Mar 24, 2006 - Bulgaria - A Land of Contrast and Contradiction

Ahhhh Bulgaria - a land of contrast and contradiction. I now feel like I am truly on the road!! Bulgaria, both its history and today's society, is a fascinating and complex place. I arrived on Tues. May 21st into the capital city of Sofia (pronounced SO-fya). I was immediately accosted by taxi drivers offering me overpriced cab rides into the city center. They actually have a pretty good scam going. The one ok cab company to use, is, you guessed it, The OK cab company. They have yellow cabs with red lettering on the sides of the cab. So...

Dec 11, 2005 - M: Sofia

If Thessaloniki is where the Balkans start, Bulgaria is where they get more authentic. We stared in disbelief at the completely decrepit train station where the only customers seemed to be a disoriented Greek wanting to get on the next train to Philippopolis (known in Bulgaria and everywhere else in the world as Plovdiv) and a menagerie of stray but cute looking dogs. The Arrival/Departure tables were completely blank and the lights were off in the whole station. Later we saw two small monitors on which the arrivals and departures were...

Sep 4, 2005 - BULGARIA - SOFIA

Sofia is a very beautiful old city with lots of history. The housing is very modest and very rundown. They are still recovering from the fall of communism, you can tell by the state of the housing, but the actual city centre is very beautiful because these are all the government buildings and churches etc... enjoy the pics.

Aug 24, 2005 - Sofia

Hi everyone. I hope this finds you all healthy and happy. What a couple of days. I'm writing this on the train to Varna, yep I need a Black Sea beach fix, but that'll be in tomorrows edition. I introduced today's update like this to let you know that I'm suffering from self inflicted fun. Ok, we left Plovdiv on a hot bus for a two hour sweaty journey to Sofia. I was very impressed with the hostel, the single beds weren't anything specal but the service provided by the staff and the facilities were excellent. My first impressions are that...

Aug 18, 2005 - Sofia

Breakfast in Hungary, Lunch in Serbia and dinner in Bulgaria. Our longest day so far. 730 km and 2 border crossings. We set off at 6.20 a.m. to miss the traffic in Budapest. Serbia is much greener than Croatia, but rather impoverished looking. The last 10 km of our journey through a steep valley was beautiful. Lots of bends and some tunnels with cobbles inside. We arrived in Sofia at 7.30 p.m. and picked up a bonk on the rear suspension, so the evening was devoted to tightening the shock absorber mounting bolts before a short walk to a...

May 10, 2005 - Sofia

Return here by 6 pm on direct bus...made plans, called T - great to hear her voice and hear the news direct, ha! Went to movie, Heaven on Earth?, anyway I did not like it...not too accurate as far as discussions about the crusades...I think the producers were trying to make a point about mid-east and Irag invasion is all...just a lot of blood - which is what all war is about so that part no doubt was real. I got us turned around at the Metro taking the last train and we ended up at completely wrong end of the line!!!!!!Why don't I learn,...

May 7, 2005 - Sofia (Photos are in Belgrade!)

Got up to a great breakfast of french toast w/ homemade rose jelly, yumm and goat cheese and hot milk...Anna, our hostess told us the bus would leave for Sofia at 9 (it was then 8:40) so we quickly beat a path to the station and now at noon here we are...it rained pretty much the whole way on the bus, was not raining on the walk to the station or when we arrived in Sofia. We have been quite lucky weather wise. Yesterday(8th), we took the cable car to the highest point w/o chairlift on Vitosha Mtn. to see the view of Sophia valley...it was a...

Apr 30, 2005 - Saint of Truth, Beauty, and Wisdom

These pics are all taken in Sofia, Bulgaria, where I arrived via bus long about 6 am on Friday morning. Somehow it felt good to be entering Eastern Europe and despite having not slept on the bus was quite happy to be spending the day in Sofia -- where 2 celebrity sightings occurred-- one look-alike and one real. The oliver stone one was for real, but john travolta actually talked to me. Sofia is a surprsingly endrearing little city situated among a beautiful mountain range and countryside. The remnants of the communist era are still...

Nov 25, 2004 - Road Trip Bulgaria; Borovets

Wake early to sight of snow everywhere! Monestary covered and Hagred in courtyard shovelling snow. I suppose he isn't allowed to use magic to move it in my presence. With plans of hiking in hills out-the-window (3 feet of white stuff on trails), I settle in for a few coffees in the local brew house. Met a couple travelling Aussies and yarn away the morning. They obviously not used to the cold as each of their coffee's include a shot of brandy. I guess they not planning any hiking this day either. Bout noon I'm fish-tailing back down the...

Nov 21, 2004 - Exploring Sofia

Arrived in Sofia hostel late after 7 hour bus ride (including uncessary interogation at the Macedonia/Bulgaria border and scary talk of me having to pay a US$900 fee....!! thankfully a mistake on their part) I finally found the hostel in Sofia. Instantly met a couple fellow hostel folk. Cameron (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) - a crazy looking but friendly character on a one week holiday in Sofia evidently intent on drinking as much as possible, and Aaron (British Columbia, Canada) - on route via bicycle from Amsterdam to Beijing. Rose early next...

Oct 11, 2004 - The Road to Turkey via Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria

The journey to Turkey via Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria was challenging, yet culturally intriguing. The border crossings were especially interesting with having to walk over no-mans land between Croatia and Montenegro and a rather refugee like train crossing between Bulgaria and Turkey where we were ordered off the train at 3am into a small room with 200 others for passport control and visas. After crossing into Montenegro the condition of the roads, buildings and vehicles decreased significantly. Many buildings still displayed signs of...

Aug 23, 2004 - Sofia

Fortunately Sofia is a very inexpensive city -fortunately because I missed my second flight of the year and ended up having to spend an extra two days here. Strictly speaking I didn't actually miss the flight - I was 9 months early. Somehow during my internet booking I'd made the return booking for May instead of August. As the flight was already overbooked I had no chance of getting on it and the next days was overbooked too. When I did finally get on a plane home my bag didn't and it had a four day extention to the holiday.