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This Saturday night we all expect an unusual initiative – the 4th Annual Drum & Jazz event. Eminent artists will gather under one roof to color the night in multifarious sounds, making the crowd overjoyed. What is really thrilling is that all the performers have unique and uncommon styles, thus presenting to the audience a remarkable mixture of individualism, diversity and rhythm that is hard to witness and hear for a night.

Among all the special guests is Amon Tobin who has always sounded like an eccentric in the dimension of acid jazz and jungle, tending towards more hip-hop style rhythms mixed with the ominous samples with which the beats are intertwined. His sampling techniques are a deviation from simply lifting melodies, while the tunes have a live, natural quality that contradicts their programmed origin, enforced by choosing highly idiosyncratic and energetic sample sources.

It is definitely a party that we won’t miss.

Venue: 4Km Party Center

For more information, visit the organizers’ web site: http://drumandjazz.com/en.

The street phones work with phone cards that are sold in almost every kiosk around. There were some attempts to impose phones working with coins, but in vain. Personally, I prefer coin phones because they could be used any time you have coins, not a phone card.

What is new here, however, are the phone booths. They are bigger than the previous ones, which could hardly be defined as booths, but exactly their size is what bothers me. By being too big in comparison to the phone machine,  they make it to look little and somehow one could see their commercial purpose – aim at displaying huge posters, advertising the phone company itself. Very clever but not efficient since the booths do not offer any place for baggage.

So if you decide to use any of them, you have to achieve a balance between your belongings and the phone receiver.

In Sladchogled store, meaning Sunflower in Bulgarian, interesting things are being sold. The store is organized on two floors and one can literally lose track of time when visiting the place.

On the first floor, there are innumerable number of materials and supplies – everything an artist needs, while on the second one, the area is dedicated to everyone who gets inspired from time to time and likes to create their own decorations, jewelery and whatever they can think of. Obviously, they rely on the imagination and if it happens so that you lack some of it, the how-to-do book collection is impressive, with the English editions dominating.

What is new there is that they have started to offer very exotic mixtures of tea that are all labeled in an interesting way. Perfect for a present, I would say.

Slanchogled store is on 13 Ivan Vazov str.

Zhenskiqt pazar (The Women’s market) is a curious place to explore – it is big, overcrowded on weekends and it always has various things to offer. The area has always been a busy market place and it used to be called “Wheat market” and “Horse market” but since it starts to be dominated only by women who sell and buy, the name naturally comes out. The men’s territory was on the animal market that does not exist anymore.

The most common products, of course, are the vegetables and people arrange them in a way as if the stalls merge and unite into a colourful vegetable river that flows into a flowery one at the end of the market, where Luvov Most (Lion’s Bridge) is. Everything is considered to be cheaper and that is why Zhenskiqt pazar is so popular or just people like the idea of lingering around to enjoy the market atmosphere that bears remembrance to the way business was done in the past.
You would see also many other goods scattered on the shores of the vegetable river that come from China, Turkey or Russia or you could submerge in a sea of fish or butcher’s shops.

And the smell of kepabche and kyufte is impossible not to sense.

At one of the ends of the market, Halite (The Central Market Hall), Sofia’s Sinagogue and Banya Bashi Mosque are situated, so you would be able to see other sights than the market itself.

Apart from the metaphoric references, you should be aware that the market might be targeted by pickpockets, so keep an eye of your belongings.

This monument is a popular place for hanging out and lots of skateboarders, skaters and people with other interests could be spotted. One of the reasons is maybe because there is space to move around and a monument to climb on. But this wasn’t so fifty four years ago, when the place, burdened with symbols, expressed the Socialist power, progress and determination.

A similar message carries the NDK Monument too, which is now hard to decode bearing in mind its crumbling state.

The 34-metre high statue is actually part of a bigger complex that starts from Alexander Osvoboditel Boulevard, thus we have a variety of scenes, representing the glory of the Soviet Army. At first, you see bronze human statues on their way to the war front and at the end, a Russian soldier, followed by Bulgarian woman and man, are elevated above all.

Presently, you won’t be able to take a walk around the statues, since the construction of the subway has overtaken the whole area, still you could enjoy the view while sitting on the stairs of the monument that is in praise of the Russian soldiers.

On the other side of the boulevard, Sofia University is situated.

Fans rock bar is a place for rock fans, though sometimes the music gets harder.

There is a stage for live performances and when a band is playing, the party gets crazier. The music is totally loud and people really seem to enjoy the atmosphere.

The Hard Art-Rock interior design, as it is defined on the bar’s web side http://www.rockbarfans.com/, corresponds to the whole idea and invites the visitors to help themselves with the drinks. Part of this design is also a huge video wall, often showing concerts or football matches.

However, the coolest thing is that Fans works every night and the chances to listen to a live performance are really good.

Drinks for two would be 20 Leva and usually if a band is going to perform, there is an admission that would be no more than 10 Leva.

Address: 114 Vasil Levski blvd.

Sofia’s public transport is unpredictable in many ways that brings about unexpected experiences. Some of its characteristics are – during the day it shelters many people, it can take you to Vitosha Mountain or Pancharevo Lake or on a night like this, it drives you home safely.

Advice: nowadays, when Sofia’s traffic is nothing more than a traffic jam, the best alternative is to use the trams – they are environmentally friendly, more interesting as machines and on some places the cars cannot get in their way. Probably, the route taxis or the subway (though it has about a dozen stations) are faster and more furious, but we should not underestimate what the trams can do, so use them when possible.

The trip to this unique and unearthly place will take you a whole day if you are really fast, so I strongly recommend that this should be a trip for the whole weekend so that you will get impressions from the beautiful and unpredictable Rhodope mountain – where Orpheus once lived.

On your way to there, you will pass by the National Astronomical Observatory – Rozhen and by one of our biggest winter resorts – Pamporovo which now looks sad and abandoned but just wait for the first snow.

The Wonderful Bridges are two and striking in size – they are huge marble rocks which stretch to the two ends of Dalbok Dol river. It took this phenomena centuries to shape in the way we see it today – it was a cave carved by the waters of the river. It is said that after an earthquake, a considerable part of the rocks fell into the river which washed them away.

The first bridge is 70 metres high, while the second one is 50 metres. Close to the second bridge, there is a cave – Ledenata Pesetera (The Icy Cave) which keeps very low temperatures that do not allow the ice to melt down.

My first impression when I saw the place was that the Wonderful Bridges look as if someone has put them there – they strongly contrast the wild nature that surrounds them.

After visiting  the bridges, you can stop in the nearby restaurants and have excellently made Kachamak or Patatnik which are so typical for the region. In all the villages around, you can find family houses for guests – the prices in the summer are usually 15 Leva per peson, dunring the winter – 20 or 25 Leva.