Blogs from Sofia City , Bulgaria, Europe - page 18

Hello everyone, Bulgaria is more like the former Soviet block atmosphere that I had expected. You still see horse carts and horses instead of tractors in fields. They use shepherds instead of fencing. They are trying to get on track--hope to join the European Union in 2007. Their history during WWII is a little different. The government chose to support Germany rather than Russia, but the people wanted to support Russia--Russia had liberated them from Turkish domination back in 1878. The damage from bombing was actually done by Russia. The Soviets still liberated them and they became part of the Soviet bloc. Interesting fact--Bulgaria is the only European country to always have the same name, since 681. Another interesting fact is that they elected a former king as their prime minister in 2001. His name is ... read more

Riding in from the airport past scores of decaying, grey, communist-era tower blocks wasn't the best way to lift my spirits after a sleepless overnight flight, so Sofia seemed a bit miserable at first. But then what doesn't at 6:30 in the morning. My mood wasn't helped when the hungover ticket inspector declined to show any leniancy towards my unvalidated bus ticket. I was clearly a new arrival in the country who was unaware if the idyosyncrascies of the Bulgarian bus system and I didn't speak any Bulgarian. The Inspector pocketed the fine. I got off the bus by a city centre park containing an enourmous overblown communist monolith, depicting the workers struggle or something like that. The surrounding buildings were graffitied and peeling and the only signs of life were a few stray dogs and ... read more

I was a little nervous about going to Bulgaria- even the Eurotrash hostellers, some of them said they wouldn't go there. Well, its a great city- people are quiet, unlike Athens, and the numbers are almost the same as Russian so its more comprehensible. I am staying at a great hostel with free breakfast, the food is really cheap - 2 liters of fanta = 1 euro, and a yogurt drink is 25 cents instead of 80 in Greece. Its very nice, I'm going to try to hike a little tomorrow. I am going to go watch a world cup match downstairs, ciao! (that's what they say here, too.)... read more

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