Catching up

OK, I'm a bit behind since I got a late jump on things to start. So I'm going to mention some highlights from the last couple days and leave it at that.

Saturday, we went for a visit in Pernik to see Raia's grandparents. Pernik is a cool city with lots of ancient history. Though more recently it has been a center of lots of heavy industry and so is quite polluted. It had been about 5 years since Raia had seen Baba e Diado, so there was a bit of apprehension at first. When we got there I continued the smiling and nodding and they took another stab at making me explode with food. There were three different meats: Karnache, Kebabcheta and Kuftetta (These people don't kid around). I also was given some home-made Rakia. [Those of you who were at Nick and Katie's over Labor Day weekend are familiar with this potent drink. I think this was better though.] They seemed like very nice people, though I suppose I could be wrong since I had no idea what they were saying. [Look at the American... This guy went to a top ten university? No wonder they're having problems in Iraq! -- At least I didn't refer to them as Bosnians

Moving on... Then next day we did a walking tour of part of downtown Sofia. We saw some very cool stuff including some government buildings (parliament, various embassies etc.), Sofia University and several museums. Highlights of the downtown included Nevsky cathedral, the Czar Alexander monument and the public natural springs. Nevsky cathedral is one of the most famous sites in Bulgaria and a major tourist attraction. It was built in tribute to the soldiers of different nations who fought to help liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The Monument to Czar Alexander was built to honor him for liberating Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. ( I hope you're sensing a theme here. Ottoman rule, still to this day, is a rather sore subject. There's no love lost on the part of the BGs, if you want to get someones temper going, mention the Turks.) The springs were odd, but in a cool way. We turned a corner out of a shopping mall and there were all kinds of people filling up containers to take home, right in the middle of down town. The water was really warm and quite tasty. The other neat stop was the Russian church

The city was beautiful in the way cities are: monuments to cultural ideals, National treasures, the coming together of many different walks of life all in the context of man's attempt to tame his surroundings. What surprised me about it was the lack of evidence of the many layers of history. Aside from the Banya Bashi Mosque, which our friends didn't even bother pointing out as we walked by. There is no sign of the 4-5 hundred years of Ottoman rule, let alone the Thracian, Byzantine or post-San Stefano periods. It was something like a low budget version of Western European cities, which in some ways it is. One wonders if this is the result of more recent governments trying to westernize, or perhaps there was deliberate "cleansing" of these things by the communist state. More on that later hopefully.