Places Less Travelled By: Sofia, Bulgaria

March 17-21

Over the weekend I travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria with a few other friends. Why Sofia you might ask? Honestly, before I came here, Sofia (or Bulgaria in general) was definitely not on the top of my list of places to visit. However, it is relatively close by to Istanbul and it's something different. My friends and I took a nine hour bus ride from Istanbul to Sofia. Not the most fun way to travel, but it was faster than the train and cheaper than a plane. At the border, the Bulgarian guards were waving through all the people who had Turkish or Bulgarian passports. When they came to me, the look on their face seemed to say, "Why the hell would an American ever wanna come to Bulgaria?" Fortunately, they let me through.

Once we got to Sofia we went straight to our hostel, Hostel Mostel. I cannot recommend this place enough. If you're a 5 star hotel kinda person, then this place probably wouldn't be for you. If you have slightly lower standards, then you should seriously consider it. It's located right in the center of the city, close to all the action that you'll find in Sofia. A 6 six person ensuite can be bought for 20 lev per night; with 24 hour hot water, all you can eat breakfast, dinner, a beer, a coupon for a free shot at a nearby bar, and towels, all at no extra charge. The people who own and operate the hostel also are some of the nicest and most helpful people you will ever find.

After we had settled into Hostel Mostel, we decided to set out on our own and explore the city.
Sofia itself has about 1 million residents, which is much bigger than Boston but much smaller than Istanbul. However, unlike those 2 cities, the area worth seeing is all concentrated in the city center and is easily walkable. That's nice because it allows you to avoid the Bulgarian public transport system, which isn't very good, and Bulgarian taxi drivers. Taxi drivers can be thieves anywhere, but the one's we encountered in Bulgaria tried to charge us 6x what the actual price should have been. Most destinations shouldn't cost more than 5 lev per taxi, definitely never give them more than 10 lev. One of the things that struck us about Sofia was its lack of color or flare. Besides a few old religious or historical buildings, much of the city is drab grey concrete. In fact, some of the best features of the city are its graffiti. Another thing that strikes you as you walk through the city is how few young people there seem to be on the streets, it can seem like everyone out and about is at least 65 years old. Also, when one is walking down the streets and past shops, restaurants, and markets, there is never anyone outside beckoning you to come inside, unlike in Istanbul where every shop owner seems to be on the street trying to lure customers in.

Example of the graffiti in Sofia

 On the second day, our hostel organized a trip to Rila Monastery for an additional charge of just 40 lev. Rila Monastery is located in the mountains about 2 hours from Sofia and is the second largest Orthodox Christian monastery in the world. Our driver first took us past the actual monastery and up to the cave where St. Ivan of Rila, the monastery's founder lived as a hermit for many years. There is a small church and the cave, which has no almost no lighting whatsoever. Our guides took us through and up to a tiny opening maybe 2 feet in diameter where we had to squeeze out, and in succeeding, had all of our sins forgiven.

The actual monastery itself is beautiful. I have to confess to being slightly jealous of how ornate Orthodox Christians make their churches, with the frescoes, mosaics, and icons everywhere. The outside porch of the monastery church is covered in frescoes depicting different scenes from the Bible. Inside you will find the typical Orthodox church setup, but for many Americans, this may be a unique experience, and I would highly, highly recommend going to Rila is you ever find yourself in Bulgaria.


Rila Monastery



Frescoe of Mary & Jesus at Rila

Nightlife in Sofia is certainly nowhere near as dynamic as Istanbul. Even though most of the bars and clubs are near the city center, there is no one area where they are all concentrated. Over our two nights, we went out to the neighborhood bar for our free shots and then went out looking for a good time. Once, we went looking for a hip hop/R&B club but when we finally found it, we discovered that it had been renamed "Club No Mercy" and now played Bulgarian folk music. We did not go in. We ended up at a rock bar where most of the people seemed a little too into Metallica & Iron Maiden karaoke for our taste.

On our last day in Bulgaria, we took a free foot tour of Sofia set up by our hostel. I do wish we hadn't waited until our last day to do the tour, because this was when we saw all the really historical and important buildings of Sofia, including ruins from the 4th Century, the President's Building, and St. Alexander Nevskii Cathedral, the largest cathedral in Bulgaria. We also saw an antiques flea market where people sell their memorabilia from World War II and the Communist Era, which I would also definitely recommend seeing.

Alexander Nevskii Cathedral

All in all, I did like Sofia, but I couldn't have been happier when we got back into Turkey. I'd suggest that if you're ever planning a trip to Bulgaria, it should be part of a larger Balkans/Eastern European tour and not solely a trip to Bulgaria.

Til the next time, thanks for reading and let me know about any "random" or unusual places you've travelled to.