Every year we take advantage of Easter Holidays to celebrate our wedding anniversary, which is in April. Over the last five years, I have been trying to cover as many capital cities in Europe and this is how this year we went to Sofia, Bulgaria. This was our first trip to Eastern Europe and the landscapes were amazing, as we spent much of the time sightseeing in our rented car exploring Sofia and in its surroundings.
The first thing I do before starting a new adventure is researching all that I can about the country that I am visiting including its weather conditions, location and the rules and regulations. Therefore, I think is important to include a little about my research about Sofia before telling this adventure.
Sofia is the capital and the largest city of Bulgaria, and it is located at the centre of the Balkan peninsula midway between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Bulgaria has borders with Romania (at the north), Turkey (at the south east), Greece (at the south), Serbia and Macedonia (at the west), and the Black Sea (at the east).
The next step of my research is to find out about the currency of the country, which in this case is lev (BGN). Currently Bulgaria is part of the European Community and we did not need a visa to travel there. However, due to United Kingdom leaving the European Community I do not know if this is going to continue. The final part of my research was to find out which cities or locations were around Sofia within a drive of maximum two hours single trip to add to our adventure.
After all my research and packing, we were ready for the trip. My adventure started on 9th April 2017 with a day flight as it is just 3 hours from London.
Day 1, we arrived to Sofia’s airport during the afternoon. The first challenge was to pick up the rental car. Since I booked them through Expedia in one of their low budget companies, there was no counter. After asking to every counter, we discovered that we needed to call the rental company to pick us up. The staff of one of the counters called them on our behalf. By the time the guy from the rental company arrived, we had been waiting for the car almost an hour. The rental company was off-site and after visiting petrol pump station nearby with my husband to fill the car, we left. This was the first time that we used Airbnb (online private accommodation rental service) and we needed to pick up the keys from the landlord and we were already two hours late.
We arrived to the pick-up location and we contacted the landlord. The apartment was very near to this location and it had off-site parking. The apartment was clean with a nice kitchen and in the outskirts of the city centre, as we were planning to visit few locations outside Sofia. We arrived on Sunday evening and everything around the apartment was closed, however, the landlord showed us where the nearest shopping mall was opened and there we went. We found the grocery shop and bought the basic staples for the next couple of days.
Day 2, we decided that since we were going to do a lot of walking during this trip, as we needed to cover an extensive agenda, we decided that this will be the only day that we will have to rest and recover from a very hectic daily life in London. Therefore, we decided to rest and keep it light the rest of day. During the afternoon, we decided to leave the apartment and explored the area around the shopping mall and had a health lunch and got something for dinner also. After a very light day, we returned to the apartment fully charged and ready to start our adventure the following day.
Day 3, this was our first day of tourism and after having breakfast and checking the weather, as it was raining we decided to start by visiting the Rila Monastery. Rila Monastery is located in Rila Mountains, 45 minutes south of Sofia, and it is considered one of the most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments in Bulgaria and Southern Europe. This is an Eastern Orthodox Monastery and it considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The monastery is a four-storey building depicting the boundary of the site and in the middle of the inner courtyard is where the main church and tower are located. The monastery looks like a fortress with public access to the front and the back of the site. The front is where the car park is located and the back is where the river runs from the mountain and therefore it is very hilly and paved with pebbles. The building from outside does not look impressive, however, the entrance is full of colourful mosaics and arches. The interiors are colour contrast between structures in black and white and the colourful mosaics making of this monastery a unique piece of architecture.
The inside of the church is a non-photographic area, as it has only candle light and the tapestries are very sensitive to flash light. The inside dome is cover is amazing mosaics and is worth having a look. The entry is fee; however, the monks sell replicas of the mosaic and it worth investing in this to have an amazing souvenir and helping keeping this magnificent architecture for future generations.
After lunch, we decide to return to the apartment. On the way back, we saw one of those multicolour sunsets so we stopped the car to take photographs and enjoyed the sunset. We arrived at night and we went to sleep after having a delicious light dinner.
Day 4, this was an amazing day with a little bit of sunshine and after having an amazing breakfast, we went to the Iskar Reservoir, as I was searching for nice landscapes to enhance my photographic collection and to explore nature. The Iskar Reservoir the largest lake south of Sofia. We decided to explore the lake by driving the further south we could, so we followed the motorway and then when this finished we followed a one-way unpaved road with the biggest potholes imagine. After being in the road for almost an hour and not reaching the shore, we kept going as we could not give up and a further hour we finally found the shore and it was a deserted place. I took amazing photographs and then we move towards the next location.
We were able to explore different sites of the reservoir from the beach, next to the lake, to the harbour inside the forest. I was able to take amazing landscapes photographs with different colours and views. However, after hours walking it was time for lunch but being an isolated place made it a good place for photographs but a bad place for finding a restaurant. Therefore, we decided to return to Sofia to find a restaurant with typical Bulgarian food. We were successful and we found a place that had amazing food and the decoration was very traditional. After this amazing food, we returned to the apartment after this to rest.
