Blogs from Sofia, Sofia City , Bulgaria, Europe - page 15

Quite a lot has happened since I left Belgrade. In fact, I've left Serbia all together and am now enjoying all the creature comforts a hostel in Sofia has to offer. Where to begin? Riding out of Belgrade was fairly stress free, helped by the fact that I had a 6 o'clock start and the streets were still relatively quiet. It was nice to be finally moving although and I was surprised that I actually managed to move at all seeings the bike is quite heavily laden. After about 20km I stopped to have a cuppa. It was only then that I discovered, having taken my handlebar bag off the bike, that all good intentions of repairing the holder had somehow gone astray - it was now deeply embedded in the bag itself! What to do??? ... read more

Geo: 42.6976, 23.3222After breakfast we met our city tour leader Nona and drove in the centre of the city. We walked around and had an informative tour about this city. Saw the statue of St Sofia and an old round Roman church of St George, which is the only building from the 4th century that has not been destroyed. Saw guards in front of the presidential palace and changed while we were there. Sofia is joining the EU and has a countdown clock, they only have 247 days to go. As we walked down the street, four people walked past us and one of them was Martina Hingis, apparently she's Bulgarian. Went into the Alexander Nevski cathedral, which is suppose to be the largest cathedral in the Balkans. Was quite beautiful inside. Had the rest of ... read more

Geo: 42.6976, 23.3222Up bright and early this morning. Ate another crappy breakfast. Then we hit the road for Bulgaria. It took three hours to get through the border. We had our picnic lunch in no-mans land while waiting for them to let us through. The drive was okay, the cook knew how to keep us happy and frequently supplied us with snacks. In the afternoon we watched a movie and in between had plenty of music to listen to. Was also a good chance to have naps.In the evening we checked into our hotel. My room-mate is Krista and our room was on the 14th floor, we had a great view of the city, but it did take about 10 minutes for hot water. Don't know what to expect from Bulgaria, don't know much about this ... read more

10th November Arrived into Sofia at 6am - vowed (yet again) that we would never do another overnight bus journey! Found a good hostel for the next 24hrs and after catching up on some sleep went out to explore the city. Sofia is an undiscovered capital on the edge of Europe with a lot to offer the adventurous tourist. We stumbled across the remains of a Roman village and 4th century church hidden within the grounds of the Presidential Buildings. Visited a number of Bulgarian Orthodox churches all with beautiful frescoes and chandeliers. Identified the old Communist Party Headquarters by the Social Realist architechture we had seen so much of in Warsaw. There were many beautiful buildings and interesting streets to explore. A friendly lady who spoke English and saw that we looked lost put us ... read more

The train from Belgrade to Sophia did appear as scheduled this time, and after the rough night before we paid the $10 upgrade to sleeper. It was well worth doing. I had an almost uninterupted nights sleep, and felt good when I arrived in Sophia. First impressions of Bulgaria. 1 - Friendly people - for the most part, a guy helped us get the sleeper carriage, a Bulgarian. 2 - Great coffee - again a real cafe society. 3 - Great Ice Cream - the best Sara has ever eaten in her life :) 4 - Magnificent churches - hope the photos show this well. 5 - Watch out for pickpockets! - more later.   On arrival in Sophia we got talking with Hyun from South Korea on his way to Istanbul with 10 hours in ... read more