Category: Sofia

Knee

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

I did my first true long walk since I bumped my knee into a concrete trash can a week ago. 10K steps in one go and the knee held well. I dodged a bullet this time. However, I lost my shape, feeling as if I did 20K, not 10K.

The bin is now out of the way, hopefully it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

And speaking of trash, a the gallery below shows a pigeon eating steak, Wartburg 1.3, and a cat, resting on a pillow. Sofia is not very clean under our current leadership, whose battle with the cleaning companies shows.

Cats

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

First cat photo dump of the year! After all that winter hiding, the weather got warmer, and I had some cat spotting over the last few days.

From left to right,

  • The guardian of the hot water leak – I featured both the cat and the hot water pool in November. Despite continuous re-digging, no progress with the leak. It’s still there, and the cat is still keeping it.
  • Two and Three are probably male cats, I took the photo moments before their feeding time.
  • And four is a street in Yavorov, with the protected pavement.

The text says “Humans, bro.” and was painted by a cat.

Boza

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

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.

Lake Ariana

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

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.