Tuesday 28 June 2016

Visit to the Brixton Street Market, London 2016



Today I visited the Brixton Street Market, place in London which I often have heard mentioned when people spoke about exotic foods, but somehow haven't seen yet. So my first impression is that its not really very big and while some years ago I would have thought that looks like Middle-Eastern or Afro-Caribbean market, today I think its something rather typical for London, as there are several similar markets around. When I say Middle-Eastern or Caribbean, I mean not only the exotic foods, but also the ambient, the faces of the people, the stalls without prices and covered sometimes with fruits and foods that I haven't seen yet in my life and strangely enough the prices are not really fixed and the vendors often decide on the moment how much to ask for any specific thing.

Street musicians next to the Brixton Underground Station



Other then food, other thing as these flowers can be seen, too.
"Progressive" yet ancient looking unisex toilet.
There are a few covered passages, bazaar-type





Shop with some crafted things and vegetable seeds for planting
There were also a lot of stalls with fresh fish and seafood from many different species

Most of the stalls and places for eating are Afro-Caribbean



The omnipresent rye and sourdough breads
Soursop, spiky green fruit, which I have never eaten before but found and bought from this market. Somehow I forgot to take a picture myself, so I am using this one from Wikipedia. The fruit is very sweet, its related to the Cherimoya and with somewhat similar taste, but it has a bit strange aftertaste, to which I think one has to get used first.

Monday 27 June 2016

Sofia centre, Spring 2016

Today I'll post a few pictures I took month ago when I've been in Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. I got to the centre, strated from place called Bouleverd Vitosha, after that I passed by the National Palace of Cuture, then Slaveykov square, National teatre, the Yellow pavement and then again to the Sofia Court House, where I finished the loop. All in all it is not a great distance and can be walked in an hour or so if you don't get distracted too much.

Bouleverd Vitosha, also called Vitoshka. It is considered to be the centre fo Sofia
Sofia Court House







On Vitoshka can be found pretty big bookshop with Cafe in it, which makes the reading and buying of books extra pleasant experience

There are a lot of benches for people to rest from their walk or shopping







The garden of NDK (National Palace of the Culture), the building itself can't be seen oh this photo
Sleeping dog in the middle of Slaveykov square. The stray dogs are big problem of the city, but some of them seems to be better integrated and don't do any problems at all.

The very first McDonalds opened in Sofia in the mid-nineties. It was considered exotic and posh place to eat and so expensive, that only the richest Bulgarians could eat regulary there
Side roads around Vitoshka
Slaveykov square used to be one of the biggest street markets for books in the World, but now for various reasons it is not so big anymore

Big part of the Sofia's public transport net are the tram lines, which criss-cross the city

The National Theatre "Ivan Vazov"

The garden in fron of the National Theatre










The place where the "Mausoleum of Georgi Dimitrov" used to be before being distroyed after the fall of the communism




The Yellow Pavement, iconic Sofia's area

Shop for crafted chocolate figurines





Vitosha mountain can be see looming above Sofia