Sofia -Bulgaria 30/6/16 – 2/7/16

After being in a country through Ramadan, (where no food, drinks or smoking during day light hours is the norm – where our livers took a well earned break), it was great to arrive in Europe. So within an hour or so of arriving we came across a really great bar and took full advantage of its services.
We are staying only 3 nights in Sofia, Bulgaria capital, at the Best Western, and a very nice hotel it is. Again another long journey lasting 12 hours door to door due to 2 flights, time differences and yet another taxi driver not knowing where our hotel was. Not only that but when we arrived at our booked hotel we were informed he was fully booked but had booked us into the Best Western where he would pay the difference. What a score this was.
Our first night was spent walking around the local area where we came upon a great restaurant called happy bar. Great food and of course alcohol, oh how our livers had suffered without booze!
The following day we booked onto the FREE 2 hour walking city tour, which was fantastic. Our guide, Nikola was a true comedian and informed us of the sights in a very comical way. His English was fantastic as was his running commentary. We learnt that in Sofia the city is built on many layers. There are parts of the city that date back to the 6th century alongside 20th century architecture. The way they have accomplished this is to build upwards instead of distorting the ruins and artefacts. At one point we walked along a 6th century road that led to Constantinople (as it was called in the day), they even have opened up a museum right in the centre of the city, where people can walk through the different eras of Sofia, it was magnificent.
Another stroll later in the day and we found ourselves in yet another area full of bars and restaurants, so we thought it would be rude not to join in. Several beers and cocktails later we managed to find our hotel.
On our last day we decided to go to a restaurant which had traditional Bulgarian food and a culture show. This was brilliant, the flavours of the food was very rich with garlic and roasted root vegetables, along with pickled peppers, very tasty indeed. The culture show had 4 cast members who completed several dances whilst in traditional clothing. Again an interesting show, a mix between Morris dancing, my big fat greek wedding and folk dancing, very entertaining.
As we had planned on travelling from Sofia Bulgaria to Skopje Macedonia by bus, we were informed to book our tickets a day before, so on our last day we did. It was a pretty easy task to do considering we could not speak Bulgarian at all, and the lady at the station had little broken English. She informed us the bus left at 7am the following day, so we handed the money over and got our tickets.
Neither of us had visited a Balkan country before so was not sure what to expect, however we are pleased we did. Sofia is a thriving, bustling city, a bit outdated, but on the whole the locals were very polite and always had smiles on their faces. We thoroughly recommend a stay here if your ever passing. It is said that Sofia is one of the oldest capitals in the world with signs of life dating back as early as 1st millennium BCE. Also Bulgaria comes third in the list of countries with most valuable archaeological sites in the world. Another fact is the famous Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has a Bulgarian origin, and the first computer in the world was created by a Bulgarian in 1937. Also Bulgaria is where the cryillic alphabet was created. Lots of history to be found in Sofia, so come and explore it, it’s fabulous.