I went to the sweet-shop Romans in Bistritsa last night. It was intense.

Apparently this shop has been open since the 1990's when it was <em>the</em> place to go. I guess calling it a shop doesn't really do it justice. They make cakes and sweets of all varieties and sell them in a three or maybe four story tall restaurant-cafe that overlooks Sofia.

<img class="alignleft" title="Romans" src="http://distilleryimage4.instagram.com/8bc8ef0e8f0911e1a39b1231381b7ba1_7.jpg" alt="" width="428" height="428" />I'd been instructed to go for either the pancakes or the waffles. Um okay. I do have to say that the cakes looked pretty good too. The menu was page after page of desserts. The kind of menu that has both pictures and a written description. I dig the pictures. It makes it that much easier to imagine what you're ordering.

It was dinner time-ish when we went so I ordered a savory chicken pancake (think crepe or in Bulgarian палачинка--palachinka) and a small forest fruit waffle. A. ordered a pressed sandwich, the large palachinka with forest fruits and a vanilla milkshake. At first when my savory palachinka arrived I thought: this is okay. It's not too much food. But when my dessert waffle appeared I knew that I was doomed. The small was actually pretty big.

<img class="alignleft" title="Pancakes" src="http://distilleryimage11.instagram.com/19bb94888f0a11e1b10e123138105d6b_7.jpg" alt="" width="428" height="428" />I ate what I could and left the rest behind. Then I spent an hour on my couch wondering why I ate so much and bemoaning the sugar comma I was slipping into.

This morning everything seems like a dream.

The waffles and crepes with strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and sour cherries, clouds of whipped cream and even a scoop of ice cream. It seems too good to be true.