Motourama Part 24: Bulgarian Adventures in Sofia

Hello family, friends and followers! In the last Travel Story, we made it to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. There was a very specific reason for coming here: the second attempt to getting Esben’s visa for Mongolia.

On our way south through Eastern Europe, we searched for Mongolian embassies along our route, and the nearest was in Sofia. The original plan was to drive from Serbia into Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, and then Greece. A more western route, which would not have brought us into Bulgaria. As a well known saying goes: “a plan rarely survives contact with reality”, which we can only confirm.

The hostel we had found, Hostel Alex 1, was cheap, had a double room, and wi-fi. We could park our nimble wildebeest in a courtyard, hidden from the street accessible only by a narrow corridor. It is nice that the Honda NX250 is so light and easy to manoeuvre. Having arrived in the night, we found some quick food in the area and went to bed.

Our two lovely Honda NX250, safely snuggled into the courtyard. View from the room.

The next morning we got up early, assessed the best route on foot to the embassy, which included a hipster burger joint for breakfast, and set off. The sun was already warm as it rose, and the city was bustling with life; markets with energetic sellers, trying to entice the passers-by to purchase their goods, the sporadic cacophonies of car horns, drowning out the otherwise omnipresent sound of voices and child’s laughter, and the flow of people on their way to work. Arriving at the hipster burger place, called Farmer’s, our heads were buzzing with the sights and sensations from the walk through the city. Digesting both the impressions and the very well tasting burgers, we sat for a while in silence. Then, noticing the time, we quickly paid and were on our way again. The embassy had listed some peculiar opening hours on their homepage, and with a not inconsiderable distance still ahead of us, we wanted to make it there in time for the morning hours.

A small market on the way.

At Farmer’s. Just look how hipster it is with all its wood everywhere! The food was excellent.

We made it to the address of the embassy with time to spare, which was a good thing – the entrance was nowhere to be found. It turned out, after walking 10 minutes around the block, that the entrance was on the direct opposite side of the building from the address provided on the homepage. Now we were facing a locked gate with a number of doorbells next to it. There were labels marking each doorbell, but in Cyrillic, of course. Luckily Esben had taken the time to learn the alphabet before we started the trip, so we identified the doorbell most likely to be the right one – labelled “Портнер”, which looked like “portner”, the Danish word for portier/doorman – and pressed it. As luck would have it, we were let in and greeted by a very friendly guy, who gave us all the details of applying for a visa and asked if we wanted a coffee or tea. We filled out the appropriate documents, paid the 70USD visa fee and handed over Esben’s passport. We were asked if we already had a hotel booked in Mongolia, which we had not, and were told to just bring a hotel booking confirmation when picking up the visa after 48 hours. We were then led out, and made our way back to the city centre, where the sightseeing could start. We walked around for a while without a real destination, looking for a pocket camera for Denise, but didn’t find any shop with a good selection, so we made our way back to the hostel, had dinner at the King Potato restaurant, and enjoyed some Netflix and chill in bed.

Thumbs up for a successful application for the Mongolian visa.

The trams of the city had an almost soviet look to them.

Modern orthodox priest.

These hole-in-the-ground kiosks were everywhere. A curious sight.

Some traffic police boxes looked more like they belonged at a swimming pool, somehow. “No running, no jumping!”

The St. George Rotunda. The oldest architectural monument in the city, covered on all sides by soviet-era buildings to hide it from the public along with the religion it symbolises. Much better than destroying it, though, which would have been the alternative back then.

Sofia had some interesting street art as well.

Denise was particularly attracted to this piece and its strong symbolism.

The scale of this was impressive.

A sizzling hot kebab skewer with tender meats and vegetables, served over open flames. Mouthwatering good.

The next day, we had located a large electronics store with a good selection of cameras, just on the other side of the railway station, not far from the hostel. Google showed us, that the quickest route there on foot was a preposterous detour of 3.1 km. The straight way there was only 1 km, which made Denise ponder if any of the locals would put up with that. In order to find out, we walked to the railway station, and went to the furthest platform accessible to the public, where we observed a man walking on the tracks and onto a path in the direction we wanted to go. We decided to jump down from the platform, and crossed the last set of tracks to the path. Adventure! It lead through a wilderness of vegetation, which had overgrown what had once been an industrial area. It was a thrilling sensation to walk amongst the long forgotten ruins of concrete walls and foundations. We felt like urban explorers. There was no-one around – we think – and even the sounds of the city were gone.

The last set of tracks to cross to get to the path.

The view onto the railway station from the bushes.

The path begins!

Nature and urban remains.

Derelict industrial building.

As we came out on the other side, a car, that was passing by, stopped, and the driver got out to ask if we were lost. Apparently the area we had been walking through was the home of some homeless people. We told her, that we were quite sure we knew, where we were, and that we just needed to go a bit further down the road to the electronics store. She gave us a funny look and went on her way again.

Our route in purple, compared to the suggestions from Google.

We found the perfect camera for Denise: a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ57. It was affordable, has a good zoom, can do full HD video, and the best of all, it has a flip-up screen for low to the ground framing of subjects and viewing of video work, when we film our adventures. Oh yeah, baby! We went back through the now more exhilarating hobo ruins, but did not meet any inhabitants. We enjoyed a picnic in the quiet greens, away from the busy city, before heading back into it.

Picnic time!

Mission accomplished! Adventures were had and a camera was acquired.

Wanting to get some work done on the Travel Stories, we found a cafe, deployed our workstation, charged Denise’s new camera, and started writing. We had found the details of a free walking tour of the city online, and packed up after a couple of hours to make our way to the meeting point.

The tour was very entertaining. Both guides were young, energetic, funny and knowledgeable of the city. We were let through the old part to see the most interesting historical sights, while getting to know the past of the city. The Ottomans, who controlled the city from 1382 to 1878, were very open regarding the construction of other religious buildings than mosques, as long as they did not reach higher than any mosque. This means, that the city of Sofia has a mosque, a church and a synagogue a stone’s throw from each other.

When excavating the build site for the central metro station, the workers stumbled upon the remains of Serdika, the ancient town of Sofia.

The spires of sweaty Nikolay. The church is named Sveti Nikolay Mirlikiisk.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

The domes of the cathedral.

Street merchant packing up for the day.

Tired from all the walking, we made our way back to the hostel for the night, so we would be well rested for the ride to Skopje, Macedonia the following day.

Until next time, go off the beaten path and explore!