In Bulgaria’s olden days, Boza was a popular drink for kids. Ours was a fermented, slightly alcoholic beverage made from cereals. It’s a high-calorie drink, and I guess we were fed with it so we’d grow up faster.
It fell out of fashion, and by the early 2000s I’d stopped seeing it in fast-food places, almost fully replaced by Ayran and Coca-Cola.
So imagine my surprise when I saw the nearby confectionery loading up on these giant bottles of Boza. They must be serving it by the glass. But it’s usually very thick, almost cream-like. how do they even fill glasses from these 10-liter bottles? Is it fermented? The one from my childhood wouldn’t even last a full day. I doubt these will be consumed within a day of delivery.
This is a rare pretty sight from the muddy winter Sofia. A boat in Lake Ariana.
The city planners of the past were fascinated by lakes and rivers, which are naturally missing here. So they built fountains and lakes, and even attempted to build a river, a story for another post.
The architects wanted the lake to function as an ice rink in the winter. However, this didn’t work well even in the late 19th century, when the weather was colder. After some injuries and a few lengthy renovations, the lake is now emptied for the winter months to prevent any ice from naturally occurring.
The text at the very top, after being censored, means “I will ruffle your hair”. I really wonder about the thought processes that produced this copy. Perhaps it meant something else and got redacted. The redacted part must’ve been offensive.
I had a chaotic walk this morning, here’s a bit of Sofia and my path for the day.
Skyscrapers
I walked past 3 of the tallest buildings in Sofia. The first photo shows Capital Fort (147 meters) and Sky Fort (202 meters, with parts of it disappearing into the clouds). The second shows the Millennium Center’s tower 2 and 3 (~112 meters). By height, these rank as the city’s first, second, and third tallest buildings. The final photo is one of the tallest socialist buildings, which looks like a dwarf next to the Millennium Center, despite standing at 70 meters.
What the first 3 buildings have in common, apart from being tall, is that they all got stuck and remained unfinished for a long time. Capital Fort and the Millennium Center were eventually covered in glass and put into operation, but Sky Fort still lacks windows on its top four floors, which may take years to resolve.
Cake
The goal of my walk was to get a birthday cake from Vila Rosiche. Somehow, they’ve survived the gentrification and the enshittification of the city center brought on by the ever-growing number of tourists, and they’re still baking excellent cakes. Dropping a casual recommendation, as for whatever random reason, people find this blog on Google, searching for local experiences.
Looking for well-kept secrets in Sofia? Have a cake in Vila Rosiche. They have a small and well-hidden garden, which makes them fine for tourists as well.
Cat
This little fellow wanted to explore the internals of my car. Thankfully, she eventually came out for some pets and let me take a photo.
