Stylish Sofia

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Here in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, the "S" stands for style.

The latest trend is the open-air lounge furnished with couches upholstered in suede and living room-style coffee tables.

The warm spring weather makes for good people-watching. Slim Bulgarian women favor micro-minis or pants that fall just below the knee. Men go for the body-builder look with tight t-shirts, short haircuts and slim suits.

Sofia's a bargain as big cities go. It would be stretching it to call it the next Prague, but there's plenty of churches, museums, markets, parks and gardens to easily fill two days, and lots of stylish restaurants and cafes.

We checked into the 20-room Maria Luisa Hotel, a boutique business hotel in a renovated older building with a Viennese cafe in the lobby, and a breakfast buffet that keeps us going all day.

The service is old-world quaint. I came back to the room to find that the maid had folded my clothes and lined up my toiletries according to the size of each tube and container.

Trundling past the front door are trams that lead to the pedestrian shopping street of Bulevard Vitosha flanked on one end by a snow-capped mountain and the other by an Orthodox church built on the remains of a Roman town.

Sofia is flat, with wide plazas interspersed with narrow, tree-lined streets, so we've been mostly walking, partly because nothing is very far, and partly in protest for being fined $5, 10 times the normal 50-cent fare, for not buying an extra ticket for our suitcases on the way in from the train station.

Religious tolerance

Sofia's history comes together in its mix of Christian Orthodox, Islamic and Jewish churches.

Across the street from our hotel is Banya Bashi mosque, built by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century.

Facing the mosque is Sofia's Jewish quarter where an Israeli investor has restored a historic indoor market, called the Hali, filled with shops selling wine, olives, bread and cheeses. Behind the market is a Jewish synagogue.

"Does everyone get along?" I wondered aloud to the security guard at the synagogue gate.

"Bulgaria has a history of religious tolerance," he told me. The Orthodox churches survived under Turkish rule, and it was the Bulgarian church that stood up for the Jews in World War II and prevented their deportation to German concentration camps in Poland.

The gold-domed Aleksandar Nevsky memorial church is Sofia's most famous landmark. It was built to honor the Russians and others who liberated Bulgaria from the Turks.

We waited an hour to get in this morning, a good opportunity to look over the stalls selling Communist military metals and pins. Ladies with plastic bags filled with what looked like large bagels were doing brisk business.

Gold-colored bricks cover the streets in this area. A long promenade called the Largo is lined with a mix of Communist-era and 19th century European-style buildings, ancient churches, parks and gardens.

Tucked along the side streets are upmarket restaurants and cafes, and the occasional "squat shop," stores that sell beer, soft drinks, etc., out of windows at basement level.

The high ceilings, wooden floors and moody jazz at a restaurant called "Before & After" reminded me of Vienna or Paris — except for the prices.

Dinner for two ( a roasted red pepper and baked cheese appetizer, salads, baked trout and a half-liter of white wine) was $22.

Euro-free Europe

We're ending our trip in Sofia, but we could have just as easily started it here.

Poland's Wizz Air flies between Sofia and London. The last I checked, SkyEurope planned flights to and from Paris.

Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia are all close by, and like Bulgaria, they're euro-free.

In this part of the world, that translates into less-expensive, interesting, safe and easy travel.

Get here if you can.