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Travel snapshots from Toonsarah

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  • Archive
  • Home
  • Destinations
    • England
      • London
      • Newcastle-upon-Tyne
    • Europe
      • Albania
      • Austria
      • Bulgaria
      • Croatia
      • Estonia
      • France
        • Paris
      • Germany
      • Iceland
      • Italy
        • Sardinia
        • Sicily
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • Malta
      • Montenegro
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Spain
        • Seville
      • Switzerland
      • Ukraine
    • Beyond
      • Africa
        • Botswana
        • Cape Verde
        • Gambia
        • Kenya
        • Madagascar
        • Morocco
        • Namibia
        • Senegal
        • Tanzania
        • Zimbabwe
      • Americas
        • Belize
        • Canada
        • Chile
          • Rapa Nui
        • Colombia
        • Costa Rica
        • Ecuador
          • Galapagos Islands
        • Guatemala
        • Jamaica
        • Mexico
        • USA
          • California
          • Chicago
          • Nevada
          • New Mexico
          • New York City
          • Washington State
      • Asia
        • DPRK
        • India
          • Kerala
          • Rajasthan
        • Indochina
          • Cambodia
          • Laos
          • Vietnam
        • Japan
        • Nepal
        • Oman
        • Philippines
        • Syria
        • United Arab Emirates
        • Uzbekistan
  • Themes
    • Architecture
      • City streets
    • Art
      • Crafts
      • Street art
    • Colour
    • Dark tourism
    • Eco-tourism
    • Food & drink
    • Gardens
    • History
      • Ruins
      • War
    • Landscape
      • Coast & seascapes
      • Deserts
      • Mountains
      • Rivers
    • Nature and wildlife
      • Animals
      • Birds
      • Plants
        • Flowers
        • Trees, forests and woodland
    • People
      • Culture & tradition
      • Street photography
    • Travel in general
  • Photo galleries
    • Themed galleries
    • Travel galleries
  • Postcards from the road
  • Challenges
    • Photography challenges
      • Lens-Artists
      • CFFC
      • Monochrome Madness
      • One Word Sunday
      • Photographing Public Art
      • Pick a Word
      • Squares
      • Sunday Stills
      • The Changing Seasons
    • General challenges
      • Bird place of the month
      • Happy Place Happy Space
      • Monday walks
      • Weekend Coffee Share
      • Words of Wisdom
  • About me
    • Contact me
    • ‘Always Write’ interview
    • My love of travel
    • My photography
      • Photographic techniques
      • My photography journey
      • Video
    • Disclaimer & GDPR
  • Archive

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Topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white california churches cities coast colombia colour dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks monochrome Monochrome-Madness museum naturephotochallenge nepal north_korea paris people photography pick_a_word PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views wildlife
  • Bulgaria,  Colombia,  Kerala,  New York City,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  Pick a Word,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: pick a word (April 2025)

    April 26, 2025 / 27 Comments

    The Roman poet Horace said that 'a picture is a poem without words'. Of course he would not have known about photography, living as he did over two thousand years ago. But I’m sure if he had, he would have looked for poems in photos.

    Read More
  • Low blue house with tiled roof
    Architecture,  Bulgaria,  History,  Monday walks

    Koprivshtitsa: a Bulgarian time capsule

    May 22, 2023 / 32 Comments

    Koprivshtitsa is no ordinary town but rather a time capsule. Several of its houses are associated with significant players in the 1876 April Uprising against Ottoman rule. The uprising failed, but a fire had been ignited. The brutalities committed by the Turks while suppressing it led to widespread condemnation across Europe which was the trigger for the Russo-Turkish War. This ended in Turkish defeat. Thus the April Uprising can be regarded as having eventually achieved its original aim, the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.

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  • Black and white photo of sculptures of two women, one a soldier
    Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  Photographing Public Art

    The Monument to the Soviet Army in Sofia

    October 22, 2022 / 36 Comments

    To leave a monument standing, to mothball it or to destroy it? That is a question that faces many countries right now, as they face up to an uncomfortable past. Maybe values have changed, better understandings emerged, or political systems been rejected. Do we want still to be surrounded by reminders of that past? Or is it justifiable to remove them, hide the memories?

