(This article first appeared online on 24th August 2022 on ZeeZest
https://zeezest.com/travel/four-new-countries-added-to-the-list-of-visa-free-travel-for-indians-i-zee-zest-2253 )
Showing posts with label EASTERN EUROPE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EASTERN EUROPE. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Notes from Bulgaria
By Raul Dias
In early June this year, as demonstrations over the
killing of George Floyd gained momentum in the US capital of Washington DC, it
was reported that secret service agents spirited President Donald Trump away to
a White House bunker. Though denials of this were issued forthwith, it is said
that Trump spent nearly an hour ensconced in the heavily fortified subterranean
structure. All this, as protesters rallied outside the executive mansion,
resorting to everything from lobbing stones at the world’s most famous
residence to destroying police barricades.
But Trump is not alone. From tech billionaires and celebrities to other world
leaders and corporate czars, all have one thing in common—plush underground
bunkers equipped with all the mod cons. Safe havens to seek refuge in, in case
of nuclear warfare, civil unrest and…yes, raging pandemics too!
If there is one place in the world that gives a whole other meaning to the term
‘bunker lifestyle’, with its abundance of repurposed bunkers, then that would
have to be the Balkan country of Bulgaria.
Basement ‘bar’gains
Both the country’s capital of Sofia and Plovdiv, its economic hub have plenty of subterranean
marvels to sink your cultural teeth into. From the former’s recently unearthed
Roman city of Serdika to the latter’s resurrected grand Roman stadium, a relic from
the time when Plovdiv was known as Philippopolis. However, it was the country’s
communist era bunkers and erstwhile bomb shelters that fascinated me the
most on my trip to Bulgaria last summer.
In Sofia, I found myself getting down on my knees to buy everything from
chewing gum to local sweet treats like the fig jam-smeared mekitsi fried
dough from the rather strange looking pavement-level ‘klek’ shops. With
their name borrowed from the Bulgarian word for kneel (klek), these
squat shops have an interesting history. During the cold war, the Soviets
repurposed basements of apartments throughout Sofia to serve as bomb shelters,
with designated separate spaces for each family to seek refuge in.
After the fall of communism in Bulgaria in 1989, residents of the apartments
converted these basement shelters into an assortment of commercial spaces like
shoe repair shops and haberdasheries to bakeries and mini convenience stores.
Shops that could serve just one kneeling customer at a time though small sliding
windows, with the shopkeeper’s head at the level of the customer’s feet.
Rendering them perfect for current social distancing requirements amidst the
pandemic.
However, there are only a handful of these klek shops left in Sofia
today. In a sort of third wave of conversion, new life is being infused into
the shops with several being transformed into diminutive art galleries,
basement cafés and even a few two-person only speakeasy-style cocktail bars.
Going with the flow!
I soon learn that Bulgaria’s subterranean wonders are not just
limited to remnants of the country’s Roman and communist eras. And once again,
Sofia is a notable example of this. With over 30 mineral hot springs that can be found
within the city and its surroundings, hydrogeology is something that is
taken very seriously here. In fact, the city’s ancient coat of arms even has a figure
depicting the Greek god Apollo bathing at one such mineral spring.
Speaking of bathing, the Regional History Museum behind the grand Banya Bashi
Mosque in the heart of downtown Sofia was once the old Turkish public mineral
bath house, functional till 1986. Adjacent to the museum, at a red and
white-bricked water fountain, is where one can find several people partaking in
the city’s mineral-rich water bounty by filling up huge bottles and jerrycans
with the free, slightly salty-tasting warm water that flows from rows of ornate
brass taps that don’t even freeze in Sofia’s sub-zero winters.
‘What lies beneath’ truly takes on a whole other meaning in Bulgaria, it seems.
(This column first appeared in the 30th August 2020 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 7 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/notes-from-bulgaria/article32462731.ece)
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Bulgaria’s ‘inside story’
From ancient Roman ruins to eerie catacombs, Bulgaria’s capital of Sofia and Plovdiv—its second largest city—are brimming with subterranean wonders. Places where what lies beneath is equally fascinating as that above.
By Raul Dias
The uniformed lady seated in front of me seems genuinely happy to see me. Her easy, generous smile far from the perfunctory, bordering-on-fake ones proffered by most immigration officers I’ve encountered thus far. She tells me that mine is the first Indian passport she’s about to stamp into Bulgaria in all her four years working at the Sofia International Airport.
“Don’t waste your money visiting any of Sofia’s museums!” she advises me almost conspiratorially, without offering any further explanation to bolster up her suggestion. “Also, don’t take a taxi into town. Your hotel is right next to Serdica, so take the direct train to the Serdika II metro station,” she adds, after casting a glance at my immigration disembarkation form and pointing me in the direction of the startlingly modern and spotlessly clean Sofia Airport metro station.
The city beneath the city
Almost as soon as I alight from the train a half hour later, I get the gravitas of the immigration officer’s seemingly innocuous (if a bit odd!) twin suggestions. Buried deep within the depths of downtown Sofia, the Serdika II metro station is truly one of the best places to start peeling back the Bulgarian capital’s onion-like layers.
One of the first things I notice about the huge, cavernous station is the acute lack of any form of commercial advertisement with nary a billboard or standee in sight. In their place are glass cabinets. The kind one would find in museums. Filled with everything from Neolithic pots and Roman urns, to even a few decapitated and chipped capitals that probably sat atop grand Doric columns once.
It is much later in the day, after checking into my hotel and getting down to some considerable research, do I realise the sway Sofia held in the ancient Roman world when it was known as Ulpia Serdica (also spelled as Serdika). Not only was it a much-coveted city after the Roman’s conquered it from the Greeks in the year 29BC, but is it said that Constantine the Great sought to transform it into the ‘Rome of the Balkans’.
