After breakfast our day started with a lecture by local tour guide, Miglena Parashkevova. She told us to call her Maggie and gave us a lecture called, “A Prologue to the Bulgarian Revival.” The name sounds like it would be very boring but it was actually quite good. Maggie did a great job of giving us a short synopsis of Bulgarian history from the Bulgarian Empire before the late 14th century through the Ottoman takeover and then finally the Bulgarian Revival in the late 19th century.
We then hit the streets for a walking tour to see many historical landmarks in the area. Our hotel is right next to the offices of the President of Bulgaria. There were two guards outside and we watched the changing of the guard ceremony which happens every hour. It is similar to what happens at Buckingham Palace in London but on a much smaller scale.
We saw many churches. The main religion in Bulgaria is the Orthodox Church and we saw some very old ones. There are also some mosques as many Bulgarians are Muslim, dating back to when they were under Ottoman rule. Some of the Orthodox churches allowed photos but we had to pay for the priveledge. Believe me you did not want to mess with the nuns that were watching you!
The oldest church we saw was the ancient temple, St. Great Martyr George The Victory-Bearer Rotunda. This building dates back to the Roman Empire. There are still orthodox services there every day. We were unable to go into this small church or we would face the wrath of the cleaning lady who had just washed the floor! We could walk around the outside however, and marvel at how old this structure was.
The afternoon involved some shopping before we had an AHI Tour reception at the hotel followed by dinner with our fellow travelers. The dinner included a performance of traditional Bulgarian dancers and musicians. Of course there was lots of traditional food, Bulgarian wine and delicious desserts.
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