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  • Low chairs around a table, dark wood wall units
    Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  History

    Welcome to the 1980s in Bulgaria

    October 20, 2022 / 51 Comments

    In one corner of the room a small TV broadcasts news and propaganda. Photo albums on the table are full of reminders of happy family gatherings. Some medals are proudly displayed on a shelf, while the drinks cabinet holds treasured bottles of imported brands.

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  • Sculpture of a lion outside a building with columns
    Art,  Bulgaria,  Photographing Public Art,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: some of the many monuments of Sofia

    October 15, 2022 / 25 Comments

    Sofia may have moved its many communist era monuments to a dedicated museum, but that doesn’t mean that the city is short of interesting public art pieces. And there is quite a variety, from the purely artistic to the historically significant.

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  • Black and white photo of a city view with a large cathedral
    Bulgaria,  Mid-week Monochrome,  Photographic techniques,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: seeing Sofia in black and white

    October 13, 2022 / 19 Comments

    Speaking figuratively, Sofia is not a black and white city. Its history is too complex, its architectural influences too diverse. But like any city it lends itself to black and white photography.

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  • Stone statue of man in an overcoat
    Bulgaria,  Dark tourism,  History,  Monday walks

    A visit to Sofia’s Socialist Art Museum

    October 10, 2022 / 40 Comments

    What do you do with a load of monuments that celebrate a past you’d rather forget? You can haul them down and break them up for scrap perhaps. Or you can leave them where they are, a constant reminder of that troubled past. Or you can gather them up and put them in a museum; a museum that acknowledges and documents the past but doesn’t celebrate it.

    Read More
  • Wall painting of a sleeping purple cat
    Bulgaria,  Photographing Public Art,  Street art,  Travel galleries

    Gallery: more street art from Sofia

    October 8, 2022 / 41 Comments

    It’s no secret that I am a big fan of street art. I don’t mean scrawled graffiti, or even more precisely worked ‘tags’. I mean art. Like many cities today, Sofia offers a dedicated street art tour; we saw signs advertising it in several places. But we chose not to take the tour, instead preferring to seek out street art at our own pace.

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  • Black and white photo of two women with umbrellas tinted pink
    Architecture,  Bulgaria,  Monday walks,  Street photography,  Sunday Stills

    Sofia, city of contrasts and a work in progress

    October 5, 2022 / 56 Comments

    Bulgaria’s capital city intrigues and charms me. It seems to be in a state of constant flux, built on layers of history. One minute you are walking on a Roman road, the next staring up at 1950s Stalinist monoliths. Gold-domed cathedrals and churches dominate the vistas along wide boulevards while in side streets elegant villas sit side-by-side with their crumbling, neglected cousins.

    Read More
  • Red Metro sign against a backdrop of leaves
    Bulgaria,  London,  Paris,  The Changing Seasons,  Themed galleries

    Gallery: a September selection

    October 3, 2022 / 25 Comments

    There is a theme emerging in these monthly round-ups, a theme of bookends! I’ve already pointed out that while July was bookended by happy gatherings of family and friends, August was similarly bookended with funerals. And now we come to September and we are back to happier bookends: city breaks.

    Read More
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Some topics I’ve touched on

africa animals architecture art birds black_&_white california churches cities coast colombia colour dprk ealing england flowers france friendlyfriday Friendly_Friday history india landscape lens-artists Lens_Artists_Challenge london Monday_Walks monochrome Monochrome-Madness museum naturephotochallenge nepal north_korea paris people photography pick_a_word PPAC ruins Street_Art Street_Photography Sunday_Stills thechangingseasons usa views wildlife

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You may have missed

  • Jun 15, 2025 Gallery: stormy skies overhead
  • Jun 13, 2025 Gallery: doubling up the pinks
  • Jun 11, 2025 Gallery: black and white are also colours
  • Jun 08, 2025 Gallery:  they call me mellow yellow
  • Jun 06, 2025 Gallery: pick a word (May 2025)

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All images and texts copyright Sarah Wilkie - 2025 ©
 

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