Four days in Bulgaria
Date of trip: April 2019
I have to confess I only chose this destination because I found a bargain flight to the capital of Bulgaria: Sofia. However, as soon as I booked it, I got so excited to visit a new country and also my first one in the Balkan Peninsula! Straightaway I did some research to decide which day trips we should choose to make the most of our four days in Bulgaria. I found out that two of the best day trips from Sofia are Plovdiv one day and the Rila Monastery another day as they are not too far away. I was great to discover that Plovdiv was the European capital of culture 2019. This itinerary is perfect for a long weekend and I recommend you to rent a car to have more freedom with your time there.
On Friday we had a late flight plus the two-hour time difference from the UK. The first thing we did was to pick up the rental car at the airport, which was so easy. We got offered a Porsche Cayenne for only 20€ extra per day and we were so tempted, but we had already rented a big car (Nissan Pathfinder) so we kept it. The airport is only 15min away from Sofia’s city centre. We used the hotel car park as we could not be bothered with getting up early the next morning to put a ticket on the car.
We stayed in the Rosslyn Thracia Hotel. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel after staying in apartments or Airbnbs on our last holidays. The hotel really lived up to all the positive reviews on TripAdvisor. On arrival in our room we had a little bottle of wine with a handwritten card, it was a really cute touch. We almost upgraded to a Superior room, but the Double room was spacious enough, especially if you do not plan to spend much time in the hotel. The location was perfect and the thing that I enjoyed the most was the breakfast. They had unusual stuff like halloumi cheese, popcorn cauliflower or honeycomb; along with the ordinary as fresh fruit, pastries and omelettes made to order.
1st Day – Saturday – SOFIA
On Friday, in the end, we went to bed around 2 am so getting up early was not an option. We had breakfast and we made our way to the Free Walking Tour meeting point, luckily only 5 minutes away from the hotel. It started at 11 am. Our guide was Alexandra and she was brilliant. I love walking tours as I learn so much, it makes such a big difference to me to hear a story from someone instead of reading it in a book. I think it is a great start point when you visit a new city. You learn about history, traditions and it is also a great opportunity to get recommendations directly from a local. We visited all the main landmarks during the tour and it was relaxed enough to snap a few shots.
We also had the chance to learn about the beautiful Martenitsa tradition. A Martenitsa is a small ornament (usually a bracelet or a brooch), most often made of wool or cotton yarn in two colors – white and red, which Bulgarians tie around their wrists or clip on their clothes each year on March 1st for health and good luck. The martenitsa is taken off when one sees a blooming tree, a stork or a swallow. The person makes a wish and ties his martenitsa to the tree or puts it under a stone. I bought a few after as I thought it was a great idea for a souvenir with a story.
The tour ended at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and we stayed a little bit around as there was a small market with mostly Soviet trinkets. I love buying little drawings from local artists, then I always give them to my mum, she has a wall full of them. This is the one I got, you can visit the artist page here.
For lunch we went to Buffet, a very colourful restaurant and the food was amazing. On the way to the restaurant we stopped for a beer on Skaptobara. It was very sunny and we couldn’t resist sitting on their terrace.After that we went back to the hotel for a little siesta.
Later on, we went to The Apartment, a really interesting place that feels literally as being in someone’s apartment. The raspberry wine is delicious and the homemade food too, we shared a samosa and a slice of spinach quiche as we were not very hungry. This place is also an independent youth organization created to develop ideas in the field of Urban Culture, Art, Animal Conservation and Nature. They organize exhibitions of young authors, presentations of new books, small concerts, film screenings and workshops, as well as meetings of related cultural and international organizations.
PLOVDIV
2nd Day – Sunday – PLOVDIV
Plovdiv is approx. 2h away from Sofia by car. We arrived around midday. We strolled a bit around the city centre and we visited the old town. We had lunch in the Kapana district and we finished the day watching sunset from the Alyosha Monument.
RILA MONASTERY
3rd Day – Monday – RILA MONASTERY
To get there it is a nice drive towards the mountains, it takes approx 1h 30min from Sofia. We got there around midday, it was quite busy with school trips.
On they way back we stopped to have a look to the Junk Museum from outside as it was closed.
We also visited the Snail House.
We were tired and we had time to we just had room service to relax a bit. Then we visited the bookshop Elephant
We went for a drink to Hambara, a pub only lit by candles. It was a bit hard to find and we ended up first in a tiny pub in a basement that looked just as secret as Hambara.
4 TH Day – Tuesday – SOFIA
Socialist Art Museum
Lunch at the airport.