Evidence of the erstwhile grandeur of Serdica is apparent not just inside the train station, but also outside its turnstiles. Quite like the underpinnings of the 14th century Bastille fortress that peek out of the Bastille Métro in Paris, the remnants of the ancient Roman city were uncovered in the 1970s with the discovery of the Western Gate of Serdica and are on display to the public, under a huge, reinforced plexiglass dome.
The next day, as I take a free walking tour around Sofia, I am told that the restoration of the Serdica ruins started in 2011 and is still very much a work in progress, as I can see. In total, the complex covers an area of approximately 9,000 square metres, and once had as many as eight streets—including the grand Decumanus Maximus main road of the Roman city. Today, all that’s remaining of downtown Serdica that have been unearthed thus far, are the ruins of an early Christian basilica, a few mineral springs and early examples of a water and sewage system—all said to date back from the 1st to the 6th century AD.
Crypts, bones and catacombs
Giving the city its modern day, official name, I find myself at the rather somber-looking St. Sofia Church that sits in the shadow of the colossal Neo-Byzantine Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city’s historic center. The latter with its gilded central dome topped with a golden crucifix is so elaborate that I could even see it from the window of my plane’s seat a day earlier, as we prepared to land into Sofia.
Built in the 6th century during the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, St. Sofia rests not just on the foundations of four older Christian temples from the 4th century, but also on something that ties it in with ancient Serdica. With its location being a little outside the fortified gates of Serdica, it was the site of the of the city’s great necropolis.
Descending into its labyrinthine innards way below street level, I am greeted with sensations that threaten to awaken my latent claustrophobia. The catacombs here are an elaborate maze dotted with rough hewn niches laden with bones, several intricately carved masonry tombs and crypts—some still ensconcing stone sarcophagi. A series of vivid, well-preserved mosaics murals and frescos lit by dim, blue bulbs lend the catacombs an eerier cachet.
Where Plovdiv meets Philippopolis
As Bulgaria’s second largest city, its economic hub and the current European Capital of Culture for 2019, Plovdiv in the south of the country is next on my subterranean quest list. Ever the thrifty traveller, I once again join in a free walking tour almost immediately after getting into Plovdiv’s compact city center, post a two-and-a-half-hour bus journey from Sofia’s Central Bus Station.
My guide Igor lets me know that the city was earlier named Philippopolis, after Philip II of Macedon—the father of Alexander the Great—conquered it in the 4th century BC from the Thracians. But it was the Romans that left the most indelible mark on it when Philippopolis was incorporated into the Roman Empire by Emperor Claudius in 46BC.
And it was the grand Roman stadium that was at the very center of it all, being one of the rare stadia to be built inside the walls of a fortified city. Constructed at the beginning of the 2nd century AD during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, the stadium could accommodate 30,000 spectators all at once, cheering on everything from chariot races to talent contests for criers and buglers.
Today, all that remains of the stadium is the excavated northern curved part that lies under the modern day Dzhumaya Square, surrounded by lively cafes and bars. It is believed that the larger portion of the stadium, including its quintet of arched gates still lies beneath the buildings along the main street, parts of which can even be seen in the basement of the local H&M!
Paying homage to a city that was built on the crest of seven syenite hills, I end my day trip to Plovdiv with an Aperol Spritz sundowner at the hillside Roman Theatre. Built by Emperor Domitian in the 1st century AD, for millennia it lay buried under the backyard of a local resident. Painstakingly restored in the 1970s, the theatre—with its soaring Ionic marble colonnade and triangular pediments—still stays true to its original purpose to this very day as a popular venue for staging plays and concerts, I’m told.
Unfortunately for me today, I’ll just have to make do with the sun’s disappearing act, as it gradually dissolves into the craggy horizon…
(A shorter, differently edited version of this article appeared in the 21st September 2019 issue of the Mint Lounge newspaper, India on page 16 https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/what-lies-beneath-sofia-1568978786033.html)
By Raul Dias
The uniformed lady seated in front of me seems genuinely happy to see me. Her easy, generous smile far from the perfunctory, bordering-on-fake ones proffered by most immigration officers I’ve encountered thus far. She tells me that mine is the first Indian passport she’s about to stamp into Bulgaria in all her four years working at the Sofia International Airport.
“Don’t waste your money visiting any of Sofia’s museums!” she advises me almost conspiratorially, without offering any further explanation to bolster up her suggestion. “Also, don’t take a taxi into town. Your hotel is right next to Serdica, so take the direct train to the Serdika II metro station,” she adds, after casting a glance at my immigration disembarkation form and pointing me in the direction of the startlingly modern and spotlessly clean Sofia Airport metro station.
The city beneath the city
Almost as soon as I alight from the train a half hour later, I get the gravitas of the immigration officer’s seemingly innocuous (if a bit odd!) twin suggestions. Buried deep within the depths of downtown Sofia, the Serdika II metro station is truly one of the best places to start peeling back the Bulgarian capital’s onion-like layers.
One of the first things I notice about the huge, cavernous station is the acute lack of any form of commercial advertisement with nary a billboard or standee in sight. In their place are glass cabinets. The kind one would find in museums. Filled with everything from Neolithic pots and Roman urns, to even a few decapitated and chipped capitals that probably sat atop grand Doric columns once.
It is much later in the day, after checking into my hotel and getting down to some considerable research, do I realise the sway Sofia held in the ancient Roman world when it was known as Ulpia Serdica (also spelled as Serdika). Not only was it a much-coveted city after the Roman’s conquered it from the Greeks in the year 29BC, but is it said that Constantine the Great sought to transform it into the ‘Rome of the Balkans’.
Evidence of the erstwhile grandeur of Serdica is apparent not just inside the train station, but also outside its turnstiles. Quite like the underpinnings of the 14th century Bastille fortress that peek out of the Bastille Métro in Paris, the remnants of the ancient Roman city were uncovered in the 1970s with the discovery of the Western Gate of Serdica and are on display to the public, under a huge, reinforced plexiglass dome.
