Explore our immediate neighbourhood, just south and east of the famous Eagles Bridge. The city centre is immediately north of us and has most of the historic cultural sites, museums, and gall, but it is consciously tourist territory. Menus in English as well as Bulgarian. Prices pretty reasonable by international standards. Our neighbourhood, though, is entirely local. Only Bulgarian spoken on the street and on almost all signs, notices, and shop windows. Here people live in flats amongst dozens of small shops, bakeries, and cafés.
There’s a nice old fashioned practicality about it too. It’s possible to buy either a broom handle or the business end of the broom. Breaking the one or wearing out the other doesn’t mean that both wood and straw need replacing. A store that says мляко in the window (“milk” - fortunately we’re getting better at transliteration and fortunately in this case the Bulgarian is much like the Polish, apart from the alphabet) seems to sell nothing but yoghurt and mild - ok tasteless - white Bulgarian cheese. May also sell milk - we don’t go in. Shops labelled alcohol and tobacco seem a popular combo, though one never seen in Canada. And indeed quite a lot of people are smoking on the street, many of them, J observes, young women. It would probably be possible to spend your whole life in a six block area here and meet all your needs in local shops.
Stop slightly north of our place at a small supermarket in the basement of a building for a few basics - yoghurt, eggs, lentils, bulgur, onions, carrots, vegetable spread, and fruit. And then the treats from the deli - cooked peppers stuffed with a bean mixture and and fried patties that seem to be mainly puréed lentils. Delicious.