After visiting the Dracula's Tomb hidden in a small monastery on an islet in the middle of a lake in the Day 6 of this Leaving All Behind series, I left the beautiful Romania to head to Sofia, the city capital of Bulgaria full of history and contrasts.
Stepping on Bulgaria
On this occasion I traveled by train, arriving Sofia at night (one hour past midnight or so) packed with my 30 kilograms heavy bags and having to walk around 3 kilometers to reach the downtown hostel because the shortest routes (Lion's Bridge and Mother's Home/d'Algeo Gardens) were unadvised by the hostel's owner due to delinquency that late at night.
*Anecdote (1): My train to Sofia was supposed to arrive the said capital city before 22:00, however we got delayed due to various checks at the border by the Bulgarian Police, both for documentation and luggage.
When I arrived near the hostel the owner was waiting for me in the balcony to indicate me the right door to go and proceed for the check in since he was aware of the whole border situation. I got my room, shared with four more people and went straight to bed without unpacking anything.
*Tip (1): If you arrive late at night to a shared hostel room for whatever reasons noone cares about and is there already people sleeping, don't start unpacking your stuff, unleashing nightmare there and waking up people: respect the rest of others.
First thing I did next morning was looking for a currency exchange office and exploring the city!
YouTube Short walking along the Street Market of Sofia:
After all this walking around the city I was tired and thirsty so I decided to stop for lunch and have a cold beer.
One of the things that called my attention when in Bulgaria was their bathrooms, the same all around:
*Anecdote (2): I firstly thought that this arrangement of tha bathroom it was just a thing of my hostel but then I realized it was the same all around. When I had my first shower I was really worried about where was the drain and then I realized that it was that thin rectangular metal plate that they place in the doors, after that black tile.
In the next article I'm visiting a UNESCO World Heritage Site at 120 kilometers from Sofia, located deep in the Bulgarian mountains.
Leaving All Behind series: Day 1, Day 2 (Part 1), Day 2 (Part 2), Day 3, Day 4, Day 5 (Part 1), Day 5 (Part 2), Day 6.
All photographs were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
YouTube Short recorded with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
Image of the routes from train station to hostel is a screenshot from Google Maps.
Sources on which I relied to give some accurate info about the monuments of Sofia: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9).
Sofia Municipality Tourism Website.
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Beautiful place. I would love to visit and walk its streets and delve into its history. Very curious bathroom, I didn't know about the drain lever either, it caught my attention. Thanks for sharing!
Eastern Europe is beautiful and in Bulgaria there are also plenty of places to visit, not only the capital, but Sofia itself is a very interesting city full of contrasts and history for sure you'll enjoy.
Thanks for passing by!
Thanks @ackhoo! Much appreciated!
Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1927.
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Thanks @ybanezkim26! Much appreciated!