The next day, as I take a free walking tour around Sofia, I am told that the restoration of the Serdica ruins started in 2011 and is still very much a work in progress, as I can see. In total, the complex covers an area of approximately 9,000 square metres, and once had as many as eight streets—including the grand Decumanus Maximus main road of the Roman city. Today, all that’s remaining of downtown Serdica that have been unearthed thus far, are the ruins of an early Christian basilica, a few mineral springs and early examples of a water and sewage system—all said to date back from the 1st to the 6th century AD.
Crypts, bones and catacombs
Giving the city its modern day, official name, I find myself at the rather somber-looking St. Sofia Church that sits in the shadow of the colossal Neo-Byzantine Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the city’s historic center. The latter with its gilded central dome topped with a golden crucifix is so elaborate that I could even see it from the window of my plane’s seat a day earlier, as we prepared to land into Sofia.
Built in the 6th century during the time of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, St. Sofia rests not just on the foundations of four older Christian temples from the 4th century, but also on something that ties it in with ancient Serdica. With its location being a little outside the fortified gates of Serdica, it was the site of the of the city’s great necropolis.
Descending into its labyrinthine innards way below street level, I am greeted with sensations that threaten to awaken my latent claustrophobia. The catacombs here are an elaborate maze dotted with rough hewn niches laden with bones, several intricately carved masonry tombs and crypts—some still ensconcing stone sarcophagi. A series of vivid, well-preserved mosaics murals and frescos lit by dim, blue bulbs lend the catacombs an eerier cachet.
Where Plovdiv meets Philippopolis
As Bulgaria’s second largest city, its economic hub and the current European Capital of Culture for 2019, Plovdiv in the south of the country is next on my subterranean quest list. Ever the thrifty traveller, I once again join in a free walking tour almost immediately after getting into Plovdiv’s compact city center, post a two-and-a-half-hour bus journey from Sofia’s Central Bus Station.
My guide Igor lets me know that the city was earlier named Philippopolis, after Philip II of Macedon—the father of Alexander the Great—conquered it in the 4th century BC from the Thracians. But it was the Romans that left the most indelible mark on it when Philippopolis was incorporated into the Roman Empire by Emperor Claudius in 46BC.
And it was the grand Roman stadium that was at the very center of it all, being one of the rare stadia to be built inside the walls of a fortified city. Constructed at the beginning of the 2nd century AD during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, the stadium could accommodate 30,000 spectators all at once, cheering on everything from chariot races to talent contests for criers and buglers.
Today, all that remains of the stadium is the excavated northern curved part that lies under the modern day Dzhumaya Square, surrounded by lively cafes and bars. It is believed that the larger portion of the stadium, including its quintet of arched gates still lies beneath the buildings along the main street, parts of which can even be seen in the basement of the local H&M!
Paying homage to a city that was built on the crest of seven syenite hills, I end my day trip to Plovdiv with an Aperol Spritz sundowner at the hillside Roman Theatre. Built by Emperor Domitian in the 1st century AD, for millennia it lay buried under the backyard of a local resident. Painstakingly restored in the 1970s, the theatre—with its soaring Ionic marble colonnade and triangular pediments—still stays true to its original purpose to this very day as a popular venue for staging plays and concerts, I’m told.
Unfortunately for me today, I’ll just have to make do with the sun’s disappearing act, as it gradually dissolves into the craggy horizon…
(A shorter, differently edited version of this article appeared in the 21st September 2019 issue of the Mint Lounge newspaper, India on page 16 https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/what-lies-beneath-sofia-1568978786033.html)
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Of gratis gyuvech and more…
Easily one of the world’s earliest fusion
cuisines, Bulgarian food has everything from Roman and Turkish to Greek
culinary influences thrown into the pot. What better way than a free food tour
to get acquainted with it?
By Raul Dias
The place I’ve ben told
to meet at for our afternoon rendezvous
isn’t hard to find at all. Almost everybody seems to be a fan of it, including
my hotel’s ever-helpful receptionist who points me in its direction at once.
Aptly named Supa Star, this 10-year-old soup-only restaurant in downtown Sofia
is said to be Bulgaria’s first soup bar. And thus, the perfect place to embark
on a tour that’s said to be the first of its kind in Europe and perhaps even in
the world!
Ever the frugal traveller, I had signed up online for a free food tour of Sofia after hearing about it from a fellow backpacker a few days earlier. Organised by a company called Balkan Bites, the two-hour long guided walking tour takes place every day at 2pm and stops in at around five places where one can get acquainted with the unique flavours of Bulgaria bite by bite...or perhaps in the case of our first stop, sip by sip.
And so, my initiation into the realm of Bulgarian cuisine will always be the taste of refreshingly chilled tarator soup that our guide Lila hands out to us in tiny, bright red paper cups. Though late March is still early spring in Bulgaria, the rather sultry weather totally warrants this yogurt-cucumber-dill summer soup that tastes like a watered down cross between the Greek dip of tzatziki and our very own raita with the tiny bits of cucumber providing texture.
Ever the frugal traveller, I had signed up online for a free food tour of Sofia after hearing about it from a fellow backpacker a few days earlier. Organised by a company called Balkan Bites, the two-hour long guided walking tour takes place every day at 2pm and stops in at around five places where one can get acquainted with the unique flavours of Bulgaria bite by bite...or perhaps in the case of our first stop, sip by sip.
And so, my initiation into the realm of Bulgarian cuisine will always be the taste of refreshingly chilled tarator soup that our guide Lila hands out to us in tiny, bright red paper cups. Though late March is still early spring in Bulgaria, the rather sultry weather totally warrants this yogurt-cucumber-dill summer soup that tastes like a watered down cross between the Greek dip of tzatziki and our very own raita with the tiny bits of cucumber providing texture.
