Sofia + Bulgarian bureaucracy

So I arrived in Sofia with no host lined up after getting having a few people decline. I love it when you can see the start of a city:

I checked into the "Hostel Mostel" which is a nice place with lots of people, and for about 10 euros they have all you can eat breakfast and a bowl of pasta + 200ml of beer for dinner if you so desire. They offer a daily tour to the Rila monastery which is about 120k south, and up into the mountains. Since it cost 20 euros I opted to pay to make it a day trip rather than spend 2-3 days riding there with all my gear especially since there is only really one way there and it's mostly highway. It's the most famous monastery in Bulgaria, and there were quite a lot of people there.

They yell at you if you take pictures inside, so these were taken sneakily:

 This is a new art style I've never seen before. The halos and hands on many of these figures are actual metal (silver or gold?) nailed to the painting:

We returned from the monastery just in time for me to catch the free bike tour around Sofia, which lasted 3 hours and took us around lots of monuments and landmarks, including many monuments to the soviets that apparently many bulgarians don't like and they're constantly debating about removing/destroying them.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The golden domes can apparently be seen for miles on sunny days:

This guy is pointed right at the parliment building and he's supposed to be watching over them, but I guess the joke is the actual deliberation rooms are underground, so the officials are hiding.

The guy in the middle here is a Soviet, protecting the weak Bulgarian peasants:

A chunk of the Berlin wall:

I had dinner with the three other people who showed up to the tour who happened to be students at a university in Istanbul.

The Next day I rode out to the Boyana Church, which was fairly underwhelming. It's a UNESCO heritage site because it has tons of old frescoes in it, and surprise surprise they also don't want you taking pictures in it.

After that I returned to the city to get some closer looks at the things I saw on the cycling tour.

Such as the Ivan Vazov Theater:

The inside of the Nevski Cathedral:

That night I was out grabbing food around midnight, and I had my wallet stolen. Luckily I was able to change all of the coins I had been hoarding for months, and with breakfast and dinner included in the hostel I had plenty to eat. I also had just been to the grocery store to buy food for the next few days of travel. However since I hadn't paid for the three nights in the hostel up front, and I didn't have the cash to pay for them, I was stuck in Sofia waiting for a replacement ATM card. I spent about 6 hours filling out a police report on Friday, and spent most of saturday, sunday, and monday sitting in the hostel. I did however enjoy riding around Sofia late at night, to get pictures like the Nevski Cathedral at night:

The old communist party building at about 1am:

Today my replacement card arrived, but I got to enjoy the circus that is Bulgarian bureaucracy so I wasn't able to get a copy of the police report until 3:30, and I wasn't even able to visit my own embassy without an appointment. Tomorrow I will visit the embassy, and after 8 nights in Sofia I will finally head towards Plovdiv and Istanbul.