Bulgaria, the Rila Monastery
I am going to Serbia today. My route from Blagoevgrad is via Sofia. At the bus station in Blagoevgrad while waiting for the bus I made a mistake of waving my hand in front of my nose because a woman was blowing cigarette smoke into my face. Seeing my gesture, the woman launched a long tirade in Bulgarian not caring a bit that I did not understand her. I could only smile apologetically to show that I should not have done that. All Bulgarians smoke, men and women, and they smoke a lot. Although official rules prohibit smoking in public places, these rules are not always followed. A typical Bulgarian is often seen with a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Even bus drivers smoke behind the wheel.
Bulgaria has an excellent bus system. The buses here are a cheap and reliable means of transportation. All bus drives are melomanes and passengers must listen to music of their choice. I am happy to say that Bulgarian bus drivers and I have the same preferences in music.
By noon I was in Sofia at the Central bus station.
My next bus was scheduled to leave at 4 pm. I did not plan anything to do between the buses, just to have lunch and to walk around the station. Unexpectedly the walk brought me to some interesting places. After crossing the river I came to a synagogue, an Orthodox church, and a mosque, all three are in the same area. The mosque was closed for renovation; it cost 3 lv to visit the synagogue and the St. Nedelya Church was free.
This church was the place of a terrorist attack on 16 April 1925 when 150 people died and about 500 were injured. The explosion during a funeral service brought down the church dome burying many people inside. That was an attempt to assassinate Tsar Boris III who was expected to attend the service. The Tsar went to a different funeral service and thus survived.
Next to the St. Nedelya Church archaeologists were excavating Roman ruins; I watched them work for a while and then returned to the bus station. That was the time spent well.
The bus from Sofia got to the border with Serbia in one hour. The border formalities took almost another hour. The road from the border, mostly plain, became interesting when it dove into a deep ravine and went through a series of tunnels closer to Niš. At 7 pm I was in Niš.
I had no reservation, just a couple of hotel names on my list and went to search for them. Both were fully booked. I asked at one of the hotels where I could stay for one night and they sent me to the Eter hotel where I took the last vacant room.
The hotel and the room looked fantastic, all for 45 euros, breakfast included. I went to bed feeling grateful for that everything was going smoothly so far. At the same time, this long streak of good luck bothered me. They do not last forever. Something bad is bound to happen. I wished I knew what it would be to prepare myself.