Learn from My Mistakes (an excursion in Sofia, Bulgaria)

Sofia, Bulgaria.  The prospect of a conference in this particular location seemed intriguing.  I hadn’t thought much about Bulgaria, and as you can see from my Vienna post, the entire journey here was an adventure.  I ran into another Fulbrighter on the bus on the tarmac en route to our plane and we chatted a bit.  We carpooled in our taxi to the hotel and then we faced the big question: what should we do now?  We had four hours until our conference began.

 Neither of us felt like really travelling into the city center, but I felt I might regret it if I didn’t.  We parted ways and I pored over a map, trying to find our location but gave up before I did (mistake #1); I then went to ask a man at the front desk about travel into the city.  He told me where the bus stop was and how much a ticket would cost.  I asked him how I could purchase a ticket, and he said I could purchase one from the driver.  Armed with this information, I took a nice path through a park sparsely populated by trees.  Once at the stop, I realized I wasn’t entirely sure which direction the city center was.  Through broken Bulgarian/Czech/English, I figured out which way.  However—mistake #2—I didn’t have any Bulgarian coins.  I only had a 20 LEV bill.  I asked the driver about buying a ticket and he shook his head when he saw my bill.

So the next stop, I got off, and through some broken Czech/Bulgarian/English, I purchased two bus tickets and waited at the stop.  In my impatience, I didn’t pay close enough attention to which bus I was getting on (mistake #3).  Instead of the beloved 94, I mounted the 88.  A man on the bus helped me figure out how to validate my ticket (it’s with something like a manually-operated hole punch, rather than an electronic stamp), but (mistake #4) I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity to ask the English speaker about any directions.  He got off at a stop where I noticed 94 wasn’t on the board.  I exited the bus at the next stop, and (mistake #5) rather than taking the same bus 88 the opposite direction (also known as backtracking), I took bus 120 which overlapped some stops as bus 88.

Once it was clear that the two paths had really diverged, I got off the bus at a busy crossroad with minimal sidewalk, minimal foot traffic, and no local businesses.  As I waited to cross the road, I decided instead to wait for the young man to cross and question him.  He told me I was in a bad place for buses, but told me the center was 10 minutes by foot.  However, since the sidewalk would end, he advised that I walk through the forested park.

I relished the walk, but soon got tired of the noise of nearby traffic, which led to mistake #6, in which I decided to take a road which veered left into the city, rather than continue forwards.  I enjoyed the quietness of the residential roads, and I more heartily agreed with my fellow Fulbrighter’s assessment that Bulgaria “looks like an Eastern European country.”  There was nothing really to see on these roads—no interesting buildings or any qualities to distinguish it much from my city in Ostrava.

I was aware that I was hungry and lost, so I did what I often do when I’m lost in a city: I purchased bananas.  I ate them for energy and gumption, and proceeded onwards.  I continuously tried to locate myself on the map, but was unable to do so.  Finally, after wandering for about 45 minutes, I approached two elderly gentlemen and solicited their help.  They located me on the map, but even then I didn’t know which road was which, because of mistake #7—I don’t read Cyrillic.  Mistake #8 was not using that moment to really grasp where I was and which way my map went.  I had established north and south, but I hadn’t probably “compassed” my map.  Anyhow, within a block or two, I finally began seeing notable sites.

Sveta Nedelya

St. Sofia

Banya Bashi Mosque

Central Baths (Tsentralnata Banya)

I enjoyed this change of pace, but still hadn’t found where the bus line was for my return home.  Contrary to my initial plan, I didn’t find bus 94 immediately in the city center before I pursued looking at old buildings (mistake #9).  I snapped some photos, and continued onward, still not properly oriented.  Finally, I decided that I needed to find my way back and began briskly walking—first the wrong direction, then the right direction.  I wanted to take a bus because I already had a ticket and knew where it would lead, however, I realized that if I were to return on time, I would need to take a taxi.  So I jumped in the back of one, the driver of which hadn’t any idea where my destination was.   (Mistake #10—not having the name and address of my destination written out in Cyrillic.)  So I continued on, finally frantically dashing into a store and asking for an English speaker.  I asked about the bus stop and she didn’t know how to explain were it was.  She indicated down the street and pushed towards it with her hand multiple times—indicating I would have to walk quite a bit.  In this gesture I realized that she was pointing to a large church—one which I had been hoping to see.  

Alexander Nevski Cathedral

I continued on, wishing I was wearing my running shoes that were stashed in my luggage rather than knee high boots which added to my already overheated self (mistake #11).  After a quick scramble around St. Alexander’s with some fumbled camera shots, I saw a taxi and made it my prey.  I jumped in the back seat and the driver seemed to understand my directions, though he repeatedly said the word “students” in Bulgarian (I later learned my hotel was located in a student section of town).  I arrived at the hotel, flushed and yet with time to change and make myself presentable to the other Fulbrighters and the commission.  Though mistakes abounded in my bout downtown and I ended up seeing very little of the city, it was a good refresher course in common sense.