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Never knew Bulgaria was so awesome!

Munawwar Mahmood Chowdhury
Jan 17, 2020
4 min read

When people think about visiting a European country, they tend to think of the countries in western or southern Europe. It’s certainly what I did on my first few visits to the continent, and there are plenty of cities, towns, and countries for one to visit. However, this year, I chose to venture out into the less-explored countries, focusing on Eastern European cities and the Balkans. This blog is about Bulgaria, which boasts the city Plovdiv, the European Capital of Culture 2019. I found a return flight from London to Sofia on Ryanair (with a 10kg luggage) for around £95, so I quickly booked it!

Before visiting the country, I didn’t know too much about it, except for knowing that Bulgarian yogurt was amazing. I travelled to the capital, Sofia, with one of my closest friends in June. Temperatures were in the late 20s and early 30s throughout most of our trip, and we learned that the country typically has extreme variations in temperature; it can go above 40°C in the summer and below 20°C in the winter. On the first day, we went on a walking tour to learn about the main highlights of the capital.

The city boasts the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is an Eastern Orthodox Church. Interestingly, it is one of the few cities in the world that has a Square of Religious Tolerance: an Eastern Orthodox Church, a mosque for Muslims, a Jewish synagogue, and a Roman Catholic Church are located within a few minutes of each other. The city has many beautiful churches; another notable one is the Seven Saints Church, which was originally a mosque. You can see the impact of the various types of rule the country was subjected to through its architecture Fun fact: there’s a large statue of Sveta Sofia in the city and this is actually NOT why the city is called Sofia. It was named Sofia after the Church of St Sophia in 1376, but the statue was erected in 2000 to replace a rather unattractive statue of Lenin.

The Rila Monastery is a short drive out of Sofia. It is beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site, and the largest Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It was founded in the 10th Century by St John of Rila and symbolizes the awareness of a Slavic cultural identity after years of occupation.

One thing we noticed about Sofia is that its relative lack of tourists can be both good and bad. It’s great that it’s not super crowded and that its original charm hasn’t been lost to become more tourist-friendly. However, this means that it’s a bit challenging to get around, even with Google Translate. A number of shopkeepers were a tad bit unwelcoming, which throws you off when you’re used to travelling to more tourist-friendly cities. I later met a friendly Bulgarian woman on the flight back, who said that people in Sofia tend to be less friendly than other parts of Bulgaria overall.

This was definitely true, as our experience was completely different in Plovdiv. It was a much easier city to navigate, and was a stunning city overall. The Ancient Theater of Philippopolis, constructed in the 1st century, is one of the world’s best-preserved ancient theaters. The Roman Stadium of Plovdiv, another well-preserved structure, was discovered in 1923. The northern part of the stadium can be seen at the Dzhumayata Square, and the majority of it still remains underneath the main street of the city. Certain parts can be seen from the basements of the stores on the street.

Food in Bulgaria was definitely interesting. The Balkan cuisine is typically includes a lot of meat and cheese, and Bulgaria was no different. We tried a number of restaurants, and the usually had HUGE portions at a fairly reasonable price. Hemingway, a very popular restaurant in Plovdiv was absolutely outstanding (the beef tartare and the trout deserve a special mention), as was Hadjidraganovite Izbi in Sofia. Another interesting restaurant in Sofia was Bagri, which provides high quality local and seasonal food. We also managed to go on the Sofia Food Tour, which involves walking around the city trying free samples from a number of restaurants!

This trip was the first time I’ve ever stayed in a hostel—my friend and I stayed at a private room at the Hostel Mostel Sofia. The private rooms were located around 5 minutes from the reception, where breakfast and dinner were served. It was great value for money, although we usually didn’t manage to come back in time for dinner. The private rooms come with private bathrooms, which definitely made my first “hostel experience” easier! This Hostel also organizes tours to the Rila Monastery and the Vitosha Mountain, which makes sightseeing a bit easier. The staff at the reception were also quite friendly, and there was a super diverse mix of people staying at the hostel when we visited Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is also a very affordable destination. You can get a private room at Hostel Mostel in Sofia for £16/night, and a bunk bed in the dorms are even cheaper. Food can be quite reasonable as well, but for this trip, my friend and I wanted to visit nicer restaurants, which averaged around £15-£30 per meal. Hostel Mostel includes free breakfast and dinner, which will help you save on food if you’re on a budget (we wanted to try local cuisine, so we only managed to have dinner there one day). We took a bus to Plovdiv and back, which was around £12—I’m sure you can travel for a bit less if you book in advance. It is definitely possible to spend around £50 a day for accommodation, sightseeing, and food, perhaps even less!

Bulgaria has other cities which I would love to visit again, such as the seaside towns of Varna and Nessebar. The main challenges when visiting is the language—they use Cyrillic, which has a lot of similar characters as English which sound completely different—and the lack of online information about transportation. Google translate and maps are definitely very useful. It is fairly safe for female travelers; I should mention that there was one random drunk person who was a bit creepy, but that is definitely something that is common in most cities around the world. Given the beautiful countryside, intriguing history, and great food, it is a country I look forward to revisiting!