After a few hours of chit-chatting and gorging ourselves, the crowd dwindled a bit, but a pretty big group of us had decided to go out and experience some of the night life of Sofia. This was the first time that I had been back downtown since my first tour with Mimi, and this was quite the different tour.
We went to this place which they call the "Candle Bar" but is actually called Humbara (The Barn) in Bulgarian. And this is exactly what it was. We took a taxi from the College into town, met up with the folks who had gone to their apartments first to change, etc, and then we walked a few blocks to this little side alley. We walked through this wooden door/shanty looking entrance that had a printed sign posted in Bulgarian (which I assumed was the signage for the bar). As I walked in, and my eyes adjusted to the lack of bright light, I realized that I was literally inside a barn. The floor was a swept, hardened dirt floor. The bar was to the left, along the wall, with all of the bottles lined up along several shelves. Along the far wall, under the second floor loft, were wooden stools (which were more like upright logs) and planks laid out as little bar seating areas. There were picnic table like seating on the second floor, if you ventured up the rough hewn stairs near to the door. I didn't venture up to the other levels, but there also was a third floor as well. There is no electricity in this bar. The entire place is illuminated by candle light. The only electrical supply leads to a tiny fridge behind the bar, and the boom box playing some jazzy, Frank Sinatra like music.
When we walked in, there were about 10-12 others in there. Our group immediately created quite a crowd, and we almost filled the place, but it was still quite comfortable. There were large canvas paintings hanging all around on the walls, and the only menu or list was a small chalkboard next to the bar, listing all the pours with the price of the serving (all in Bulgarian, of course). I ordered a vodka and sprite, and quickly the ice cubes she put in my glass had melted, and we were enjoying each others company, talking, and just taking in the general atmosphere.
Andy, Erin's boyfriend (Erin being one of my roommates in the Pink House), began to tell me the history of Humbara. Apparently, this bar is the site of the beginning of Socialism and Communism in Bulgaria. It is where they would hold secret meetings, and at the beginning of a meeting, the leaders would take their candle that had been lined up outside the door, and light it once they got inside the barn in order to provide light for their meetings. I think the barn was also used as a secret paper press as well, although I will have to ask Andy about that again to get the history straight again.
I just thought it was a pretty amazing place. Now I can say that I have drank at the place where Communism in Bulgaria began... Nazdravey! (cheers!)
After we had been in Humbara for a while, some people decided to go home, the rest of us made our way several blocks to another bar/club called Mojitos. This had a bit more of a modern club atmosphere than the barn did... There were three rooms, each playing different music with a separate bar in each one. We went all the way inside, to the third and least crowded room. The DJ was playing Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and we all began to laugh and those who knew the moves to the dance, brought them out... A few drinks and the headiness of all the cigarette smoke loosened everyone up and we all began to dance to the random 70's and 80's music the DJ selected. It was quite the evening. I will have to write another entry at a later point about how I noticed that no one smiles... but that will come at another time.
It was a great night, and a wonderful way to get an idea more of the "night scene" of Sofia. Andy, Erin, Matt, Derek and Jenn and I all stopped at a place called Mimas on our way home for something called a "duner/dooner". Basically it is a Bulgarian giro...shaved chicken, a few bulgarian style french fries, sliced tomato, garlic sauce, wrapped up in a soft pita. It was delicious, and a perfect late night snack. (For all you C'villians, it was right up there with a trip to Little Johns...) We then piled into a taxi and made our way to the American College, where I promptly crashed into bed around 2:15 am...
and for some reason I got the feeling that was an "early" night, compared to many of the other people who were out last night.
Because of my trip last night, I decided that I felt I could make my way around downtown on my own. Today, I took the #76 bus from the stop near ACS towards town. The bus experience is one you would expect in any foreign country: a long wait, of about 30 minutes before the right bus came along; a jolting ride that was borderline stifling hot, forcing me to take a standing position right next to a tiny window, so I could get some moving air; having absolutely no clue where exactly I should get off, despite having a map in hand. I had needed to go to the Apple Repair store to see if they could fix the CD drive, which refuses to eject my cd. I found the right bus stop, got off, and started walking a few blocks to this little side street, Svetoslav Terter, where I could see the little Apple icon down a little ways. Unfortunately the only person I found inside was the weekly cleaning lady, who told me (in Bulg) that they were not open on Saturdays (shucks). I will just have to make the trip this week sometime again.
I kept walking towards the center, pausing occasionally to consult my little Sofia guidebook map to see where I was headed. I passed the Nevsky cathedral, and the vendors that line the sidewalk out in Nevsky square. I was starting to sweat so I have stopped in a coffee shop, Onda, where we stopped last week with Mimi, right across from Ruska tsurkva, the Russian church. The cold water and iced cappuccino are delicious, and happily I found there was wireless...thus my blog entry.
Before I leave to head back to the school for the evening, I need to walk to the book market, Slaveykov, in order to search for my Bulgarian language book that we are using with our language teacher, Lora. We meet with her every week for lessons in order to develop some conversational and basic Bulgarian. It is nice, because I can read and write it from taking Russian (never thought I would be able to use that language again..) but there are a lot of words that are different from the Russian. I am excited to be able to communicate, since it is proving to be kind of hard right now...
Well, I am off to make my way to the book market. Dovishdenay! (I will eventually figure out how to post cyrillic...)
No comments:
Post a Comment