Day 69 - Sofia

Total so far 3,734.80 km - 741 Left to pedal

We had a busy morning trying to sort out accommodations and distances over the next 4 days. We are finding that there are less places to stop for the night and the few we find are not listed on Booking.com.

Booking.com offers a transparent translation service. You simply select the accommodation and communications from the host are always translated back to English. Today we had to phone and discovered that no one at the other end spoke English. We managed to get through with Google Translate but it was painful. We will find out soon enough if we were successful.

When we left the apartment, the plan was to head to the Regional History Museum- Sofia located in the former Minerals Bath building. 

Hélène bought shoes to replace her second footwear that was inadequate.

Cash only, no tax & no receipt

We then stumbled onto the Woman’s Market. It was time for lunch and we bought street food in the market. Shared a table with a former university English teacher and her musician husband. Got recommendations on where to have supper and desserts. From there, we were off to the museum. At the museum there was a small archeological exhibit on the Western Gate of Serdica (founded middle of the 1st c. AD - now Sofia). It was interesting. 

Cat helping to sell plumbing & backpacks

Market food lunch

After the museum, we followed a group of tourists on a guided tour. They stopped and we continued down a set of stairs to get accross a large boulevard. There saw some of the ruins of Serdica that we had seen earlier at the museum. Most of the ruins are indoors. They were discovered when they started digging for the underground station.

Underground archaeological complex below Largo Square in Sofia

Ancient Serdica toilet connected to main sewer in the street

Saint Nedelya Orthodox Cathedral

We were famished by the time we had completed our tour and headed to the “Happy Grill” for supper. It had been recommended by our friend David.

We passed through what appeared to be a growing number of people ready to support some cause or another. There was a large police presence and a few paddy wagons.

Protest in the street

From there we headed to the grocery store and home for a rest.  Tomorrow we head to Ihtiman, Bulgaria.