Blogs from Sofia, Sofia City , Bulgaria, Europe - page 12

The trip I was doing was actually about going to Turkey to attend a voluntary workcamp. Planning my trip I couldnt miss to visit Sofia so that was the first thing I actually planned to visit. My trip started on July 16 at Belgrade train station where I took the Belgrade-Sofia train. Everytime I travel, I am trying to do it by night and to spend days as best as I can at every possible “checkpoint” I am passing by. This time it was a good advantage to have a night train from Belgrade that arrives in Sofia in the morning and then, in the evening there is another train, Balkan Express that goes to Istanbul. 1 hour after pasing the broder I could already see Sofia. As I arrived in Sofia, I followed the ... read more

We're in an internet cafe now trying to sort out banking information since we charged more than we thought we would to the credit card (the LP Guide said all train tickets would be cash and so far only RILA has been), USAA loves international travellers! Our Last Day in Sofia We had an extended dinner at Happy Bar and Grill our favorite place in Sofia where we were taken care of by a most horrible server and then went to the bar where we were taken care of by Victor who was wonderful though he would not sell Jennifer the poster of the monkey eating a banana on the toilet (you'll have to ask her about that one) - she thought he was so cute (the monkey). Victor was an okay guy, but was not ... read more

Hi Everybody! I am having to play catch up with the blog, because we have not had internet access for several days. I know the travelblog alerts are probably irritating to some of you. Just delete the reminders or hit unsubscribe if it fills up your mailbox. To get to Sofia, we had to ride the bus back to Skopje, Macedonia. We caught another bus there for Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The road to Sofia was extremely bumpy. All of our muscles ached by the time we arrived. Most of the population in Sofia is made up of Orthodox members. There are lots of Orthodox churches, but we have only seen one Mosque here. In the city center, there are several old,beautiful, massive sized buildings. They have huge windows, tall doors, and ornate gates. Sofia ... read more

Finally arrived in Sofia.. It was like, 10:30pm and I was at the train station, hoping for someone to pick me up. BUT, noone showed up. So, I was about to get a taxi when they overpriced me! so I decided to take the tram. I have directions to the hostel I wanted to go, but, couldn't find the station to take it!! so asked for help and suprisingly!! I asked these Bulgarian women, which cannot speak a word of English, but was so kind to take me to the tramstop!!!! So nice ne!!!! Anyways, got to the Hostel and its FULLLLLLLLLL ___" They sent me off to another hostel close-by.. ahhhhh....its ok...but like..10x not as good..-___-" no choice anyways. The owner was really nice at least=) So spent a night and the next day, took ... read more

After another 24 hours in flights/layovers, (Beijing - Hong Kong - London - Sofia), I was back in Europe. I was missing Asia a bit, but looking forward to such creature comforts as toilet paper, Western-style toilets, babies wearing diapers, and no street-spitting. Bulgaria was a country I'd been really curious about, as I'd met a fair amount of Bulgarians in the past few years, and was curious to see what their country was like. After some problems with the ATMs, I was able to get some Leva out and was ready to start exploring. I was a bit disillusioned to find out that the Lev was pegged to the Euro, with the dollar at its present standing. Luckily, the prices are deflated so that Bulgaria remains a pretty good bargain for travellers. Another nice thing ... read more