And my journey continues, this time I went to Bulgaria – Sofia. I have never been to Bulgaria before so this was a great new adventure for me and I was curious what I would get to experience.
I arrived at the Sofia Airport Terminal 1, around 13 km away from the city centre. This time I had done some research beforehand and knew approximately how to get around upon arrival. Ff you plan to go to Sofia I advise to read the wikitravel information about the local taxis:
Just as described in the link above, the touts were waiting just behind the arrival lounge and asking if you need a taxi. The arrival hall is fairly small and you can see the 'O.K. Taxi Office' straight away, book here your taxi, DO NOT go with a tout.
A colleague of mine didn’t pay attention (was on the phone) and went with one of the touts. He only realised he took a scam taxi after arrival at his hotel and had to pay 130 Leva, usually you would pay around 12 Leva (6€ or 4.5£) from the Airport to the City Centrum. Of course that was the joke of the week. Still makes me laugh (kind of, I do feel sorry for him, a little bit).
I was accommodated this time in the Best Western City Hotel (Midrange), but Sofia has as well Hostel Budget options, which are actually not that far away from the City Centre, all in walking distance.
The city is known for its cultural history and buildings, I tried to see as many as possible. Most of them are close to each other and can easily be done in one day.
There are some options around Sofia, one which I am pretty sad I missed is Mount Vitosha. You can see it from the city and it looks amazing. Additional to that check the ‘Get Out’ Section of the Wikitravel Article.
During the first sightseeing tour I found a local restaurant and it didn’t look like a lot of tourist would go inside, but not sure since it was Sunday and the city was pretty much dead.
One of the waitresses showed me to my table and I had for the first time local food, and I have to say it was excellent. And I learned people in Bulgaria love their cheese!
I was lucky to try various dishes in the coming days, it was a great choice. Sofia has various restaurants covering mainly the Spanish, Bulgarian and Italian Cuisine. I have seen the odd Asian restaurants as well, but they were rare. Next to the cheese they like their dessert and I had a vast amount of them.
During the next couple of days I was occupied with work during the day and only enjoyed the city in the evening with dinners.
One night we decided to enjoy the nightlfe and met in front of the Radisson Hotel next to the Parliament. We first tried to get into a club called ‘Bedroom’ but were informed that you could not enter without a reservation. So we continued to the Bar ‘Planet’. They are in my opinion a bad copy of the Planet Hollywood. Prices for drinks in general are reasonable compared to London and the interior design was ‘artsy’.
One thing I pretty much faced every day were the absolute gorgeous girls, tall, slim and nice smiles (usually), however A LOT of make-up. Still they can be kind of intimidating if you belong to the average looking category, but in general all of the girls I talked to were really nice! Of course there are some mean girls in between (like everywhere in the world). I have not seen a lot of overweight people which I found really weird with the average food they eat on a daily basis.
The men in general are pretty blunt and they do not approach you or talk dirty to you in general if you are not a local, they have for sure enough girls, and they do not need to chat up foreigners.
After we finished our drinks we continued to a club called Tequila which was very flashy but had not much of an atmosphere. People were pretty much just standing around, sipping their drinks and talked over each other surrounded by loud music. They didn’t really look like they had an amazing time. So we decided to continue to the Student Area from Sofia which practically is just one club after another in one street. To find out which club is hot at the moment you will need to ask the locals.
The rule usually is to order a bottle if you get a table or place to sit on, they don’t like to see you sitting with just one drink. But with around 13£/15€ for the cheapest bottle you won’t want to complain.
It was around 4 am when I decided to call it a night and go back to my hotel. There are plenty of taxis outside the club, make sure you take one from the trusted company and DO NOT leave your stuff in the car and leave to get something else, the driver might just take off with all your valuables, which happened to another colleague of mine, now that wasn’t a laughing matter!
All in all I had a great time in Sofia, again, because of the local people I met there. If you are only in the city for sightseeing and some shopping, three days are plenty to cover the most things. Of course Sofia is just one city in Bulgaria and I have been told that the sea side and other cities in Bulgaria have even more to offer in terms of scenery, nature and attractions.
The first time I talked with a local, I was confused that they moved their head like they say no, but verbally say yes. A little bit like the Indians, but a different movement. If they are not sure, they shake their head with a mix of yes and no. Very funny! But you will get used to that.
At the same time I found that some of people appear to be rude, but it is just the local mentality and they are actually not being rude, that is that the way they are, so go with the flow and stay nice, you will receive friendliness in return.
There is one particular reason I named this entry ‘A trip to the past’, which you will see as soon as you step into Terminal 1 (there is a newer and nicer Terminal 2). Everything looks and feels like in the 80’s/90's. The buildings are mostly old and you barely see any new architectural developments. The paint is coming off everywhere, the cars look like they break apart any second, barely green around (except the parks), monuments with graffitis. Even though this might sounds disturbing to some people, I think that is exactly that what gives Sofia the atmosphere it has and it is great. Would I come back? For sure.
And for sure I will not fly with W!ZZ Airline again. They are the Bulgarian Counterpart for airlines like Ryanair, cheap but ultra inflexible and unfriendly. Because I only flew with hand luggage I had my handbag and my little suitcase, but I was only allowed one piece of luggage. So they asked me to either pay 60€ or put my medium handbag into the full suitcase. So I tried to squeeze everything into the suitcase, which OF COURSE did not fit. Luckily a fellow passenger offered her available space in her backpack. I was grateful and happy there are such nice people out there. I really hope I can keep the good karma up and get more chances to help people in the same way!
Next time I will report from….yeah no idea….let’s see what last minute flight I might get for one of the upcoming weekends. I keep you posted and as usual, any questions, pop me a message or leave a comment.
