Blogs from Sofia City , Bulgaria, Europe - page 3

Lennon, Lenin, Lion and Lloyd During our last week in Bulgaria we spent much time hiking in the mountains. We have decided to write about the hikes in a separate blog entry. The hiking blog w will start writing as soon as this one is finished. But in between the hikes we also had time to see and do some other things. Rila Monastery - In the first of our blog entries from Bulgaria we mentioned that if you make a list of the Top 100 Places You Must Visit in Europe it is quite possible that not a single one of them is in Bulgaria. But if you expand that list to Top 200... it is quite possible that Rila Monastery makes it into the list. If you travel in Bulgaria this is a place ... read more

It seems that all roads lead through Skopje and I made my way back there for a third time to get a bus to Sofia. Thanks to the political situation around borders, there is no direct bus from Pristina to Sofia as you would have to go through Serbia. At the bus station in Pristina, I met Eric, an American going the same way. Once we got to Skopje, we then met Frenchman Pierre, who was at the same hostel as me in Pristinaand was also making his way to Sofia. So suddenly I had a crew which to be honest, is nice to have on long journeys. The Bulgarian countryside is actually pretty nice. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was impressed by the pretty plains, rolling hills and green forests, which ... read more

The Man in the Middle woke with ideas of mountaineering. I took one look at the weather out the window and suggested that the gloom could be against us. He was obviously fortified by his traditional sausage meal. The weather refused to be an obstacle to his mission. Clouds and mountains don't mix, but we set off regardless. The first mission was an all-day ticket for the metro, trams and buses. The ticket office at the adjacent Metro Station round the corner was the obvious place to start. Do you speak English, we inquired? It never ceases to amaze me, when the answer suggests perhaps one or two words to get by and then a perfect explanation of requirements follows. It wasn't quite that this time, but bonus points should be awarded anyway if they can ... read more

Itinerary - Journey, by way of Nis, to the border and cross into Bulgaria continuing to Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. Explore the city on an included sightseeing tour with a local guide, including highlights such as the Parliament building, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, St George Rotunda Church, National Theatre and St Sofia Church. Wake up call… 6.30am Bags out… 7.15am Departure… 8am Another nice and early wake up call for us all!! I’m starting to get used to these now. We packed out bags, and headed down for breakfast. I have no idea what happened during the night but I was eaten alive by mosquitos. Some of the guys thought it was spider bites and bed bugs… *shudders* either was it was not fun. Anyway, headed down for breakfast and again it as very eastern European, there ... read more

Geo: 42.7105, 23.3238I slept well last night, despite the disco or party or whatever it was nearby that had a continuous boom-boom-boom bass-y sort of noise. Actually, it sounded more like the noise an MRI machine makes than musical bass but, as there was singing too, I assume there wasn't some sort of mass imaging festival going on.The shower was decent. Even the Worst Hairdryer in the World™ wasn't so bad!Ham and cheese croissant and a ginormous mocha at Costa down the road, then a stroll over to the park where the monument to the Soviet (not Russian) Army is. Climbed up the stairs to the base of the column and felt really quite high up, even though I wasn't. Looking back the way I came, there's a very large paved area leading nearly back to ... read more