Significant
Servings
It’s barely a few minutes into the tour and I’m already being made acutely aware of the great significance food has to almost every aspect of life in the Balkan country. We stop by a tiny hole-in-the-wall kiosk at the Zhenski Pazar Women’s Market in the heart of Sofia for a bite of the city’s famous on-the-go breakfast combo of the double ‘B’—bozo and banitsa. While the former is a fermented wheat and millet drink that tastes like mildly flavoured, sour chocolate milk, the banitsa is almost a national obsession.
Similar to both the spinach and feta cheese stuffed Greek spanakopita and to the Turkish börek, the banitsa is a coiled breakfast pastry of eggs, a yellow cheese called kashkaval, and yogurt, all ensconced between phyllo layers. Interestingly, every Easter, grandmothers across Bulgaria bake a banitsa for their grandkids with a coin hidden in its folds. The lucky finder of which is bestowed with an extra-special blessing from the matriarch of the home.
Another seemingly simply, but greatly significant dish is what Lila has us try next at the chaotic Central Food Market, diagonally opposite the ancient Roman historical site of the Serdika ruins. According to Bulgarian tradition, shopska salata or shopska salad is what newlyweds sit down to eat as their first meal together after the ceremonies. The recipe may seem straightforward, with just a few freshly chopped vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and capsicum as ingredients, but the taste is almost Mediterranean when coupled with a sprinkling of the crumbly, salty sirene cheese and oregano.
It’s barely a few minutes into the tour and I’m already being made acutely aware of the great significance food has to almost every aspect of life in the Balkan country. We stop by a tiny hole-in-the-wall kiosk at the Zhenski Pazar Women’s Market in the heart of Sofia for a bite of the city’s famous on-the-go breakfast combo of the double ‘B’—bozo and banitsa. While the former is a fermented wheat and millet drink that tastes like mildly flavoured, sour chocolate milk, the banitsa is almost a national obsession.
Similar to both the spinach and feta cheese stuffed Greek spanakopita and to the Turkish börek, the banitsa is a coiled breakfast pastry of eggs, a yellow cheese called kashkaval, and yogurt, all ensconced between phyllo layers. Interestingly, every Easter, grandmothers across Bulgaria bake a banitsa for their grandkids with a coin hidden in its folds. The lucky finder of which is bestowed with an extra-special blessing from the matriarch of the home.
Another seemingly simply, but greatly significant dish is what Lila has us try next at the chaotic Central Food Market, diagonally opposite the ancient Roman historical site of the Serdika ruins. According to Bulgarian tradition, shopska salata or shopska salad is what newlyweds sit down to eat as their first meal together after the ceremonies. The recipe may seem straightforward, with just a few freshly chopped vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and capsicum as ingredients, but the taste is almost Mediterranean when coupled with a sprinkling of the crumbly, salty sirene cheese and oregano.
Saying
Cheese
Speaking of cheese, at our next stop which is the hipster-chic Mekitsa & Coffee shop in downtown Sofia, we sample a yummy cream cheese and fig jam smeared mekitsa. It is no great surprise that like most world cuisines, Bulgaria too has its own iteration of fried dough. Made with a wheat-based dough enriched with yogurt and eggs, the deep-fried mekitsi (p) can also be had in their savoury avatar. And that’s exactly what the very generous counter staff ply us with next—a scrumptious slice slathered in another Bulgarian dairy staple, the salty-sour cream called smetana.
There seems to be no escaping the cheese onslaught as we sit down at our final stop of the afternoon—the tongue twister of a restaurant called Hadjidraganovite Izbi or “Hadjidraganov’s Cellars”—for a tiny bowl of the traditional Bulgarian dish of gyuvech. This hearty one pot wonder is a stew made from beef, mushrooms, sweet peppers and onions with some kashkaval cheese grated over it. Lila lets us know that a good gyuvech will always have boiled eggs and a whole lot of paprika in it.
It is here that we all get a parting shot of the traditional Bulgarian drink called pelin. With its base of house wine which can be either red or white, pelin, we were told, is made from a bouquet of 24 herbs along with sugar, chopped apple, quince, and an ancient Roman-time fruit called medlar. Left to macerate for two weeks, the drink is imbued with a mellow, fruity bitterness coupled with a mighty alcoholic punch at the end.
Perfect for raising a toast to all the best things in life that are so apparently free!
Speaking of cheese, at our next stop which is the hipster-chic Mekitsa & Coffee shop in downtown Sofia, we sample a yummy cream cheese and fig jam smeared mekitsa. It is no great surprise that like most world cuisines, Bulgaria too has its own iteration of fried dough. Made with a wheat-based dough enriched with yogurt and eggs, the deep-fried mekitsi (p) can also be had in their savoury avatar. And that’s exactly what the very generous counter staff ply us with next—a scrumptious slice slathered in another Bulgarian dairy staple, the salty-sour cream called smetana.
There seems to be no escaping the cheese onslaught as we sit down at our final stop of the afternoon—the tongue twister of a restaurant called Hadjidraganovite Izbi or “Hadjidraganov’s Cellars”—for a tiny bowl of the traditional Bulgarian dish of gyuvech. This hearty one pot wonder is a stew made from beef, mushrooms, sweet peppers and onions with some kashkaval cheese grated over it. Lila lets us know that a good gyuvech will always have boiled eggs and a whole lot of paprika in it.
It is here that we all get a parting shot of the traditional Bulgarian drink called pelin. With its base of house wine which can be either red or white, pelin, we were told, is made from a bouquet of 24 herbs along with sugar, chopped apple, quince, and an ancient Roman-time fruit called medlar. Left to macerate for two weeks, the drink is imbued with a mellow, fruity bitterness coupled with a mighty alcoholic punch at the end.
Perfect for raising a toast to all the best things in life that are so apparently free!
