Let’s Continue with our Walk Through Boris Gardens

Let’s Continue with our Walk Through Boris Gardens to the Alexander Nevsky Memorial Cathedral

How things can change in just a few days!

A few days ago when I started my walk it was snowing, we had a real winter scene - the round pond was frozen and everything was white.

And here we are now almost in Spring. I say “almost” because my son tells me that the actual starting day of Spring is March 22nd.

For me, my thoughts about the seasons are how I feel about them. If it’s hot I think it’s summer, if it’s fresh I think it’s spring and so on. So, we’re not quite in spring yet but it surely is spring like.

So let’s get back to our walk. and very quickly go out again.

Now I know things have changed because, first of all, I can see Block Cat sitting around in the sunshine.

Block Cat in the Garden

Perhaps I should say one of the block cats or Son of Block Cat or Block Cat Junior - it’s all a bit hazy. It’s difficult to decide but here in Bulgaria people don’t often keep cats domestically, some people do but not so many.

However, lots of the cats that don’t actually live in homes still have some sort of attachment. They live in the grounds and gardens of restaurants, for example, and are well fed. Or as in this case, this cat was born nearby and now lives somewhere in the cellars of our apartment block.

People feed him every day and Block Cat is looking pretty well. I haven’t really got any other name for him, but people are talking about it. And clearly as Block Cat saunters around, the irises are getting ready to bloom.

Also as we walk down the road we’ll find that many people, often the older people, have done some gardening in the grounds outside the blocks and so flowers like primroses are beginning to show.

And I can see little buds appearing on the Morello Cherries that line the streets here and in a little while they’ll be fully in bloom and everything will be snow white again though this time with blossom.

Anyhow as we go back to the Boris Gardens and start at the Round Pond again this time the snow has gone and it’s water and we can see the reflection of the trees again and people walking early in the morning.

Round Pond Reflections

Walking through the park apart from all the trees and the branches reaching up in the fresh air which helps us forget most of the the pollution of the city,

then we’ll pass by lots of sculptures and statues, which feature the famous men and women of Bulgaria.

Sometime later I’ll look more at famous men and women here but here we’re just walking. For myself I tend to prefer writers to revolutionaries, but here in Bulgaria, they’re often the very same. Here’s one of my favourites, Elin Pelin.

Elin Pelin

Elin Pelin is one of the most important literary men in Bulgaria and managed to survive through varous regimes with his stories of country life meeting with favour before the Communist era and when they came to power.

Many of his works have been filmed. Perhaps more later, but he’s one of the few men to have a town named after him. If you want you can leave Sofia and travel to the town which is named after him, Elin Pelin.

Walking further almost to the end of the park we’ll come to where at the weekends we might hear lots of fans and join the crowds on the street. Here it’s the law not to sell alcohol on certain days including days when there are important football matches, so here we’ll pass the newly built football stadium, the Vassil Levski Stadium, home to the Champion Levski football Club - the “Blues”which also doubles as the stadium for International matches.

Vassil Levski Football Stadium

Bulgaria has perhaps gone down a little in international football terms but football is still very well supported here.

Coming to the end of the park, marking the very end we’ll pass the controversial monument to the Soviet Army.

Detail from Soviet Army Monument

Many Bulgarians regret the years of association with the Soviet Union, and lots and lots of people miss those days and regard them as a golden age of peace, plenty and tranquility.

The monument survives even as the new Metro Station is built around it.

As I’ve said, this is not a political blog but it’s worth remembering that Bulgaria’s relations with Russia are based upon the fact that Russia, alone of the great powers, stood side by side with the Bulgaria and finally joined with the Bulgarian Resistance to defeat and drive out the forces of the Turkish Ottoman Empire which had occupied Bulgaria for hundreds of years.

This means that irrespective of politics and for reasons based upon a shared culture with the language written in the Cyrillic script, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian Religion, relations between Russia and Bulgaria are strong.

After Mr Putin’s recent visit, this year, 2008, has been declared the “Year of Russia”.

Walking slightly eastwards we’ll get to Orlov Most - in English, Eagle’s Bridge which we’ll leave for a short walk via the University, to the great square that houses the magnificent Alexander Nevsky Memorial Cathedral Church.

Next time we’ll have time to take a look at this great cathedral, the square and the fine buildings and streets that surround it.

I’m hoping that your comments will give me some guidance for further posts of course, and if you have minute, subscribe to the feed and bookmark me to your favourite social sites.

I'm John Rocha, Blog Master of Bulgarian Vistas.

I like to write from experience about living in Bulgaria, holidays in Bulgaria, Bulgarian food,

famous Bulgarians and ....

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All the best John