Bulgaria (Sofia - Plovdiv)

At the end of June, I went on a 5-day trip to Bulgaria, specifically to Sofia and Plovdiv. In Sofia, I stayed in an old house on the outskirts of the main street and my host welcomed me warmly. He told me a little bit about the history of Sofia and we had a Rakia (Bulgarian version of Raki) as a welcome drink. After that, I walked through the city and visited the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral from the outside.

It's a beautiful church with its golden and green roofs. Next, I walked along the main street towards the Parliament building, where I found a Russian Orthodox church, the most beautiful church I have seen so far. With the sunset in the background, I made my way towards the Parliament building and was not disappointed. The scenery at this place was indescribable. Right in front of it are the former excavation sites of the ancient city of Sofia, presumably built by the Romans. Adjacent to it is the "Three Religions" corner with a mosque, a synagogue, and a church. It's nice to see how different religions can coexist.

Initially, I had booked a hike in the Rila Mountains, but it was canceled due to thunderstorms. Too bad, I really wanted to fly my drone at an altitude of 2000 meters to the Seven Rila Lakes. So I decided to stay in Sofia and explore the city. Sofia is located at the foot of the Vitosha Mountain, the only capital city in Europe with a mountain right on its doorstep. The next day, I decided to visit the Vitosha Mountain and take a cable car to the summit. I started early in the morning and went to the cable car station, but it was closed...

Apparently, the cable car only operates during the winter months. No problem, I decided to take a taxi directly to the mountains. It turned out to be more difficult than expected, as all the passing taxis were occupied and the apps didn't work or were in Cyrillic. However, a driver took pity on me and took me to the mountains. From there, I wandered through the forests without a proper route. The highlight of the hike was a small waterfall where I could cool off. On the way down, I had an unpleasant encounter with a stray dog who barked at me, but nothing happened.

My hostel was located in the old town on the way to one of the city's seven hills. At first, I wasn't convinced about sharing a room and sleeping with strangers. I even looked for alternatives, but in the end, I stayed there. I had a good dinner at a restaurant near Nebet Tepe, but I couldn't find the sunset in the evening.

The night at the hostel was not as bad as I expected. During breakfast, I met Grant, a massive American from London who works remotely and is on vacation here. We talked a lot about Germany, as his brother lives in Frankfurt. During the day, I took care of some university tasks and in the afternoon, I walked through the artistic district of Kapana.

From there, I climbed to more hills in the city, but it wasn't very exciting. Then I tried to eat at the same restaurant again, but this time everything took so long that I missed the beautiful sunset again. Well, that's how it goes sometimes, but I was done with Plovdiv. The next day, I said goodbye to Grant, took a bus to the city, but it got lost and I had to walk the rest of the way to the train station. During the train ride, I worked on my university assignments, so the 2 hours passed quickly.

When I arrived back in Sofia, I had the brilliant idea of scratching my mosquito bites on my legs with the brushes of the escalators... Not a good idea, so I quickly looked for a pharmacy to buy some Fenistil for the itching. I cleaned my wound on my leg with hand sanitizer! It burned a lot, but it didn't get infected. After this ordeal, I took the next train to the airport and headed back home!