Sofia Bulgaria : Our favourite city in Eastern Europe

Was there anywhere you would recommend visiting in Albania, other than the capital?

Also you forgot to say that it’s really cheap

i ve been living in Sofia all my life but the moment i fell in love was when i came back after i studied one semester in other country, again beautiful and charming but ….i just realized that the city i live in is full of nice things to do its not dangerous walking around during the night in the city center at least ,,,there is really free wii fii everywhere lots of museums gardens parks and trees and yes Sofia need to be felt and the night life is full power on there are lots of diskos pubs bla bla and of course the underground side is also impressive for a country with so much comercial pop folk culture i think most powerful is the dnb scene nowadays before few years it was full of hard techno parties legal and illegal in the industrial part in wearhouses and so on sooo whatever you need just go and get it and dont forget it really easy to pop up the underground and to have a free ride by buss or tram enjoy your stay

Plovdiv however is gorgeous despite the chalga

Hello, when you come in Sofia, book at
http://www.elysiahotel.com/hostel/
Read reviews, see our happy guests in beautiful garden:)

I am half Bulgarian and half Egyptian and went to many countries
Seriously BULGARIA is the best specially SOFIA
i fall in love with every cm in it

First off, thanks guys! This is very positive article and I dare say also very true. I lived in Sofia for a few years and it’s probably the best place I’ve lived in, and I’ve lived in some interesting places.

I’ve been on a road trip around most of the Yugo republics with my friends and we were very impressed by Ljubljana. You might want to check it out. Also, sorry to hear that Montenegro was so stressful for you, we had a great time and we were all impressed by the natural beauty in this country.

Well-written article. I have to agree with you, the place is amazing. It is not boring at all, lot of activities to do there. I lived in Holland for a year and despite the tidy houses and gardens, the place is realy boring. Most of the clubs close at 2am and most of the shops close at 5pm…Sofia doesn’t sleep, that is all i have to say Екстра ни е в БГ

I loved your article because it is positive and it does outline some interesting, catchy and yet surprising facts for me that I wouldn’t have thought about if I were to talk about my home town. We hardly hear anyone praising our country, but the sad thing is that the ones who hardly praise it are the Bulgarians themselves. I’ve always been quite patriotic just because I feel my home, it is not about what is there that can be done, or seen, or heard and experienced, it is a mixture of them with the most essential being- what is there to be felt! I am sure that the foreign tourists will leave fascinated and with various impressions, even mixed impressions, but that they will hold an unforgettable impression for sure because it seems like foreigners look at Bulgaria and Sofia from a different perspective that some of the ordinary people here cannot understand( the ones who tend to complian unfortunately). I’ve lived In Glasgow for a year and it is a very interesting city with a lot of distinct faces which is always enriching and worth the visit, but I’ve never thought that the third biggest city in one of the most developed countries in the world UK ( Scotland is part of it) will not offer much more than an underrrated post-communistic eastern capital. People say that Glasgow has more than 90 parks and it is the greenest of all cities in Scotland, and Glaswegian parks are genuinely adorable- this is true. But in comparison to Sofia I would say that the city is grey; Sofia has many things to offer- vibrant lifestyle, lively atmosphere especially in the summer and especially in front of the Ivan Vazov Theatre where you can hear beers being opened, laughs being spread, quitars being played by handsome awkward boys, etc. ; interesting buildings, culture and traditions, a lot of museums and galleries to visit, as well as big green parks with many trees where you can go for a walk…Nice food, fresh fruits and vegetables, bulgarian alcohol, and if you get to meet the right people from us- they will be warm, open-hearted and interested in you because you come from the great West haha. Thank you for the article, it has been real pleasure for me to read it. And the comparisons with Glasgow are not outlined in order to insult someone ( I have my own love towards Glasgow and I am very happy to study there), but just to slightly express my sadness of many Bulgarians tending to always underestimate what we have, and praise other nations’ countries. When in fact, I am sure we have many more than we suppose we do that can undoubtfully force a tourist to fall inlove and keep this city forever in his soul.

