This week, I wrote about my travels through Bulgaria last fall.  I loved Bulgaria for the amazing history and gorgeous outdoors. Sofia was a surprisingly interesting capital city and I loved being able to get outside and hike in Bansko. If I visit Bulgaria again, I would love to go in winter and see Sofia, the Rila Mountains and Monastery and Bansko.

7 Days in Bulgaria:

• Bucharest, Romania to Veliko Tarnovo – Deciphering Cyrillic in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
• Sofia – Bulgaria Wishes We All Could Be California Girls
• Rila Mountains – Rila Mountain Monastery
• Bansko – Hiking and Bear Spotting in Bulgaria
• Plovdiv – Coffee & Cigarettes
• Plovdiv to Istanbul, Turkey – Overnight on the Orient Express to Istanbul

If Bulgaria is on your list of places to visit, try finding a cheap flight to Paris or London and then take a local carrier (BulgariaAir) into Sofia, (easyJet now flies to Sofia too), or go overland by train. 

Next up, Turkish delights!

After leaving the monastery, we drove down to Bansko. Like Sinaia, in Romania, Bansko is another Eastern European ski town. However, they’re quickly expanding, due to Sofia gunning for the 2018 Winter Games. The town center is fairly small, but the outskirts is filling with newly built condos.

Today, we took an early morning bus to Sofia. At first glance, it appears to be a big, rundown city, which is quite common for the old Eastern bloc. However, Sofia is incredibly charming, especially after seeing the city on foot. I ate lunch at a vegetarian cafe called Dream House Sofia, which was delicious, especially after last night’s Mexican food debacle. After two weeks of eating out in Eastern Europe, it was nice to have something typical of what I would cook for myself back home.

After lunch, and with the Cyrillic alphabet in hand, we checked out the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It’s one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world, and by far the most gorgeous.  Incredible. Then we wandered around a few more churches and parks and past an amazing flea market. They were selling WWI and WWII items, which was a little strange to just see all of these Nazi and propaganda-type memorabilia out on the street. There was a lot really unique old jewelry and photos too.

I checked out one of the Sofia mall food courts for dinner, and did a tiny bit of window shopping. I bought a smoothie from a little shop called California Smoothie, and they were so excited! The manager even came out and asked if I was from California, lol. (I love how having blond hair immediately makes you a “California girl”.)  I chatted with them for a bit and they asked if there was anything they could do to make their smoothies and shop more like the ones I go to back in the US. ;)

A bunch of us decided to go back to the mall later and watch a movie.  It was fun to experience a regular thing, like watching Batman The Dark Knight, but in Bulgaria. The movie was in English, but with Cyrillic subtitles. And they don’t drench the popcorn in butter. It looked like homemade. I wish that was an option back home! In closing, check out the McDonalds sign in Cyrillic.  :)