Travel
log
Getting There
As there are no direct flights from India to Bulgaria, one can reach Sofia by connecting flights from most European cities like Paris, Zurich and Amsterdam. Alternately, one can also fly in to Sofia via Istanbul. Given its compact size, most of Sofia can easily be accessed on foot or by its very convenient and affordable metro train system. Though one needs a Bulgarian visa to enter the country, a multiple entry Schengen visa too will suffice.
Getting There
As there are no direct flights from India to Bulgaria, one can reach Sofia by connecting flights from most European cities like Paris, Zurich and Amsterdam. Alternately, one can also fly in to Sofia via Istanbul. Given its compact size, most of Sofia can easily be accessed on foot or by its very convenient and affordable metro train system. Though one needs a Bulgarian visa to enter the country, a multiple entry Schengen visa too will suffice.
Stay
Offering a range of hotels to choose from, Sofia has accommodation options to suit most budgets. Two such recommended accommodation options are the conveniently located, city-centered Les Fleurs Boutique Hotel (Rs 7,500 for two without breakfast, lesfleurshotel.com) along the city’s main Vitosha Boulevard and the more upmarket Grand Hotel Sofia (Rs 12,300 for two without breakfast, grandhotelsofia.bg) with spacious rooms overlooking downtown Sofia.
Offering a range of hotels to choose from, Sofia has accommodation options to suit most budgets. Two such recommended accommodation options are the conveniently located, city-centered Les Fleurs Boutique Hotel (Rs 7,500 for two without breakfast, lesfleurshotel.com) along the city’s main Vitosha Boulevard and the more upmarket Grand Hotel Sofia (Rs 12,300 for two without breakfast, grandhotelsofia.bg) with spacious rooms overlooking downtown Sofia.
Tip
* Take the metro to the Business Park station in the suburbs of Sofia to visit the Kambanite Bell Park. One of Sofia’s lesser-known attractions, the peace park was built in 1979 as a global children’s monument to commemorate UNESCO’s International Year of the Child. The idea here was to include a bell from every country in the world and to have children ring these as a gesture of peace.
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 14th September 2019 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 20 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/a-food-walk-in-sofia/article29401443.ece)
* Take the metro to the Business Park station in the suburbs of Sofia to visit the Kambanite Bell Park. One of Sofia’s lesser-known attractions, the peace park was built in 1979 as a global children’s monument to commemorate UNESCO’s International Year of the Child. The idea here was to include a bell from every country in the world and to have children ring these as a gesture of peace.
(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 14th September 2019 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 20 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/a-food-walk-in-sofia/article29401443.ece)
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Notes from Sofia
By Raul Dias
Here’s an honest observation. Sofia isn’t a beautiful
city. The modest sized capital of the Eastern European country of Bulgaria will
never be up there with the top five ‘must-visit’ destinations in one’s
lifetime. Nor will it ever be bestowed with those silly, rather patronising monikers
of ‘Paris of the East’, ‘Venice of the South’ etc. But what it does have in abundance
is character. Everywhere you look there’s an oxymoronic grittiness coupled with
a breathless vibrance. And probably one the greatest contributors to this is Sofia’s
bounty of street art and graffiti in all their candy-coloured brilliance and
in-your-face insouciance.
First
‘Impressions’
Ever the thrifty traveller, one of the first things I did after checking into my hotel was to sign up for a free graffiti and street art tour of the city. Run by a bunch of passionate art students and experienced street artists who double up as guides, the two-hour long walking tour is their way of helping visitors discover Sofia and its colourful history.
And speaking of history, I was told by my guide Stella that it is thanks to Bulgaria’s socialist past that the street art sub-culture and era of the true-blue graffiti artist emerged. The drab, Soviet-style apartment blocks with their plain, grey exteriors provided the city’s 21st century street artists with a range of ideal surfaces for large scale mural art. It was also the sudden ‘invasion’ of satellite television and the emerging hip-hop scene of 90s America that served as harbingers of this sub-culture.
At first frowned upon, slowly street art came to be respected for what it is—art! In fact, graffiti is so well-accepted in Sofia that the tram stop under the National Palace of Culture (NDK) is officially called “NDK Graffiti”, all thanks to the abundant, ever-evolving graffiti than can be found around the tram stop.
Municipally sanctioned street art in particular also started to be used as a means to deter artists from committing random acts of vandalism. A few years ago, “Theatre on the Street”—an art project by Bulgarian NGO, aptly named Transformers—saw 30 artists, over 10 days transform 51 pavement-side electrical boxes into graffiti art along Sofia’s theatre-infested Rakovski Street.
Ever the thrifty traveller, one of the first things I did after checking into my hotel was to sign up for a free graffiti and street art tour of the city. Run by a bunch of passionate art students and experienced street artists who double up as guides, the two-hour long walking tour is their way of helping visitors discover Sofia and its colourful history.
And speaking of history, I was told by my guide Stella that it is thanks to Bulgaria’s socialist past that the street art sub-culture and era of the true-blue graffiti artist emerged. The drab, Soviet-style apartment blocks with their plain, grey exteriors provided the city’s 21st century street artists with a range of ideal surfaces for large scale mural art. It was also the sudden ‘invasion’ of satellite television and the emerging hip-hop scene of 90s America that served as harbingers of this sub-culture.
At first frowned upon, slowly street art came to be respected for what it is—art! In fact, graffiti is so well-accepted in Sofia that the tram stop under the National Palace of Culture (NDK) is officially called “NDK Graffiti”, all thanks to the abundant, ever-evolving graffiti than can be found around the tram stop.
Municipally sanctioned street art in particular also started to be used as a means to deter artists from committing random acts of vandalism. A few years ago, “Theatre on the Street”—an art project by Bulgarian NGO, aptly named Transformers—saw 30 artists, over 10 days transform 51 pavement-side electrical boxes into graffiti art along Sofia’s theatre-infested Rakovski Street.
Interpreters
of Maladies?
