Travel with me

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
      • Jersey
      • Latvia
      • 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
  • 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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  • 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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  • 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.

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  • Brick church with domes against a blue sky
    Bulgaria,  History,  Postcards from the road

    A postcard from Sofia

    September 28, 2022 / 18 Comments

    Is it ever OK to be late? It’s something I try my very best to avoid, but occasionally it can be a good thing, as in the case of Boris III of Bulgaria. This is the Hagia Nedelja church. The previous church on this spot was destroyed in a terrorist plot in 1925 to assassinate the king, Boris III. He was attending the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been killed in an assault two days previously, on 14 April of that year. The group from the Bulgarian Communist Party knew that in killing such a high powered…

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  • Three photos in a black frame showing an oriental palace and some details
    Architecture,  Lens-Artists,  Themed galleries

    Buildings three ways (three of a kind)

    May 29, 2022 / 42 Comments

    Every picture tells a story. But sometimes it’s useful to have more than one picture to expand on the narrative. If one picture can tell a story, what more can three tell us? Here I’ve chosen to focus on some impressive buildings I’ve visited around the world. I’ll show you the overall appearance, share a detail that caught my eye and introduce you to a person or people I saw there. Hopefully this will bring these buildings to life in a way a single image could never do.

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  • Stone church and blue sky
    Architecture,  Bulgaria,  History

    The wonders of Bulgaria’s Bachkovo Monastery

    February 10, 2022 / 27 Comments

    Bachkovo Monastery was for sure one of the most stunning of the many sights I saw in my short time in Bulgaria! Despite all the visitors, the atmosphere was one of tranquillity. The buildings looked so photogenic both in the drizzly weather we arrived in and the sunshine when we departed; and there was so much to see that was both interesting and beautiful.

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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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  • May 05, 2025 Gallery: breaking the rules
  • May 03, 2025 Colonial churches of the Philippines

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