Such a romantic sounding capital city, and we did see a beautiful rainbow from our room.
However, the fairytale then fades, because the surrounding area is pretty run down, although clean and with lots of people around.
The bus from Ruse took about five hours and the rain poured down, and in a de ja vu from yesterday, we thought that it had
stopped, went out to explore and got soaked again.
They do have an excellent metro system, and our line is a tasteful mint green.
Just before the rain set in we managed to get a quick snap of the Patriarchal Church of Alexander Nevsky.
Lots of people were going through the front door and we followed them in, just in time for the start of the service.
It's a Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Patriarch of the whole of Bulgaria conducted the service. His name is Danii and succeeded the previous Patriarch who died earlier this year.
He is right in the middle of the photo, has an amazing grey beard and carried a metal holder full of insense that he shook around him. He walked around the whole church, stopping at various icons to shake his holder, while a beautiful choir sang from a balcony high above us.
It was very beautiful and I feel privileged to have been there.
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