At one of our stops, a car park on the city’s arterial Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard, a little north of the busy Serdika metro station, we were met with a rather evocative mural by local graffiti legend who goes by the tag of Bozko. A veritable nom de plume, a tag we’re told, is not just an artist’s signature and mark of territory, but also an allusion to their style.
In the case of Bozko, that style is something that borders on hallucinogenic with otherworldly characters harbouring hidden social messages. For example, painted below a peeling Chupa Chups lollipop advertisement, his Pinocchio-like figure from a project series titled Urban Creatures seems to reference the untruths the advertising industry perpetrate with its ever-growing beak-nose. The interpretations are limitless.
With a diametrically opposite style from Bozko, Nasimo, another local Bulgarian muralist, I was told, is known for his dreamy, largely figurative works that draw a lot of inspiration from classical art and convey a sense of escapism from reality. Behind the old Turkish Thermal Bath House, we stopped by two of his pieces a few meters away from each other. Both sublime. But the one that caught my attention the most was a photorealistic mural depicting an embracing couple with cupid superimposed onto them. The fading rays of the evening sun bouncing off the glass panels of the adjacent building and casting fluid-like rippled effects onto the wall, made the piece even more magical than it was.
At one of our stops, a car park on the city’s arterial Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard, a little north of the busy Serdika metro station, we were met with a rather evocative mural by local graffiti legend who goes by the tag of Bozko. A veritable nom de plume, a tag we’re told, is not just an artist’s signature and mark of territory, but also an allusion to their style.
In the case of Bozko, that style is something that borders on hallucinogenic with otherworldly characters harbouring hidden social messages. For example, painted below a peeling Chupa Chups lollipop advertisement, his Pinocchio-like figure from a project series titled Urban Creatures seems to reference the untruths the advertising industry perpetrate with its ever-growing beak-nose. The interpretations are limitless.
With a diametrically opposite style from Bozko, Nasimo, another local Bulgarian muralist, I was told, is known for his dreamy, largely figurative works that draw a lot of inspiration from classical art and convey a sense of escapism from reality. Behind the old Turkish Thermal Bath House, we stopped by two of his pieces a few meters away from each other. Both sublime. But the one that caught my attention the most was a photorealistic mural depicting an embracing couple with cupid superimposed onto them. The fading rays of the evening sun bouncing off the glass panels of the adjacent building and casting fluid-like rippled effects onto the wall, made the piece even more magical than it was.
(This article first appeared in the 28th July 2019 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 27 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/notes-from-sofia/article28723200.ece)
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Fork in the Road: Bulgarian Cuisine—Where East Meets West…
By Raul Dias
fusion
(n)
the process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity.
the process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity.
If there is one thing that I’ve always prided myself
on, then that would have to be my impeccable researching skills. Digging up as
much as I can before I visit someplace new is a process I relish. Almost as
much as finally getting there and having a first-hand experience. And when the
subject of said research is food, the combination is hard to resist, as I pore
over every morsel (pardon the pun!) of information I can get—online, offline, or
word-of-mouth—for weeks before I set off on my travels.
Sadly, in the case of my trip to Bulgaria earlier this year in April, I could not afford the luxury of a lengthy research session. A sudden, spur-of-the-moment invite saw me getting on a plane from Zurich to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia with just about enough time for me to pack my suitcase, leave alone immerse myself in research.
But this sudden trip also taught me a very important lesson. That going totally blind and knowing alarmingly little about a place is equally exhilarating as going in fully prepared is. Like for example, I never knew that Bulgarian food is very different from its other Eastern European counterparts in that it shares a number of dishes with Persian, Turkish, and Greek cuisine. You could perhaps, go so far as to call it one of the world’s earliest fusion cuisines.
They say you never forget your first time doing something. And for me, my initiation into the realm of Bulgarian cuisine will always be a bowl of refreshingly chilled tarator soup that my host Mina insisted I try at a small hole-in-the-wall food kiosk near the National Museum in the heart of Sofia. Though April is still early spring in Bulgaria, the rather muggy weather totally warranted this summer soup that tasted like a thinned down cross between the yogurt-mint-cucumber-dill Greek dip of tzatziki and our very own Indian raita.
Another mainstay of Bulgarian cuisine was next. Still flirting with a strong Greek influence, the banitsa is a coiled breakfast pastry of eggs, a yellow cheese called kashkaval, and yogurt, all ensconced between phyllo layers. Interestingly, it also reminded me of the Turkish börek pastry I had totally OD’d on a few years ago on a trip to Istanbul.
Referencing a fried Canadian dough snack called beaver tails, a single serving of the blueberry jam smeared mekitsa—that is made with yogurt and eggs—was too hard to resist as we passed by the Mekitsa & Coffee shop in downtown Sofia. So, I had two! The second one a scrumptious savoury iteration that was slathered with the salty Bulgarian sour cream called smetana.
Craving something more lunch-like and less snacky, we headed down to Sofia’s bustling central food market—diagonally opposite the ancient historical site of the Serdika ruins—for a meal that we picked up in several parts from the many food stalls that inhabit this gargantuan covered hall. One of the first things Mina bought for us was a plate of shopska salata. Now, according to Bulgarian tradition, shopska salata or shopska salad is what newlyweds sit down and eat as their first meal together after the ceremonies. The recipe may seem simple, with just a few fresh cut vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers as ingredients, but the taste is dynamite when coupled with a sprinkling of the crumbly, salty sirene cheese.
This was followed by a few more mezze-like dishes such as kebapche (a variation of the ubiquitous minced meat, spices, and herbs kebab) and the divine Greek dolmades-like lozovi sarmi that uses grape leaves as a base, that are then stuffed with minced meat, rice, herbs, and yogurt.