U should go to Plovdiv next time! Lovely city, highly recommended

There you go a video presentation of who Ivan Ivan was and did for Sofia in his administration period:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFomTgjv15Y

Im sorry, it’s only in Bulgarian the video, but all of the Bulgarians here would appreciate it, I’m sure. By the way, after the communist take power of the state, he is brought to court for being a “fascist supporter of the previous regime and treason against Bulgaria” for such “crimes” as: building power-stations, roads, bridges and the Iskar dam that supplies 75 % of Sofia’s water supply… ;P

Imenno zaradi hora kato teb mnenieto za Bulgaria e takova, kakvoto e. Ako ne moje6 da naprawi6 ni6to dobro za rodinata si, pone si draj usticata zatvorena. Sram me e, 4e qwno si mi sanarodnik…

I visited Sofia in July this year and it was a pleasant two-day stay. The architecture is varied – there is byzantine revival, neo-classicism, baroque revival, art nouveau, along with 60s and 70s brutalism, and modern glass-and-concrete high-rises and shopping centres on Bulgaria Boulevard. I did hear some complaints from the locals that some of the historical buildings are not in a great state of repair, but to me this is something entirely secondary – it does not detract from their charm. For those who appreciate varied styles and elegance, the central avenues will be a visual feast.
I like what they are doing to the centre of Sofia – preserving the remnants of the ancient Roman city walls and incorporating them into the underground station network. I think the sense of history one gets from catching the local tube whilst admiring ancient brickwork or masonry is unique – Moscow has fantastic-looking underground stations, but without that encounter with antiquities. And those antiquities are everywhere – as the city is actually best explored on foot, they are something one can encounter almost everywhere one goes. I think the IV St George’s Rotunda has incomparable charm, as does the XIII century Sredets city walls (I cannot remember the street name for the life of me).
We visited the Hagia Sofia church, which is a VI-century basilica still serving its original purpose. It is considerably more impressive than the much-famed Boyana Church just outside of Sofia. The latter is really the private chapel of a local aristocratic family from the XII century, which means it is rather small in size; the murals are impressive, but it feels small and cramped. It also has a very accommodating tour guide and a rather sour caretaker who overrides her permission to take pictures (even without a flash).
I personally did not encounter any of the stray dogs other comments were referring to and the broken-down pavements in some parts of the city centre are a fact, but in many places they have also been relaid. There is free wi-fi almost everywhere and the internet is of the fast type (I suppose Bulgarians are well and truly “connected”). The one night we went for supper to a spot called Beso (as in Spanish for “kiss”) – it seemed very popular with the locals, the food was good, and it generally had the sort of atmosphere not unlike something one would see in Clifton Beach in Cape Town, just without the sea views. It was, in fact, overlooking a housing estate from the 1970s, a bit like the less glamorous parts outside Paddington, on the one side, and smart modern apartment buildings on the other – a sort of synopsis of where the place is coming from and where it is going. The locals have this attitude of partying hard, which you will sense way into the wee ours of the morning.
Next evening, we went to an art cafe in Doktorski Pametnik (the Doctors’ Memorial) neighbourhood in central Sofia, which was very bohemian, served great food, and had a ridiculously efficient waitress. It was the quintessential European cafe that serves as a gathering spot for intellectuals, hipsters, the elegant, and their offspring. On that last note, the city is amazingly safe – our hostess’s little daughter of 6 just went about running in the park across from the cafe, whilst her mother’s greatest concern was that she cross the street safely.
I can agree that it has a type of understated cool about it, as well as a certain non-chalance. A word of warning to the chaps – Bulgarians are a sexy nation; Bulgarian women know how to rock a summer dress, so be prepared for your heart to skip a beat every few minutes. I don’t want you to end up falling in love a thousand times a day.