Bulgaria :: Sofia and Plovdiv
Arrived in Bulgaria on Sunday, taking a rather slow train from Thessolaniki to Sofia. Stayed at a fantastic hostel, 'Mostel Hostel' in a dorm. Safe, clean, central, cheap, fast wifi and really friendly staff.
Sofia looks rather run down with lots of communist era buildings that look to be abandoned or falling down. Food is really cheap, had a big dinner last night - salad, a starter, and a grill dish plus a beer each, came to about €20, about half the price we were paying in Greece. I think the hostel was about €10/night each too. A 2litre beer is €1
Monday we took a trip organised by the hostel out to Rila Monastry. 2hr drive each way, and the driving and roads are pretty hairy, but arrived back safe! The monastry and the mountains around it are beautiful, and worth the drive. They also took us to the cave the Saint who the monastary is dedicated to lived in, rather funny watching people squeeze through the tiny exit hole. Plenty of photos on my Flickr stream.
Right now we're on a coach to Plovdiv, the 2nd largest city in Bulgaria, for the night. Back to Sofia tommorrow night, and train to Belgrade the next day.
Sofia looks rather run down with lots of communist era buildings that look to be abandoned or falling down. Food is really cheap, had a big dinner last night - salad, a starter, and a grill dish plus a beer each, came to about €20, about half the price we were paying in Greece. I think the hostel was about €10/night each too. A 2litre beer is €1
Monday we took a trip organised by the hostel out to Rila Monastry. 2hr drive each way, and the driving and roads are pretty hairy, but arrived back safe! The monastry and the mountains around it are beautiful, and worth the drive. They also took us to the cave the Saint who the monastary is dedicated to lived in, rather funny watching people squeeze through the tiny exit hole. Plenty of photos on my Flickr stream.
Right now we're on a coach to Plovdiv, the 2nd largest city in Bulgaria, for the night. Back to Sofia tommorrow night, and train to Belgrade the next day.
Taking the train must be fun. We travelled by bus which was tiresome. The places I likes were Sofia and Dubrovnik, especially Dubrovnik. People were 7 foot tall - thats why they're so good at BB. City was amazing, even in the communist era. Sofia was very controlled and all government tours etc. so you only saw what they wanted you too. Countryside near Sofia was very fertile and everyone looked reasonably well off, but that could have been arranged?
ReplyDeleteSofia didn't look much different from 1984! I guess just replace the goosestepping guards occasionally