ZOOM OUT: Solo Adventures in Sofia
My 48-hour adventure in Sofia, Bulgaria - a literal battle ground for the ages.
Sofia, Bulgaria.
A literal battle ground for the ages. The city has left a wild array of culture shown, in my opinion, through their architecture.
After being an ancient war torn land, it was conquered in order by: the Roman Empire, the Slavs, the Bulgars, the Byzantine Emperor, the Bulgars again, the Ottoman Empire, the Russo-Turkish War resulted in the Third (and final) Bulgarian Empire, then in 1946 the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc becoming a Socialist State, and finally the Communist Party ended in 1989, and the country officially became a “Democratic” State.
Fast forward to 2018, and Bulgaria was ranked the most corrupt country in the European Union.
It’s a mouthful, I agree. Dictatorship’s and Communism have left Bulgaria in a unique place. The country has been in a demographic crisis since the early 1990s. The majority of children are born to unmarried women, 1/3 of all households consist of one person, and 75% of families do not have children under the age of 16. To use the word “bleak” would be an understatement.
So, why would I bother visiting Sofia, Bulgaria? I’m glad you asked…
Remember last week when we talked about having a “ZOOM OUT” experience to Romania? Well, this was part of that experience.
Here’s an idea for your next trip: instead of picking a typical place that you and everyone else would want to visit — Italy, Greece, France — pull up Google Flights, type in your local airport, and then hit “explore”. What awaits, on the other side, is an unexpected journey; this is the moment you “zoom out” on the map and see what destinations are available at a lower price. “Holy shit, I can hop over to Estonia for that price?!” My trip to Romania started from a “zoom out” experience…
I recommend going back and reading ZOOM OUT: MY ROMANIAN ROMANCE IN TRANSYLVANIA to get caught up.
Anyway, back to Bulgaria…
I knew I wasn’t going to spend all 12 days in Romania, so I carved out some time to hop around to some other harder-to-get-to places. Originally, I was supposed to go to Istanbul, but the dates didn’t line up with the flights, so I decided on Sofia, Bulgaria, since it’s a hop, skip, and a jump from Bucharest. Additionally, working in and out of the film industry for the last decade, I wanted to visit Sofia because it became a huge filming location for both movies and television; Bulgaria offered a very generous tax incentive to film there, and it’s an extremely affordable place to live, so that had a large appeal for international productions.
This is one of the special things about “ZOOMING OUT” when deciding on where to go — you aren’t planning a massive vacation to somewhere off the beaten path, you’re just planning a couple of days, so, really, what’s the worst that could come out of it?
If I’m being honest, the FIRST thing I did in Sofia was take advantage of the high-end spa in my hotel. Usually, I’m not one to stay in fancy hotels (nor do I have the wallet to do so), but as they say…when in Sofia, where it’s cheap as hell…go big, baby.
I stayed at the Sense Hotel Sofia, a 5-star hotel, which belongs to Marriott’s Autograph Collection. Good God, did it not disappoint…
As previously mentioned, I had a very relaxing first day at the spa. I started with some time in the sauna, followed by some time moving back and forth from the cold plunge pool to the hot-tub. After spending some quality time hanging out with some very hairy men by the pool, I decided to book a last minute massage. Now, I’m not one to get massages — honestly, I’m good…I don’t need someone to grease me up, I can take care of myself, thanks. However, this ended up being the best massage I had ever had in my entire life…and it had MORE than a lasting impact. My masseur came in, lubed me up, and started going to town…for 90 minutes! I said, “the legs, get the legs going, please.” I then proceeded to have the happiest…
…wait…where is your head going?! No! Not that kind of happy time…
My masseur was a very large Bulgarian man who used the fire of a thousand suns to get out every single muscle knot I had on my body. As much as I wasn’t a fan of massages, this was absolutely glorious…painful, but glorious. About 30 minutes into the massage I noticed the large Bulgarian man was sniffling, quite frequently, and he kept making wheezing noises that were seriously taking me out of this zen experience.
I’m not much of a germaphobe, but what I have failed to mention, so far, is that this was the Fall of 2021, so Covid was still going strong. I tried to not think about it—the massage was so damn good it was easy to not worry about anything—but I am very unhappy to say this was my 2nd to last full day of my trip, and three days later, back on American soil, I indeed tested positive for Covid-19, the one and only time I ever got it. I also gave Covid to my Mom, and I prolonged (and almost ruined) meeting my future partner. Did I get Covid from this man? I will never know, but if I had to put money on it…I think it’s safe to say that massage oil and wheezing noises don’t mix well.
Anyway, at the time, I was on cloud nine, pre-Covid, and I felt like I could take a giant nap. So, that’s exactly what I did. I was about 9 days into my trip, which was go-go-go the entire time, so I went up to my room, rinsed off, figured I’d lay down for an hour, and I proceeded to pass out for 4 hours straight. To this day, I can count on one hand how many naps I have taken in my life; I’m not a napper, but on this day…I was a rock.
