After leaving Romania, Candice, her Mom, and I hopped on a train for the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.  During the summer months you can find a direct train from Bucharest to Sofia but in early December you need to make a transfer at Ruse just across the Bulgarian border.

Romania and Bulgaria are not part of the EU Schengen travel zone so they control their own borders.  Just prior to the stop at Ruse a couple of immigration officers boarded the train, took our passports and after arriving we were directed to exit the train and wait on the platform while the officers checked and stamped our passports.  It was definitely the most informal border control I’ve seen.

I have no idea if Ruse is worth visiting (I suspect not really) but we only had a 90 minute wait for our next train and we were off to Sofia – luckily this gave us enough time to find a money exchange and get some Bulgarian Lev from an ATM.  As the trains don’t move quickly in this part of Europe it was a whole day of travelling before we arrived to Sofia in the evening.

I literally had no idea what to expect from Sofia before arriving.  I don’t think I looked up anything about the city and went in completely blind.  I was, however, pleasantly surprised with the capital of Bulgaria.  The city felt extremely organized and calm, all things considering, and it was in no way the chaotic mess of Bucharest.

Just across the street from our AirBnB was this super cute house.

I can’t read the Bulgarian alphabet but I got the impression it was a local drinking hole.

Sofia takes great pride in its Roman history and you can find excavated sites all over the city.  This particular church was built in the 300s AD and is considered the oldest building in Sofia.

This is the largest church in Sofia and its grandeur is well displayed on the inside with a vaulted ceiling open all the way to the top.

This was the coolest church we saw in Sofia and is a great example of the Russian Eastern Orthodox architecture.

I don’t recall who this bauble head is but it’s simply a hilarious statue.  So bizarre.

As Bulgaria was occupied by the Ottoman Empire for over 500 years you can find plenty of mosques in the city as well.  Muslims represent the 2nd largest religious group after Christian Orthodox though it is a much smaller minority group with 1 million Muslims compared to over 6 million Orthodox worshipers.

This interesting building used to be an old bathhouse fed by local hot springs.  It was used until 1986 when it fell into such disrepair that it had to be shutdown for safety reasons.  Today it accommodates the regional historical museum.

Wandering the city you’ll find many colourful and attractive buildings.  I loved the vibrancy in many of the buildings.

These Roman ruins were found when construction on the Metro system in the 2000s revealed multiple buildings underground.  Today with the metro complete you have to walk through the ruins to enter the central station.

Our few days in Sofia happened to line up with the International Market happening at the Exposition Center.  December in Bulgaria is a lot warmer then in Canada but it was still hovering just above 0 degrees so an afternoon indoor activity was great.

The market had stalls from over 80 different countries featuring local foods and other crafts.  My boss in Macau was from England and he always complained how he couldn’t get prawn cocktail crisps.  Well the very first stall we saw at the market was the Great British Stall and of course they had prawn cocktail crisps on hand.  They’re sort of like a sweet barbecue mixed with salt and vinegar and I could see myself getting hooked on this British delicacy.

 

Here was a thick warm milk drink popular in Syria.  Apparently this drink is so difficult to make and requires constant attention that it’s not feasible to serve in restaurants (even in Syria).  This is something you will only find in your Syrian Grandmother’s kitchen.

Beautiful dishware at the Azerbaijan stall.

There was live entertainment going on all afternoon.  We guessed this was a Nordic Christmas dance, maybe Swedish or Finnish?

And this lady was doing water painting.  She paints the picture onto the water surface and then dips the paper in to get a very unique and cool art design.

And now for my favourite part of our time in Sofia, the food tour!  Yup we found yet another food tour but this time it was a free food tour.  And I mean the entire tour was free though the guide is only paid with tips (so it’s not completely free of course), and you don’t pay anything for the food.

I assume businesses are OK giving away food because it will attract more customers and it’s good for them in the long run.  The portions are small but only paying $10 – $15 for the tour instead of a more typical $50 – $80 is well worth it.

Our first stop was in an old house converted into a restaurant.  There are different dining areas in each of the old rooms and all the food is sourced locally with an emphasis on fresh and delicious.  The couple appies we had were absolutely delicious.

Along with food there was also some locally produced Bulgarian wine.  Bulgaria claims to be the first people to start making wine around 5000 BC but Wikipedia says Lebanon has them beat at 6000 BC.  Either way with 7000 years of wine making experience this particular brand was delicious.

Some delicious burger quarters were on the menu as well.  They even had a veggie burger for Candice to enjoy.

We had something similar to this in Prague but the doughnut was all stacked together and filled with ice cream.  That one in Prague attracted swarms of wasps in late summer so at least this version was wasp free and easier to enjoy.

