as keepsakes. Then, as the TSUM building was being constructed, the architect embedded a box with his son’s remains in it within the building. Nikolov was following a Bulgarian folklore tradition that embedding a living person or a shadow of a living person in a building makes it stronger. Many people thought this was an urban legend until 2001, when workers doing the renovation actually discovered the remains. They decided to leave them embedded there.

Anyway… it sounds like TSUM eventually became something that was no longer a store for the people, but rather for people with the most money. That’s too bad. Especially now that it’s basically an empty shell of what it was… and is now owned by investors. At least I got to see it, though… even if it was years ago.

We decided to have room service on Monday night. The hotel makes it easy, by allowing people to order food through the TV. I had a salmon filet with asparagus and salad, while Bill had a club sandwich. We split a bottle of Bulgarian Chardonnay, sparkling water, and a piece of pretzel cheesecake. I think the cheesecake, like the other desserts we had, was the highlight.

One more post ought to do it for this series, then I will write my usual “ten things I learned” post. Stay tuned!