Blogs from Sofia, Sofia City , Bulgaria, Europe - page 7

I guess I should remember that "no problem" as an epithet of hope is an extremely unwise remark for a traveller to make. As we left Novi Sad, we encountered only problems - firstly running to catch our train in time, secondly being told we had to pay a supplement for not having a reservation (which the european rail database said was not necessary on this train) and thirdly, after all this stress, sitting in a steamy oven of a carriage half-full of Serbian grandmothers who refused to open any windows because of the noise were not exactly our wishes. Anyway, when we arrived into Belgrade, we immediately noticed that it could not be much more different to Novi Sad, considering that they are both part of the same country. While Novi Sad was flat and ... read more

Travis and I decided to diversify our explorations, and so while he flew to Cairo to see the pyramids, I took a bus to Sofia. Once again we went through customs at the border between Turkey and Bulgaria. This time our luggage was x-rayed as we passed through the Turkish side. After a stop at the duty-free mall we proceeded through the Bulgarian side. However, one of the border guards became irate and made us all get off the bus for another luggage check. I asked some of the other passengers what was going on. Apparently everyone had bought cartons of cigarettes at the duty-free mall, and the border guards were only allowing 2 packs per person. However, after laying out my backpack, unzipped, for about half an hour, we were told to load back into ... read more

After leaving Turkey, the next 50 hours were a pain and drain, as we blundered our way to Budapest, starting with an overnight pit stop in Sofia, Bulgaria. We decided to catch an overnight bus from Istanbul, that would land us in Sofia at 7.30am. We had heard good things about Turkish buses, and were told to not even bother with a Bulgarian bus company, and this advice was true. Good bus, served tea, cake, and made convenient stops. What was not convenient was the Turkey - Bulgaria border check point at 11.30pm, which took approximately 2.5 hours to get through. This included a lot of waiting on the bus, and then waiting in queue off the bus to get through the Turkey border, then a stop at the Duty Free shopping centre, where everyone but ... read more

The arrival into the new swanky Terminal 2 at Sofia Airport on the eastern fringes of the city was smooth and efficient. The terminal is presumably an investment by the EEC to redistribute wealth across all it’s citizens and give an outwardly modern first impression of Bulgaria to the outside world. We relieved the cash machine in the arrivals hall of some Leva and avoided the vigorous pestering of the taxi touts, who were keen to relieve as much as possible of the above wedge. If you don’t fancy the Number 84 bus, a good first decision in Sofia Airport is to approach one of the two taxi desks to the right of the car hire places in the arrivals - one of which I can’t recall and the other being OK Supertrans or something very ... read more

We couldn't have asked for better weather for our last three days here in Sofia. Temperatues reached the high teens and overnight temperatures were warmer than the they have been since Alexandroupolis. The rain even stayed away. I was able to where my shorts on Friday eventhough I was probably the one person in the city doing so. We spent Thursday doing most of our sightseeing. Because Sofia is so small, almost all of the major attractions were very central. We really lucked out this time, because our hotel was close to the tourist attractions and shopping. We may have lost out on the souvenier shopping in Istanbul, but we had a better shopping experience for clothes here in Sofia (we changed our trip from Istanbul to Sofia because of the prevailing winds in Western Turkey). ... read more