This stop we actually found on our own and had gone twice before coming here on the food tour.  It was a type of doughnut fried and then covered in your choice of topping either sweet or savory.  These things were only 2 Lev ($3 CAD) each and 2 would fill you up plenty making for a crazy cheap and yummy lunch.

The tour ended with some cheeses and meats served with traditional Bulgarian Rakia, a fruit brandy.  It’s very potent and definitely an acquired taste.

The last activity we did in Sofia was check out one of the Christmas markets in the downtown area.  It was pretty small and we didn’t find anything this day but it made a nice Christmas evening out.

Mountains and Hot Springs

Bulgaria is known for its geothermal activity and its hundreds of hot springs have been popular with the locals for hundreds of years.  Candice was hoping to find a hot spring resort in the mountains south of Sofia that we could spend a relaxing night at.  Unlike Romania, this time we were able to successfully rent a car and off we headed to the mountains.

The roads weren’t too bad but we definitely saw a lot of snow on our drive through the mountains.

When we arrived the view was stunning.

Unfortunately the spa was kind of a bust as we neglected to check the temperature of the waters which were only 35C, much cooler then we were looking for.  They did have a great sauna room so it wasn’t a total loss.

On To Plovdiv

Our last stop in Bulgaria was the tourist town of Plovdiv in central Bulgaria.

As a 2019 city of culture Plovdiv came up repeatedly as a place to visit in Bulgaria.  It was listed as having incredible history, great food, a thriving art scene, and beautiful monasteries.

We wandered around our first day to get a sense of the town.  It did have a lot of charm and I imagine on warm summer days the streets would be full of people enjoying the shops and cafes.

And of course there are Roman ruins excavated right in the middle of the city just like Sofia.

This statue of a local person famous for knowing all the gossip.

We found a skating rink full of cute skating assistants

and a Santa Claus chair in front of a Christmas tree just begging for pictures.

At the edge of the town center we came across a Turkish bath house dating back to the 1600s.  It looked like it was turned into a museum and we tried the door but it seemed to be locked so an outside photo was all we got.

And last for the day was this neat bridge market.  It wasn’t all that interesting inside (just some standard stalls) but it was pretty cool from the outside.

On our 2nd day we ended up staying in Plovdiv and exploring the historical city center.  Built on top of 3 hills this area has been inhabited since Roman times and boasts several different architecture designs and some of the most elaborate buildings in Plovdiv.

We took a relaxing stroll through the cute streets stopping to inspect the most interesting buildings along the way.  A few of the buildings have been converted into museums that you can enter for a small fee, though, we didn’t bother going inside any.

And on the side of one of the hills was a fairly well preserved Roman amphitheater.   Being West facing to keep the sun out of the actors eyes it made it a great place to sit and watch the sunset if you so choose.

The Last Remnants of Christianity

We were almost at the end of our trip in Bulgaria, Joan had to leave the following day and then Candice and I had a flight out to Turkey, but Rila Monastery perched high in the mountains between Sofia and Plovdiv was our final stop.

Over a thousand years ago Christianity, specifically Eastern Orthodox, was the primary religion in Bulgaria.  However when the Ottomans conquered Bulgaria in the late 1300’s most Christian churches and monasteries were pillaged or turned into Mosques.

I haven’t found a thorough explanation of how this particular monastery survived 500 years of occupation but it probably has to do with its remoteness and its wealth.  By paying tribute to the Ottomans it seems to have been left to its own although it was pillaged once or twice and a lot of important artifacts have been lost.

Being one of the few outposts of Christianity in Bulgaria during the Ottoman rule, surviving WWI and WWII and Soviet occupation it  remains an important cultural center for Bulgarian independence and identity today.

The outside of the monastery is fairly plain and doesn’t stand out

but walking through the main entrance reveals a spectacular sight inside.

The white and brown arches, 3 floors high, running around the entire outside of the courtyard make for a stunning view.

Walking through to the other side reveals a few shops and restaurants that can be enjoyed but during the winter not much was open.

The central church is a must see sight

and is covered in hundreds of elaborate murals.

This one in particular is a bit over the top in my opinion. I get the impression that the monks weren’t too fond of the Ottomans.

I’ve read that there are a number of hiking trails around the monastery that you can take advantage of but of course we didn’t do any hiking in the snow this day.  After about a 90 minute stop we jumped back in the car to warm up and we were headed back to Sofia to end our trip.

Bulgaria was an interesting place to visit.  I really enjoyed our time in Sofia (I could see myself living there) and Plovdiv but we were hard pressed to find very many things to do in the country.  I think if you’re planning a trip here a week is fine and you can visit a neighboring country such as Romania, like we did, Serbia or Macedon if you have more time.