Arrived at the train station

in Sofia at 6am.

I had trouble reading all the sign boards because all the writing in Bulgaria is in Cyrillic. Bulgarians are proud of the Cyrillic alphabets because it’s developed in the First Bulgarian Empire.

Example of the Cyrillic alphabet

Since I didn’t do my research about hostel, I borrowed a guide book from a french girl I met on the train and jotted down the address for few hostels. Met a Korean guy, Anh at the bus station and he going to the same hostel too so we walked together to Hostel Mostel (24 LEV ~12 Euros).

With Anh, another world traveler

There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Sofia so we had Chinese food for lunch (2.5 Euros each).

Road name in Cyrillic

Sofia city center

National Palace of Culture

Alexander Nevski Catheral

Grabbed Pizza with a few Hostel Mate

Then we visited Mojito which is a bar/club.

Next day,
Daylights saving start today and Bulgarians move their clock an hour backward.

Sveta Nedelia Square

Main Central Market

More Cyrillic

Went to the bus station to ask about tickets to Istanbul. Train cost around 60 Leva and takes 13 hours but is more comfortable. Bus only cost 40 Leva and will take 9 hours so I decided to take the bus because of the later departure time.

Mosque

Sofia Mall

I asked around about a Chinese market and someone told me that there is a huge one at Illianti. Tried taking bus 18 but got on tram 11 instead. Usually tram 11 and 12 will go to Illianti, however they cut short the tram because of some repair work so I wasn’t able to get there.

Took a 9pm bus to Istanbul (40 LEV ~20 Euros). Bulgarians are quite nice and friendly but the country is still poor and behind in its economy. It seems like the country still hasn’t move forward after communism collapsed. Things are cheaper here than other parts of Europe but average salary is just around 200 Euros a month so life is hard for the people in the country.