Bulgaria: Sofia

I ended up spending some extra time in Sofia just to slow down a bit.  It was too long.  I liked the hostel where I stayed - it was nice to socialize with people since most of the places I stayed in Turkey were solitary.  I enjoyed the Sofia walking tour and the communist tour - they were interesting, and I learned a lot.  The communist tour I went on was the same one that John McCain did several years earlier (he did it as a private tour).  Communism is still a controversial topic in Bulgaria.  There is a communist party that has seats in government, and there are people that feel very strongly on both sides.  However, the country tries to hide its communist past.  It is not taught in schools, and the history museum doesn't mention it.  It is only a small non-profit group that is trying to expose the communist past.  It was a dangerous and scary time, with secret police, neighbors who spied on you, and limited options for international travel.  However, I do think it is important not to forget the past, just to make sure those mistakes are not made again in the future.  They have a piece of the Berlin wall in the city, and they have a monument honoring the lives lost during the communist regime.  The problem is that if I tell Americans that I went on a communist tour, they assume that I am promoting communism.  JOHN MCCAIN DID THE SAME TOUR.  I WENT ON THE TOUR ONLY TO LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY.
Generally, I found Sofia to feel a little dreary.  The people were nice, the city wasn't completely terrible.  It just didn't feel "uplifting".  If it wasn't the middle of a pandemic I would have explored the nightlife a little more.  Maybe that would have been a fun side to the city.