For mains, we bought a serving of the traditional Bulgarian dish of gyuvech. This hearty one pot dish is a stew made from meat, mushrooms, peppers and onions with some kashkaval cheese grated over it. I was told that a good Gyuvech will always have boiled eggs and a whole lot of Paprika in it. And the one I ate sure did.
It was like taking a stroll down a middle eastern souk for dessert, as we got an assorted platter of baklava which are tiny honey-orange water-sugar syrup drenched pastries made from phyllo sheets that are stuffed with almonds and pistachios.
From the excitingly unknown to the comfortingly familiar, the food of Bulgaria sure taught me something I’ll never forget—going blind can “show” you a lot more than you’d bargained for!
Sadly, in the case of my trip to Bulgaria earlier this year in April, I could not afford the luxury of a lengthy research session. A sudden, spur-of-the-moment invite saw me getting on a plane from Zurich to the Bulgarian capital of Sofia with just about enough time for me to pack my suitcase, leave alone immerse myself in research.
But this sudden trip also taught me a very important lesson. That going totally blind and knowing alarmingly little about a place is equally exhilarating as going in fully prepared is. Like for example, I never knew that Bulgarian food is very different from its other Eastern European counterparts in that it shares a number of dishes with Persian, Turkish, and Greek cuisine. You could perhaps, go so far as to call it one of the world’s earliest fusion cuisines.
They say you never forget your first time doing something. And for me, my initiation into the realm of Bulgarian cuisine will always be a bowl of refreshingly chilled tarator soup that my host Mina insisted I try at a small hole-in-the-wall food kiosk near the National Museum in the heart of Sofia. Though April is still early spring in Bulgaria, the rather muggy weather totally warranted this summer soup that tasted like a thinned down cross between the yogurt-mint-cucumber-dill Greek dip of tzatziki and our very own Indian raita.
Another mainstay of Bulgarian cuisine was next. Still flirting with a strong Greek influence, the banitsa is a coiled breakfast pastry of eggs, a yellow cheese called kashkaval, and yogurt, all ensconced between phyllo layers. Interestingly, it also reminded me of the Turkish börek pastry I had totally OD’d on a few years ago on a trip to Istanbul.
Referencing a fried Canadian dough snack called beaver tails, a single serving of the blueberry jam smeared mekitsa—that is made with yogurt and eggs—was too hard to resist as we passed by the Mekitsa & Coffee shop in downtown Sofia. So, I had two! The second one a scrumptious savoury iteration that was slathered with the salty Bulgarian sour cream called smetana.
Craving something more lunch-like and less snacky, we headed down to Sofia’s bustling central food market—diagonally opposite the ancient historical site of the Serdika ruins—for a meal that we picked up in several parts from the many food stalls that inhabit this gargantuan covered hall. One of the first things Mina bought for us was a plate of shopska salata. Now, according to Bulgarian tradition, shopska salata or shopska salad is what newlyweds sit down and eat as their first meal together after the ceremonies. The recipe may seem simple, with just a few fresh cut vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers as ingredients, but the taste is dynamite when coupled with a sprinkling of the crumbly, salty sirene cheese.
This was followed by a few more mezze-like dishes such as kebapche (a variation of the ubiquitous minced meat, spices, and herbs kebab) and the divine Greek dolmades-like lozovi sarmi that uses grape leaves as a base, that are then stuffed with minced meat, rice, herbs, and yogurt.
For mains, we bought a serving of the traditional Bulgarian dish of gyuvech. This hearty one pot dish is a stew made from meat, mushrooms, peppers and onions with some kashkaval cheese grated over it. I was told that a good Gyuvech will always have boiled eggs and a whole lot of Paprika in it. And the one I ate sure did.
It was like taking a stroll down a middle eastern souk for dessert, as we got an assorted platter of baklava which are tiny honey-orange water-sugar syrup drenched pastries made from phyllo sheets that are stuffed with almonds and pistachios.
From the excitingly unknown to the comfortingly familiar, the food of Bulgaria sure taught me something I’ll never forget—going blind can “show” you a lot more than you’d bargained for!
(First published on 27th July 2019. Appearing every last Saturday of the month in The Free Press Journal newspaper, this column is all about viewing travel through the prism of food. https://www.freepressjournal.in/travel/bulgarian-cuisine-where-east-meets-west)
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Unusual Sofia!
As one of the hottest new travel destinations for 2019, Sofia the capital of Bulgaria is a fascinating city with a lot to offer. Raul Dias shows you four of the most unusual and interesting things to do and see in this Eastern European city.
By Raul Dias
Visiting a city like Sofia feels like being on the brink of a serendipitous adventure with something new in store for you at every turn. Not least of all for the reason, that both it, and the Eastern European country of Bulgaria that Sofia is the capital of, are places of great mystery to the average traveller.
But suddenly there seems to be a new-found interest in this modest-sized Balkan country and its dynamic capital. At least from the western traveller brigade who have taken to this post-communist nation with a vengeance. In fact, Bulgaria’s second largest city Plovdiv has even won the title of European Capital of Culture for 2019!
And while Bollywood might have warmed up the charms of Bulgaria—with films like the Ajay Devgn-starrer Shivaay (2016) and the in-production Brahmastra headlined by Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt that have been filmed there—for most of us Indians the word ‘Bulgaria’ draws a big fat blank. Me included.
That was until a few weeks ago, when I accepted an offer to come explore a few places in Bulgaria. I started off with Sofia. And boy, did it charm me with its wacky, alternative side with plenty lurking beneath the surface (pun so intended!), or what?
Here are four of the most unusual and interesting things that I’d recommend doing in Sofia:
Descend into the Catacombs of St. Sofia Church
Here, you not just visit the St. Sofia Church (and namesake of the city!)—that’s located next to the magnificent Eastern Orthodox-style St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral—but also get your spook on and climb into its very bowels. All this, to wander among the ancient tombs and graves that are now part of the onsite subterranean museum. These graves are said to date back to the 6th-7th century when the simple red brick church was the site of the Roman city of Serdica’s necropolis.
