Tag Archives: communism

Bulgaria, Champagne Bucket trips, Eastern Europe, short breaks

Bulgaria beckons after 28 years…

Featured photo is an aerial view of Sofia, Bulgaria, as we approached courtesy of our Lufthansa flight…

It’s time, once again, for me to write a series about our latest travel adventures. This past trip was short, but very meaningful to me. We visited Sofia, Bulgaria, a place that has stuck in my memories since my first visit, back in 1996. Now… to be frank, it was never my life’s ambition to visit Bulgaria.

As I have explained in other blog posts, I initially visited Bulgaria in 1996, because I was accompanying my friend and Peace Corps colleague, Elaine, on a vacation to Turkey and Bulgaria. I actually had no money for a vacation, so Elaine was kind enough to lend me some cash so I could go with her on our big trip. We traveled via bus from Armenia, which made for big adventures, lots of exhaustion, and many memories that will never be lost.

Armenia was not, and is still not, the easiest country to travel from by land, especially for Americans. The country is surrounded by enemies of Armenia or the United States. In the 90s, flying out of Yerevan was very expensive, kind of scary, and inconvenient. So, as someone who was broke and not particularly travel savvy in the 90s, my choices were pretty limited. In the 90s, lot of us Armenia Peace Corps Volunteers did go to Turkey and Bulgaria. I don’t know if that’s still true today. Today’s Volunteers have more choices when it comes to transportation than we did.

When I went to Bulgaria in 1996, I had just turned 24 years old, and the Iron Curtain had only very recently fallen. Consequently, Sofia was still very “Eastern bloc”. I remember it as “nicer” than Yerevan was, in terms of how the city looked and what was available. Bulgaria wasn’t part of the Soviet Union, after all. But it was still very much emerging from communism, and I don’t remember a lot of businesses or English speakers. I also remember that it was common to see people nodding to say “no”, and shaking their head to say “yes”. While I’m sure this is still a thing in Bulgaria, especially in the countryside, I didn’t see it during this trip as I did in 1996.

In 1996, there was only ONE McDonald’s in Sofia. It was in the center of the city. I used it as a landmark when I took a taxi from some remote part of the city where I’d wandered. The cab driver didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Bulgarian, but by God, we knew McDonald’s, and that was a good place to meet the guy who was hosting us. Today, that trick wouldn’t work, as Sofia is now littered with McDonald’s restaurants. However, I noticed that almost everyone we spoke to spoke almost perfect English!

Bill went to Sofia in 2008, but he was there for an Army function. Because he was working, he didn’t have much time to check out the city. He brought home an Orthodox icon, which was coupled with the painting I bought on my one trip to Sofia in 1996. Bill said he noticed things were different this visit, too, although maybe the difference wasn’t as striking to him as it was for me.

How did we decide to visit Sofia? It was courtesy of our trusty champagne bucket, which we use when we can’t decide on where to go. This time, we took cities that were offered by Lufthansa’s “surprise flights” option, similar to Eurowings’ (formerly Germanwings) “blind booking” idea, which we’ve done several times.

Instead of booking a surprise flight, and risking weird flight times that would make it hard to board Noyzi reasonably, we just put the city names in the bucket. Initially, Bill drew Dubrovnik, a place I would love to see someday. However, in June, we figured it would be completely overrun with tourists such as ourselves. When Bill made a second draw, Sofia won. So we went to Sofia, from June 7-11. Now, I’m going to write about what happened. I hope you’ll follow along. This series will probably be a short one, since we were only there for a few days, and I spent one of them in bed. More on that later.

Although most of my photos from my Peace Corps days are in storage, I do have a few from that time, including some from Bulgaria. I will try to remember to share them in the coming posts, so readers might get a view of how things have changed… Stay tuned.

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Big business in Poland, part eight

Wednesday was a rather uncomfortable day. I had excruciating back pain, so I didn’t make a big effort to do a lot. However, I did have one thing on the brain all morning, and that was having another lunch at U Gruzina. I am definitely a fan of Georgian food. I also decided to be brave and order that Khatchapouri, which is also an Armenian favorite. I never ate it when I lived in Armenia because their cheese is so stinky and rank. I can’t eat stinky cheeses.

I visited U Gruzina at noon, and was their very first customer of the day. I ordered the classic khatchapouri, which is basically just fresh bread stuffed with mild cheese. It looks kind of like a white pizza. I gave some thought to getting the kind with an egg in it, but as it was, I couldn’t even finish the classic. I washed it down with a couple of glasses of marvelous Georgian wine– Mukuzhani and Saperavi, and some mineral water. Then I went back to the room to take some painkillers, read more of Elton John’s book, and take a nap.

  • Damn… this was delicious! I was really enjoying the music, too.

They say that walking around is the best thing for back pain, but it really hurts to walk when my back is like this. The pain radiates to my hip, which makes every step difficult. It really sucks to get older, but then, maybe if I weren’t such a hedonist, I’d be in better shape.

Later, when Bill was finished with his work for the day, we had dinner at a really cool restaurant called Konspira. I had noticed it earlier in the week and it looked like a cozy place. I had no idea that it was a kitschy place dedicated to Poland’s years under the influence of the Soviet Union. The place was pretty busy, but we managed to score a tiny table near the bar area. I got a kick out of the murals on the walls, along with all of the communist era relics, and the funny “magazine” like menu with communist themed Polish dishes and information about those years.

  • Lots of hearty choices!
  • The person who painted the murals has a gift!
  • Lots to look at while you wait!
  • And read…
  • I had the “worker’s plate”… Schnitzel with three kinds of cabbage salad and potatoes.
  • Bill had the “printer’s plate”, chicken breast stuffed with spinach and more cabbage.
  • Great leaders.
  • Gas mask!
  • Who’s listening?
  • This was a hit!

At one point, we had a bit of a “waiter taste the soup” moment. The young, cheerful, energetic waitresses brought us two huge bowls of soup. The soup wasn’t for us, but even if it had been, we couldn’t eat it. Why?

“Aha!”

Anyway, we had a good time at Konspira, and I see based on TripAdvisor, it’s one of Wroclaw’s best/most popular restaurants. To be honest, while I thought the food was good for what it was, it’s basically pretty heavy Polish food. And Polish food reminds me a lot of traditional German food. I like both, but they’re basically heavy cuisines meant for hardworking people in cold climates. Lots of meats, cabbage salads/krauts, and potatoes, as well as other root vegetables. I loved the restaurant’s theme, though, because I find the communist era of the Eastern Bloc and former Soviet Union fascinating. I would have liked to walk around the restaurant and check out all of the cool stuff they had on display.

We skipped the nightcap and went to bed early, since Thursday was to be our last full day in Wroclaw. As we were walking back to the hotel, I noticed an art gallery that offered free entry and determined that I’d be checking it out on Thursday. That’s exactly what I did, too. Stay tuned for the next post!

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