A Journey by Train Through Bulgaria - Part 1: SOFIA

We want to start this round trip by train through Bulgaria in the capital Sofia, which can easily be reached from Vienna in just one and a half hours by plane. In my opinion, Sofia is not really worth seeing or particularly beautiful. Flying to Sofia quickly for a long weekend might not be very rewarding, because as I will show in the following articles, Bulgaria has a lot more to offer than just the capital Sofia. But you can still find beautiful places, impressive buildings, and very charming photo opportunities here.

And so I would like to introduce the sights that are here in the order in which they are encountered: The Ivan Vazov National Theater, the church Sv. Georgi, which is hidden in the courtyard of a rather massive building complex and is also one of the oldest buildings in Sofia, the truly monumental and very impressive Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral, the Banja-Baschi Mosque with the central market hall opposite to it, the Synagogue, to have all three monotheistic world religions gathered here, the statue of Sofia herself, and finally the Art Nouveau-style Mineral Bathhouse.

I also had planned a trip to the nearby Vitosha, which is visible in the penultimate picture and reaches a height of 2290 meters. However, the chairlifts that lead up to 1800 meters are only in operation on weekends in the summer. An adventurous journey first by bus and then by taxi to the remote valley station of the chairlift had, apart from the adventurous journey itself, ended up being in vain on this Thursday. The disappointment and frustration that were felt at the time of not having done better research prior to the trip are long obsolete when looking at the pictures. Because the experience of extensively traveling through Bulgaria by train and having brought back all the impressions presented in the following sections is a treasure that one carries in one's soul far beyond the event, filled with joy. With the final picture of the small church of Bojana, which is part of the World Heritage Site, carrying it in one's soul far beyond the event.