sofia surfers

It was Wednesday, September 27th , 10:45 p.m. when I decided to join a group of Erasmus students heading for Sofia, Bulgaria. Asia (Polish shortname for Joanna) had told me during our shop and lunch trip through IKEA that they would meet at the central station at 11:30 p.m. “They” here stands for Asia (Poland), Elena (Cyprus), Sonika and Joyti (England) plus Sarah and Maria (Germany).

M-hm, only girls! But this wasn’t the (only) reason for making this decision but my long lasting wish to see the homecountry of my sweet friend Miladina Mincheva (what a pity we didn’t manage to go there together, Mila!?). The round ticket (Thessaloniki – Sofia and back) was 25,60 €, obviously very cheap for two seven hour rides – especially if you compare it to German conditions, the train was quite full, obviously very old and dirty – especially if you compare it to German conditions.

Actually it was a former Bundesbahn-train (“Zugtüre nicht während der Fahrt öffnen“, etc...). I suppose they sold it 30 years ago. German engineering never dies…!? Anyway, we had our seats in direct neighbourhood of the “Plumpsklo” (sorry, don’t know the English word for this ancient type of closet) what wasn’t really beneficial to the “odour” in our cabin…somehow we got “used” to it.

Approximately five Heinekens and three hours later we arrived at the border where we were first checked by Greek officers and then by Bulgarian authorities. What here sounds like a springtime walk in the park was an almost three hour lasting procedure of showing the passports, wondering why they took it away, wondering why the train started to go forth without having our passports back, wondering why it suddenly stopped and went back…and finally feeling relief receiving our passports and being allowed to enter the homecountry of Krassimir Ballakov in the end.

If anyone of you knows the movie “Top secret” – it was exactly like the scene when Nick Rivers enters the GDR being checked by East-German authorities. The only difference is that this was reality and I wasn’t supposed to laugh – what wasn’t that easy all the time (remember the “approximately five Heinekens”?).

When we passed the outskirts of Sofia we went by some really depressing areas looking like third world slums: little rotten shacks, garbage all over, poor children sadly waving at us. It’s hard to imagine that people (mainly Gypsies, I suppose) manage to survive in such disgustingly unhuman circumstances. Somehow you feel guilty being able to spend money for traveling abroad and then seeing all this poverty and pain…they must feel like animals…and we were the visitors of the zoo.

Half an hour later we arrived at Sofia, central station and the lady of the youth hostel kindly welcomed us to Bulgaria. I didn’t sleep a minute in the train (thx for the nice conversation, Elena!) but the hostel’s typical Bulgarian breakfast (buttermilk and sth. similar to a croissant plus tea) brought me and the others back to life. After that we started to discover the city by foot. We saw orthodox churches, unorthodox statues, many old buildings like the national opera, tiny little streets with tiny little shops, bigger streets with bigger shops (especially shoe shops >> six girls!!!), and had a nice lunch in a small Bulgarian restaurant (really cheap: for 10 Leva you get a very rich meal including drinks = 5 Euro!).

Thursday night (after a little too long lasting “nap”) we first went out to get some food (at around 2 a.m. it isn’t that easy in a former socialist country!), had some pizza and finally found a nice club-lounge called “Briliantin” where we couldn’t resist the Vods and danced to late 80s-, early 90s-music (George Michael salutes you!). The after-hour with the taxidriver is beyond describing – just that: the UK-girls freaked out and showed their hottest moves to Fugees and Beyonce hits…

Friday we spent some hours on “usual” sightseeing eating and shopping activities…the most impressive place was for sure the National Palace of Culture which in some ways has the appeal of “Erich’s Lampenladen” where I “got lost” from the girls and strolled around this nice ugly building on my own. Inside you can find cheap leather jackets, “puta madre”-shirts, chinese foto expositions, cinemas, conference halls, restaurants, radio stations, socialist freso and a lot of lamps. (what a pity that I only had my small Sony with me and not my big cam!)
In the evening we went to “Taj Mahal”. No, not the real one but a fantastic Indian restaurant in August street, 11. I had “Palak Paneer” (hello dear sister: yummy yummy!), some butter-Nan and a Tuborg, altogether 12 Leva (6 Euro). Later we met Bogena, a freaky Bulgarian girl (Miladina gave me her number), at “Blaze-Bar” and then I had to split up with “my” girls as they didn’t want to spend money for the club-entrance (but for new boots!). So I joined Bogena and her friends to find out how Bulgarian people use to party – and yes, “Jalta”-Club was the perfect place to do so: loud electro-music, crazy dancing queens and cheap booze…it was 8:45 a.m. when I returned to the youth hostel.

