This weekend I met my friend A. and we went downtown together to wander around. She's been in Sofia for 6 months and now that spring seems to edging in on winter, we've been re-discovering the city.

It's been really nice. Everyone seems to be emerging from a long, chilly winter and the city center seems full of life and energy versus January and February when everyone was bundled up, head down and walking as quickly as they can to their final destination.
<a title="Nevski Cathedral by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6823751154/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7070/6823751154_acdbc127e6_z.jpg" alt="Nevski Cathedral" width="640" height="427" /></a>
We started at Take a Cake off the University Metro Stop and then meandered towards Nevski Cathedral and towards the Foreign Art Gallery/Museum. The Foreign Art Gallery looked especially sad. There was one woman sweeping the stairs, another at the ticket booth but there didn't seem to be any lights on inside the gallery.

We swung by the women selling handmade table clothes, embroidered linens and all things knit. These things are beautiful but if you stop to look too long all of a sudden all matter of items have been unrolled, uncovered and otherwise redisplayed for you. I love to buy these things for gifts but I had no one to shop for today so we passed by rather quickly.
<a title="St Sofia Chruch by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6969873335/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6969873335_b99ecdc67c_z.jpg" alt="St Sofia Chruch" width="640" height="427" /></a>
We popped in to the St. Sofia church and looked through the floor at the ruins beneath the church and some old black and white photos of the church before the 1937 (-ish) reconstruction. A. had never been in this church and while it's not much to look at it's pretty amazing that a church of some sort has stood there for centuries.
<a title="Markets outside Nevski  by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6969875011/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6969875011_955a688251_z.jpg" alt="Markets outside Nevski " width="640" height="427" /></a>
This took us to the men and women selling icons and paintings as well as flea-market like finds in front of Nevski. I am not much of an icon kind of girl although I've always figured that I'd buy one before I move back to the States and neither is A. So we headed past the icons and into the paintings.

Here we started looking in earnest. Some of the paintings are really great and others are well, not my thing. I started talking to an older man at one of the stands in Bulgarian. He told me that I had very good Bulgarian and asked me about myself. I told him I was an American and whatnot. This lead to him saying I know and American K. and she lives in Mladost 1A. I, of course, know this woman because she used to work at ACS with me and she loved one of the artists this man carries and bought a number of paintings from him over the course of three years. He told me that he hadn't seen K. all winter and I had to tell him it was because she'd moved to China. He looked crestfallen.
<a title="My new painting by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6823754030/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7209/6823754030_053e888701_z.jpg" alt="My new painting" width="640" height="427" /></a>
Then I bought a painting from him. It's the first painting I've ever purchased. I think it's a combination of the colors, the style and the place that drew me to it. I just felt like I had to bring it home with me. So I bought it. The picture above doesn't do it justice. The scene is the corner of Sofia University in the city center.
<a title="The Russian Church by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6823753306/"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7047/6823753306_cd8af0a843_z.jpg" alt="The Russian Church" width="640" height="427" /></a>
After this we made a loop by the Russian Church and then I had to go home. One because I was now in possession of a rather large painting and two because I'd spent all of my money. All in all it was a lovely afternoon.

Now I've got buy a hammer and nails so that I can hang my painting. Funny how one purchase always seems to lead to another.