[caption id="attachment_294" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Me at the Vlaikova"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc03967.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-294" title="At the movies" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc03967.jpg?w=300" alt="Me at the Vlaikova" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

This weekend I went to see a film with one of my new Bulgarian friends.  We went to coffee last weekended and decided to see a movie this weekend.  After some back and forth--do you want to see this movie?--oh you've seen it already--how about this one?--well what about this? and finally we settled on the film <a href="http://www.2daysinparisthefilm.com/" target="_blank">"Two Days in Paris."</a> It was pretty good.  Nothing to write home about but definitely blog-able.

Really, however, I am writing about the movie theater.  It turns out this theater Vlaikova is amazing.  Well, maybe amazingly bad. I am not sure how old the theater is but it's pretty clear that it hasn't been renovated, updated or refurbished in the last twenty years.

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I met my friend outside of the theater which on first glance was much more of a bar than theater.  We went inside and she pointed to a piece of paper posted on the wall.  The messy Cyrillic apparently said that you must ring the bell to buy your ticket.  There wasn't a standard counter or glass window to purchase your tickets at--rather a plastic door bell that you ring to get your ticket.

The tickets are only 3 leva which is very inexpensive but you get what you are paying for.  We got to the theater about 20 minutes before the movie started and rang the bell.  A woman came out with tickets but then told us we would have to wait to buy them. Oh. Okay.

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So while we waited for her to sell us tickets we had time to look around.  What I assume was once the concession stand for the Heather is now a serious bar--there's no candy or popcorn for sale.  It appeared that you could get a beer or vodka/rum/gin but this was not the place I would order a cocktail.  At 3:40 there was already a woman setting at the bar having a beer, there were a couple of tables already scattered with beer bottles and a single pool table.

I wasn't expecting much for such an inexpensive movie but it was strange to see a small but serious bar in what was once the lobby of the movie theater.  After about five minutes, the woman came back and sold us our tickets.  She then unlocked the door to the theater and turned on the lights. She told us that we shouldn't wait for her to show us out at the end of the movie.  Did this mean that we should exit during the credits so that we weren't suck in the theater in dark at the end of the movie? Hum.

As you can see, the theater was shabby.  However, what you can't see is how the theater smelled--it was strangely

[caption id="attachment_295" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The Pink Seats "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc03969.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-295" title="Theater Vlaikova" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/dsc03969.jpg?w=300" alt="The Pink Seats " width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

damp and musty.  It kind of smelled like the basement of your great aunt's house--like no one has been down there for years and you're afraid to look too closely to see what may have died in the corner. The good news is that after a couple of minutes you get used to the smell.

The theater was done up in a couple of different shades of pink.  The chairs were pink and uncomfortable and I couldn't help but wonder if they had once be red (but how long ago?!).  Anyhow who needs a comfortable seat for a 100-plus-minute long movie? Not me.  I took off my coat to settle in.  We took some photos because we were the only two people in the theater (if you can call it that--see as there were only eight rows of chairs) and we began to wonder if we would be watching the movie all by ourselves.

Five minutes later the movie started, there were about six people in the theater and twenty minutes later I was putting my coat back on.  There was no heat in the theater.  This is probably okay all spring and summer but now that it's the end of October it might be time to turn on the heat but if the movie only bring is in 18 leva in ticket sales it's probably not worth it.

Anyhow, the movie was fine and after the movie we found a cake and coffee shop and for 3 leva more the afternoon turned out to be pretty enjoyable.  We laughed and laughed about the theater, the film and the experience in general.