Halfway down the Danube

Sofia, briefly

So I was in Sofia for three days.

My first time. We've visited Bulgaria before, but never the capital.

It was okay. About a million people, maybe? Not trashed by megalomaniacal Communism, like central Bucharest; not bombed flat twice, like Belgrade. So, more nice old buildings in the center. Several pleasant parks, with lots of fountains and statues.

In terms of economic development at-a-glance -- things like number of shops, variety of goods in shops, how many cars, how many new cars, how many McDonalds, how many cranes visible on the skyline -- I'd say it looked roughly equivalent to Bucharest. There's a nice pedestrian area, which Bucharest lacks. (Buch has a pedestrian area, but it isn't nice yet.) Bucharest has more cars; Sofia has better drivers.

Skirts are shorter, and styles are wilder. I saw at least a dozen young women with visible tattoos, which is more than I saw in a year in Romania. Not sure if this has any significance. Just... noticing.

There are several impressive Orthodox churches and one impressive mosque. (~10% of the population is Muslim.) Sofia is in a mountainous corner of the country, so it gets cool in the evenings. Very pleasant to walk down the main shopping street in the evening with an ice cream cone in hand, a cool breeze blowing, and a full moon rising over the mountains.

The macroeconomy is interestingly similar to Romania's. More about this anon.

Short version: I liked it just fine, and would go back. Recommended.

Posted by douglas at September 8, 2006 11:12 PM