Saturday, 12:00 a.m.: check out time for the hostel. Don’t know why but I felt a little weak… nevertheless I managed to follow the girls to some other (shoe)shops and eating places. The sun was shining brightly and then there was this flea market where they sell this and that but above all old Nazi-stuff: SS-Dolche, Sturmfeuerzeuge, Uboot-Taschenuhren, Feld-Leicas, Hitlerpostkarten – alles original und “nur vom feinsten”. Ups, skipped to German…I did NOT buy a Hitlerpostkarte but a batch of Juri Gagarin, the first cosmonaut! Maybe because I felt like on another planet…

Our train back to Thessaloniki departed at 11 p.m. Eight hours and thirteen minutes later we stepped our feet on Greek ground again. “Sofia” means wisdom. I think it’s a proper name.

the crew before departure (don't know the guy, sorry)

the last sign of good old thessaloniki

faster faster, german old-school train!

still life at 3:30

that's the only guy on this trip (yes, in the toilet beneath)

has anybody seen the movie "trainspotting"?

elena knows how to smile - no wonder she's from cyprus

caspar david friedrich laesst gruessen

little kiosk approximately one hour away from sofia

even blurred she's still gorgeous

you never get a second chance to make a first impression

9:44 a.m. "gare centrale sofia" (does anyone know why they write it in french?)

happy to be there finally...

the view from our youth hostel

sarah, elena and maria in the hostel (from the right)

asia, the "responsible person" for orientation and navigation

elena and sonika (background: national opera house)

joyti and the statue of sofia

is there a town in the whole wide world without the big 'm'?

yellow building with some clothes on clothesline

lolli-pop-art

our place to be at thursday nite

this is called "red after shock" (I hate it, tastes like liquid big red-chewing gum!)

obviously she's got a different opinion...

facial expressions, part I

ups joyti, I can see you bra!!!

joyti, elena, maria and some glasses

toilet company

facial expressions, part II

after-hour in front of "briliantin" (I think this was beyonce playing)

the taxidriver will tell his grandchilds...

kalimera, orea kupela!

these are pyjamas, huh?

superman was with me (I thought it was a good idea with six girls!?)

joyti's favorite t-shirt...and her favorite sports

smiling sonika

selfportaits are important!

hootchy-cootchy mama

uk-multiburst

isn't that an amazingly red couch....?

joyti pushing the button...

elena pushing the buttocks

two cars and a tram

two bulgarian girls in the streets

they know how to fix the cables...

sight-seeing

threesome, part I

threesome, part II

gute sozialistische kunst!!!

a lady, two dogs and the national palace of culture

scating is a popular sport in front of it...

heineken everywhere

the view from the palace's terrace

another view from the palace's terrace

fresco a la socialismo

nope, didn't actually meet them - a picture of chinese foto exposition

that's art a la kreglinger!

and this as well!

look there are cars down there....

this german word is international

maybe I should really do something for my tan!?

da faellt eim nix mehr zu ein!

frosheyed kreglinger

sunglassed kreglinger

beatled kreglinger

no, we weren't in...

"harry choo choo"(?) on the desks of "jalta"-club

charles and miro (ri.) from bulgaria (I met him once in frankfurt!)

that's what it looks like when bulgarians party - not so bad, huh?

I don't know why but charles never managed to keep his eyes open!

bulgarian dancing queen

bulgarian dancefloor-cowgirls

today's special offer...

...wasn't fish but mishmash!!

panoramic camera made in ussr: 600 levas (300 euro!) >> geil!!!

"shop-owner" on flea market

nazi-kitsch (lieber staatsschutz: das ist dokumentarfotografie!)

stevie really wondered...

...at all the nazi crap

20 min later we met this guy with the suspicious small beard

ordinary sign in front of a bank

or was it in front of this casino...?

just a nice hat

zypriotisch-deutsche voelkerverstaendigung

that's what the streets look like...for instance

near this sign the girls bought a cup of rasperries at 1,50.- leva

now you know how fish is spelled in bulgarian

another market we passed by...

...where you could find a lot of brooms!

see the guy to the left...?

asia and me (thank god I wear this glasses after 2 hours sleep)

auf deutsche klebespachtel isch halt oifach verlass, gell!?

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tramride to the station (saturday, 21:50 p.m.)

thessaloniki, sunday, 7:13 a.m.