Just to balance out the universe I guess, I had a bad planning experience after my good one this morning.  I had been warned on several travel websites that there were sketchy taxi drivers in town. I thought I had done my research and knew the rates , but I ended up in a scam taxi anyways. In the end I didn't pay as much as the driver was asking but more than what I think I was supposed to pay. It really soured my experience here. I was so mad I walked most of the way back. I know that most cab drivers are decent and honest, but there's enough bad ones out there to make me never want to take a taxi again.

But on the plus side, Sofia has an organization called Free Sofia Tours which provides twice daily tours of downtown Sofia. Very interesting and I highly recommend it if you pass this way. I was thinking it would be great if such a thing existed in Toronto. Here is part of the tour in the subway, where the Eastern gate of the Roman fortress of Serdika has been preserved and incorporated into the subway structure. Not only that, the stones on the ground are part of the Roman road that went all the way to Constantinople (Istanbul). Pretty cool, at least to me--hope you think so too.