Sign-up for the Free Food Tour
Yes, you read right, a completely free food tour! Organised by a company called Balkan Bites (www.balkanbites.bg), the free food tour is a great way to get acquainted with the flavours of Sofia and is the first of its kind in Europe. This two-hour long guided walking tour takes place daily (excluding national holidays) and starts at 2pm outside the Russian Church in the city’s historic and cultural center. The guided walk takes you to around six places where you can sample everything from the typically Bulgarian fried dough snack called mekitsi to an introduction to the coiled, flaky pastry stuffed with cheese and spinach breakfast staple of banitsa.
Get your Mineral Fix at the Free Public Hot Spring Taps
It is a well-publicised fact by its proud citizens that Sofia is a treasure trove of natural hot springs. With the city and its surroundings boasting more than 30 mineral springs. And there are three interesting facts related to this. For one, the city’s ancient coat of arms shows a man bathing in one such hot spring. Speaking of bathing, the city’s Regional History Museum was once the old Turkish public mineral bath house that was functioning till 1986. Adjacent to the museum, one can still see people partaking in the city’s mineral water bounty by filling huge water bottles with the free, (slightly salty tasting) warm water that flows from several taps that don’t even freeze in Sofia’s sub-zero winters!
Ring in Peace at Kambanite Park
One of the most perfect ways to end your unusual adventures around Sofia, is by taking the super-efficient metro to the Business Park station in the suburbs for some peace. A short walk from the station and you will find yourself at Kambanite Park that is known for its tall, concrete main bell monument that’s surrounded by a semi-circle of smaller concrete structures laden with bells from every country on earth. As one of the hidden gems of Sofia, the monument was built in 1979 as a global children’s monument to commemorate the International Year of the Child. The idea here was to include a bell dedicated to every country in the world and to have children ring these as a gesture of peace. So, head there and ring your country’s (or any) bell as an evocation of the universal wish—Peace on Earth. I sure did!
(An edited version of this column first appeared in the 31st March 2019 issue of The Free Press Journal newspaper's Weekend section on page 3 https://www.freepressjournal.in/travel/what-unusual-sofia-has-to-offer/1493451)
By Raul Dias
Visiting a city like Sofia feels like being on the brink of a serendipitous adventure with something new in store for you at every turn. Not least of all for the reason, that both it, and the Eastern European country of Bulgaria that Sofia is the capital of, are places of great mystery to the average traveller.
But suddenly there seems to be a new-found interest in this modest-sized Balkan country and its dynamic capital. At least from the western traveller brigade who have taken to this post-communist nation with a vengeance. In fact, Bulgaria’s second largest city Plovdiv has even won the title of European Capital of Culture for 2019!
And while Bollywood might have warmed up the charms of Bulgaria—with films like the Ajay Devgn-starrer Shivaay (2016) and the in-production Brahmastra headlined by Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt that have been filmed there—for most of us Indians the word ‘Bulgaria’ draws a big fat blank. Me included.
That was until a few weeks ago, when I accepted an offer to come explore a few places in Bulgaria. I started off with Sofia. And boy, did it charm me with its wacky, alternative side with plenty lurking beneath the surface (pun so intended!), or what?
Here are four of the most unusual and interesting things that I’d recommend doing in Sofia:
Descend into the Catacombs of St. Sofia Church
Here, you not just visit the St. Sofia Church (and namesake of the city!)—that’s located next to the magnificent Eastern Orthodox-style St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral—but also get your spook on and climb into its very bowels. All this, to wander among the ancient tombs and graves that are now part of the onsite subterranean museum. These graves are said to date back to the 6th-7th century when the simple red brick church was the site of the Roman city of Serdica’s necropolis.
Sign-up for the Free Food Tour
Yes, you read right, a completely free food tour! Organised by a company called Balkan Bites (www.balkanbites.bg), the free food tour is a great way to get acquainted with the flavours of Sofia and is the first of its kind in Europe. This two-hour long guided walking tour takes place daily (excluding national holidays) and starts at 2pm outside the Russian Church in the city’s historic and cultural center. The guided walk takes you to around six places where you can sample everything from the typically Bulgarian fried dough snack called mekitsi to an introduction to the coiled, flaky pastry stuffed with cheese and spinach breakfast staple of banitsa.
Get your Mineral Fix at the Free Public Hot Spring Taps
It is a well-publicised fact by its proud citizens that Sofia is a treasure trove of natural hot springs. With the city and its surroundings boasting more than 30 mineral springs. And there are three interesting facts related to this. For one, the city’s ancient coat of arms shows a man bathing in one such hot spring. Speaking of bathing, the city’s Regional History Museum was once the old Turkish public mineral bath house that was functioning till 1986. Adjacent to the museum, one can still see people partaking in the city’s mineral water bounty by filling huge water bottles with the free, (slightly salty tasting) warm water that flows from several taps that don’t even freeze in Sofia’s sub-zero winters!
Ring in Peace at Kambanite Park
One of the most perfect ways to end your unusual adventures around Sofia, is by taking the super-efficient metro to the Business Park station in the suburbs for some peace. A short walk from the station and you will find yourself at Kambanite Park that is known for its tall, concrete main bell monument that’s surrounded by a semi-circle of smaller concrete structures laden with bells from every country on earth. As one of the hidden gems of Sofia, the monument was built in 1979 as a global children’s monument to commemorate the International Year of the Child. The idea here was to include a bell dedicated to every country in the world and to have children ring these as a gesture of peace. So, head there and ring your country’s (or any) bell as an evocation of the universal wish—Peace on Earth. I sure did!
(An edited version of this column first appeared in the 31st March 2019 issue of The Free Press Journal newspaper's Weekend section on page 3 https://www.freepressjournal.in/travel/what-unusual-sofia-has-to-offer/1493451)
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