Day in Sofia
Went for a walk in the park.
Parks are the same all over the poorer parts of eastern Europe - nice and big but really tatty. Grass is crappy looking. Trees are boring and of course there's even a bit of a litter problem in the parks - especially along the lesser used areas.
Happened to spot a tennis court; turned out to be a tennis centre. They've got seven coaches and a head coach who just organises coaching. His coaches are away playing in tournaments but he's organised a coach for me from somewhere. He'll be here in 15 minutes. Trouble is the surface is clay and my clothes are probably going to get ruined.
English speaking but I suppose you have to expect that from tennis.
I still seem to be able to play tennis a bit. Quite a nice venue with a nice bar overlooking the courts.
My tennis coach finished by extolling the virtues of Bulgarian archeological sites and monasteries etc. I wanted to tell him to be a proper coach - from my experience in Australia - you have to tell jokes and talk about the week-end's footie.
Nice spot for a beer. Lots of activity planting new vegetation. Obviously making a fair bit of an effort to get things looking good. This will be a great city again eventually.
Huge square near my bus stop back to my current home (until tomorrow morning). Here's a typical soviet style monument which isn't faring too well under capitalism. I suppose it won't be here much longer. They've already blown up the monument to some major communist figure.
The square is however a huge meeting-place for the young.
I even got to kick a foot-bag around for half an hour with an appropriately hippie looking bunch of people. They definitely need some more practice though.
The main street which runs passed the square towards Mount Vitosha. Appropriately named Vitosha Street. A few weeks ago the mayor declared it to be a pedestrian mall - though the with trams running down the middle, it's not quite as pedestrian as it should be.
Parks are the same all over the poorer parts of eastern Europe - nice and big but really tatty. Grass is crappy looking. Trees are boring and of course there's even a bit of a litter problem in the parks - especially along the lesser used areas.
Happened to spot a tennis court; turned out to be a tennis centre. They've got seven coaches and a head coach who just organises coaching. His coaches are away playing in tournaments but he's organised a coach for me from somewhere. He'll be here in 15 minutes. Trouble is the surface is clay and my clothes are probably going to get ruined.
English speaking but I suppose you have to expect that from tennis.
I still seem to be able to play tennis a bit. Quite a nice venue with a nice bar overlooking the courts.
My tennis coach finished by extolling the virtues of Bulgarian archeological sites and monasteries etc. I wanted to tell him to be a proper coach - from my experience in Australia - you have to tell jokes and talk about the week-end's footie.
Nice spot for a beer. Lots of activity planting new vegetation. Obviously making a fair bit of an effort to get things looking good. This will be a great city again eventually.
Huge square near my bus stop back to my current home (until tomorrow morning). Here's a typical soviet style monument which isn't faring too well under capitalism. I suppose it won't be here much longer. They've already blown up the monument to some major communist figure.
The square is however a huge meeting-place for the young.
I even got to kick a foot-bag around for half an hour with an appropriately hippie looking bunch of people. They definitely need some more practice though.
The main street which runs passed the square towards Mount Vitosha. Appropriately named Vitosha Street. A few weeks ago the mayor declared it to be a pedestrian mall - though the with trams running down the middle, it's not quite as pedestrian as it should be.
posted by Budz at 11:07 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home