Sofia; Part 3: Big, beautiful buildings

Sofia is bigger and more cosmopolitan than Skopje. It has a lot more impressive buildings and I think we saw most of them.
The first impressive building we saw was a mosque:

After that, we saw the Russian Orthodox church. It was built from 1912-1914. I overheard a tour guide telling a story about the church, that it was built for some high muckety-muck in the Russian Orthodox church who came to visit but for some reason didn't want to visit a Bulgarian Orthodox church. I'm not exactly sure if this story is true or why he didn't want to visit a Bulgarian Orthodox church, but there you go. I guess that's what you get when you hang around the edge of a tour group straining to hear what their guide says without appearing to obvious about the fact that you don't belong with them.

After the Russian Orthodox church we went to the Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral, St. Alexander Nevski. It was big and beautiful and the inside was awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll have to just take my word for it. In the crypt below the church there was an exhibit of icons, which was also interesting.

To complete our tour of three of the world's biggest religions, we passed a large synagogue:

After wandering around churches and other holy buildings all morning, we decided to take a rest in a park. I have to apologize because I'm not exactly sure what the park is called. However, it was near a giant sculpture surrounded by a graffiti-covered wall. Apparently the graffiti was done there as part of some kind of competition a few years ago.