I woke up around 8pm and realized I had 30 minutes to shower, get dressed, and head to the main square, to meet other people who were going on an underground bar crawl, because I had signed myself up for an AirBnB experience in order to experience local night life. Sadly, I never left the bed. Sometimes, when traveling abroad, it’s okay to recharge the batteries. Usually, I am stressed out before the trip, because I am so worried I am going to miss out on some amazing experience that I may never get to do again. But you know what? Sometimes it’s okay to go somewhere to do nothing at all.
So, on a beautiful autumn day, there I was, strolling through a park in Prince’s Garden, not realizing I was radioactive with Covid from a large, hairy Bulgarian man, when I stumbled upon this monument. At first, I thought it was badass — “Bulgarian Liberation!” — but then I realized it said “Monument to the Soviet Army”. After doing some research, I realized the monument was a polarizing eyesore to many people.
The monument was erected in 1954 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Soviet forces entering Bulgaria, which had been allied with Nazi Germany in World War II. Their arrival in 1944 marked the beginning of 45 years of hardline Communist rule. Following the collapse of communism in 1989, the local council in Sofia voted to remove the monument, but successive governments shied away from taking the final step.
In recent years, the monument has become a focal point of the deep divisions between pro-Russian and pro-Western groups in Bulgaria’s society. It has often been covered with paint by unknown artists, lately with the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.1
I was there in the Fall of 2021, and I recently found out this monument was back up for consideration. A survey of 1003 Sofia citizens who are eligible to vote, undertaken between 30 September and 3 October 2023, indicated that 30.7% wanted the monument to remain in place, 27.8% agreed with having it relocated to a museum, and 22% wanted to have it demolished.2 I bitch about our country being so divided, usually in two categories, but three completely different point of views makes it hard to see how there could ever been a solution.
Inevitably, the monument was dismantled and is being placed in the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia.3 I talked about this before, in my article on Romania, but it’s wild to think that there are people out there who still wish they were under Communist rule. It’s hard for us, as Americans, to think this would be a “prosperous” way of life, but, then again, many of us have different understandings of the word “prosperous.” In a day and age where our media is dominated by “talking heads” that need to add their 10-minute hot-take on each and every subject…sometimes there’s not a lot of room left for nuance and opposition.
This was another interesting statue in the heart of Sofia. Stefan Stambolov was a Bulgarian politician who served as Prime Minister and regent at the turn of the 20th century. He is considered one of the most important and popular "Founders of Modern Bulgaria", and is sometimes referred to as "the Bulgarian Bismarck". He was anti-Russian, he was criticized for his dictatorial methods, and he was among the initiators of economic and cultural progress in Bulgaria during the time of the Balkan Wars. I found out later why the big gash was made down the middle of his face. While on the way to a club near his home, he was ambushed by four people. He was knocked to the ground and viciously beaten, resulting in his entire face being slashed, both of his arms almost completely severed, and his right eye gouged out.4
Obviously, there are plenty of stories of politicians getting murdered, or people attempting to murder them, while in office, all around the world, but I felt like this was just another sign of the heaviness and divisiveness of the country.
Each and every corner of Sofia seemed different than the next; there was no through line, in terms of consistency, and there seemed to be many different statues, buildings, monuments, and museums dedicated to an old Bulgaria, a different Bulgaria (many times over), and its identity seemed like it had a long way to go in order to be whole.
I can say two things about my experience in Bulgaria:
1). I had a wonderful time during my stay, but it certainly was a mixed bag of emotions. The people were very welcoming, the architecture was off the charts, and the culture was alive and “in the streets” everywhere you looked; however, the history hides itself in plain sight every which way you looked; remnants of a corrupt, war torn country present themselves around each corner.
2). I was reminded (again) just how lucky I am to be an American citizen. This is why travel is important— it’s the greatest way to properly learn about a different culture; no book or history class would be able to give you the experience and immediate feeling of what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, even if for a short period time.
Say what you want about our “divisiveness” in America. It’s times like these that I appreciate the freedom and opportunities I have as an American. Maybe…just maybe…if we spent a little more time learning about the truly tumultuous past of other cultures, we’d very quickly realize two things: we really got off lucky, and we’re pretty damn spoiled to be Americans.
“Some people say, ‘Make America Great Again!’ I say America was great all along. Some of us just forgot why.” - Anthony Bourdain
AP NEWS has a great article on the dismantling of the monument, and I added a passage from the article HERE.
The Museum of the Art from the Socialist Period opened on 19 September, 2011. It presents works from the period of Socialist rule in Bulgaria (1944–1989). Over 70 works of monumental sculpture are exhibited in a park covering 7,500 sq.m. On a special pedestal, the large five-pointed star that once crowned the former Party House in the centre of Sofia is on display.