Day 5, this day was sunny and dry, making this the perfect day to explore Sofia’s city centre. After having an amazing breakfast, we decided that the first things was to find a parking lot within walking distance from city centre. After parking the car, we started exploring around. We parked next to the Saint Sofia Monument and then we made our way to The Central Sofia Market Hall (Tsentralni Hali). The market hall is a covered market containing a variety of stalls for coffee, meat, fish and the best part amazing handicrafts.
We love handicrafts and we usually picked a wide variety of them, as we distribute them some for our home and the rest goes to our families in Mexico and India. After shopping around, we left the market and stopped behind the synagogue. In front of the market is the Banya Bashi, which is a 16th century Ottoman Empire mosque located at the Tsentralna Banya Garden in front of the Regional History Museum of Sofia.
We continued walking and found Sveta Petka, which is an ancient stone church with grand murals. This church is under street level, an underpass was created around it as a way to cross this busy avenue and is surrounding by business with more beautiful handicrafts. At the other end of the underpass is the Cathedral Church Sveta Nedelay, which is a domed Eastern Orthodox church with amazing murals in its interiors. We continued walking and we found Church St George Rotunda, which is Sofia’s oldest building and is a red brick cylindrical 4th century Christian church. The amazing part of Sofia is that within couple of blocks we found four religions living in a harmonious way.
We continued walking until we reached the City Garden, which is surrounded by amazing building hosting the fine arts of Bulgaria. The building surrounded the garden are the National Art Gallery, which hostess artworks since the middle ages, the National Ethnology Museum, the Sofia City Art Gallery, the Bulgarian National Theatre, and the Bulgarian Music Hall.
We continued walking and found Sveti Nikolay Mirlikiiski, which is a Russian Orthodox church featuring gilded domes. We continued walking and reached the iconic Cathedral Saint Alexandar Nevski, which is a Bulgarian Orthodox church with a Neo-Byzantine style and hostess the Patriarch of Bulgaria, as it is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world. We entered the cathedral while the Patriarch celebrates mass every day at the same time and we were lucky to heard some of his message. After entering this amazing cathedral, we made our way back to the car, then we went for dinner and finally to the apartment to rest and prepare for the next day.
Day 6, this was our last full day of exploring Sofia and we decided, as the day was beautiful to visit another city. After breakfast, we drove 90 minutes south east of Sofia towards the city of Plovdiv. Plovdiv is the second largest city of Bulgaria located within the banks of the Maritsa River surrounded by hills. The city has been occupied by Persians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Slavs, Rus, Crusaders and Turks and all these influences are depicted in the city’s architecture.
We decided that our main destination will be the hill where the Ancient theatre was located.
After an hour trying to find a parking spot, we decided that the only approach was to walk the hill and discovered the beautiful architecture of Plovdiv. The first thing we wanted to see was the Roman Theatre and for our luck, this building was on top of the hill. The curious part was that we were parking at the bottom entrance of the theatre but since it was closed, we needed to find another entrance. The exploration of Plovdiv started by searching the theatre, however, on our way we discover the main square but that was in the opposite side of the theatre, but in our way to the car we decided to visit is later.
On our path to the theatre, we found the Church of the Holy Mother of God (Eastern Orthodox Church), which had a big bell tower and the square where it was located was very peaceful. We stopped to take photographs and admired the view from there. After the photographs, we continued walking towards the theatre. On our way we found St Dimitar Church, which had a small courtyard and the simple interior. After photographs, we kept going as I felt that we were getting closer to the theatre. We found the next sign and after turning left we found the top of the Ancient Theatre of Philippopolis. Unfortunately, the theatre was closed however I was still able to take beautiful photographs from the top, as it was an open-air theatre.
After the visit to the theatre we made our way down the hill via another route, in order to continue exploring. We found some beautiful murals on the side of two buildings on our way down the hill. At the foothill, we found a beautiful square with a garden with a mixture of buildings there were the remains of an Ancient Stadium, a mosque and some commercial building. The fusion of cultures and building made of Plovdiv a very cosmopolitan place to enjoy the ambience. Therefore, we stayed for lunch and then we made our way to the apartment, as we needed to pack and get ready to return to London.
Day 7, this was our last day of the trip and we needed to return the car. This time the process was going to be easier, we just needed to fill the petrol and returned it to the airport as a member of the company will pick it from there. The drop up of the car went without incident and after checking in we had an enough time to clear migration and arrived to the gate of the plane. The flight went without incident and we were back in London in the evening. After a couple of hours in the taxi, we arrived home.
We had an amazing trip, I was able to visit another capital city of Europe and the people and the environment were amazing I will highly recommend. Sofia a small city proud of its history and able to combine tradition with modern architecture.
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