Our ride arrived at 5:40 – reservations at 6 pm. What I find so funny is that people driving in Sofia sometimes have NO idea where they are going, but they will find it! (And they did) I rode with Toni and her brother! We had a great chat while trying to find out restaurant. It was literally in the middle of nowhere and had I thought of it, I would have gotten a picture of the outside. It was in what I would call a “central park” sort of place in Sofia. Really and seriously, we turned off this busy busy street onto these dirt paths through this park that seemed to go on for miles! We drove around and around and FINALLY found what on the outside looked like a shack… BUT when we walked in, it was truly a Bulgarian Experience. There were 12 of us when we sat down to dinner. Here are the pictures!!!
All of us when we arrived at the restaurant (in three different cars) From Left to Right :
Amy, Bessie, Angela, Me, Shelley, Becky, Phil, Toni (seated), Frank, Valentina, Tonja (the 12th person was Toni’s brother, Marty who wasn’t in the picture)
This was the platter of appetizers… Two of these on our table. There is a mixture of cheese, meat, dip (yummy cucumber and sour cream), some other dip, I didn’t taste but reminded me of salsa, whole tomatoes and pieces of cucumber. The white stuff under it all was flat bread which we cut or tore off to eat with the stuff on top.
Main Dish Platters (we also had two of these) Chicken, Pork, Beef, Lamb and I think maybe duck, roasted veges, potatoes and the best beans every. Again on a piece of flat bread for us to tear off and eat. It was interesting to say the least! LOL
We weren’t sure what to do with our hands. It was fancy, but not really really fancy, so we didn’t want to offend anyone with out elbows on the table or not showing our hands at all! It was quite the discussion at our end of the table!
Toni – she is the director of the Bulgarian Agency that RR works with or AAC works with for Bulgarian Adoptions! She is absolutely wonderful and IF you are adopting form Bulgaria, you will meet her and she ROCKS!!!
The inside of the restaurant. When we arrived we were really the only people there, but by the time we left (almost 4 hours later) the place was PACKED!!!
Not sure how long this meat had been on the spit, however it must be tradition.. Music played and two men got the spits and carried them to the middle of the restaurant and put them on a stand and cut them off. You can kind of see it in the next two pics. They were kind of dark because the restaurant was very dimly lit.
(BELOW) Then the entertainment ensued. First there were three men in tux’s with instruments came out and danced. Not sure if they were really playing the instruments or not. Hard to tell. Then the dancing girls came out. We enjoyed them at first. As the night progressed, there was a belly dancer. This was about 10 pm and Valentina told us that if we stayed much longer the girls would be dancing on the tables. This was our cue to get out of dodge!
It was an interesting evening to say the least. Great company, good food and entertainment. I think we not only got a very authentic Bulgarian Meal, but also some entertainment…..whether that was truly of the Bulgarian Culture or not, I am not sure. It was interesting, but I am glad we got out of there when we did! Who knows what may have happened! LOL
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