In the center of Independence Plaza is a very large monument to General Artigas (seen below). Below that monument is a crypt which houses the urn containing his ashes (seen above). The urn is guarded by a special honor guard who you can see stationed to either side in the picture above.

Plaza Zabala is the only fenced park in Montevideo… It has an interesting statue in the center. The relief at the top depicts the town settlers gaining self governance from the Spanish army.

More Old Town pictures in my Montevideo Old Town and Port Market Flickr Set.

Independence Plaza (Plaza Independencia) houses a number of significant architectural items. Above is the office of the President (of Uruguay) and the statue/tribute to Artigas (an Uruguayan historical hero). Below (after the jump) are the Old City Gate, the Solis Theater (Teatro Solis) and Salvo Palace (Palacio Salvo). The city gate marks the entrance to the “Old Town” (original town behind the long gone protective walls) of Montevideo.

More photos in my Montevideo Old Town and Port Market Flickr Set.

After Sofia we headed to Varna, which is on the Black Sea coast. We were a bit early for the town and the weather was dreary (drizzling rain, grey clouds and not much sun). It looked like it had potential to be a really nice town in the summer, but at the time of our visit, it wasn’t great. Many things were closed for renovations as well. Maybe some other time I’ll go back nearer summer. I got some good pictures none-the-less, though they tend to reflect the mood and weather we saw.

More photos in my Varna, Bulgaria Flickr Set.

Today marks my last full day of visiting Sofia. Overall, the town is nice and there’s a variety of things to do. Town still shows much of its communist era influence. There is a large amount of graffiti as well. Many of the museums look like they’re out of the thirties and don’t allow pictures in general. A few charge an extra ~5 Euros to take photos. I didn’t take advantage of that offer because while there were a few neat things in them, there wasn’t much. Sofia has no shortage of churches (some pictured here, and some I didn’t visit) which, of course, don’t allow pictures inside but some were quite nice.

More photos in the Sofia, Bulgaria Flickr Photo Set.