About Us
We, Mark & Herta, are currently backpacking through Europe, and eventually planning to settle in London. Beyond that? The possibilities are endless.
Read Mark & Herta’s full story.After Bucharest and Belgrade, Sofia is the third-biggest city in the Balkans. Home to over one million people, the city felt massive, especially arriving from the smaller cities of Skopje in Macedonia and Tirana in Albania. The city blocks in the center seemed never-ending, with lots to see, so off we went.
Our walking tour started in the city center, next to the Palace of Justice. The city center has a grid-like layout, with its many city blocks centered around the Todor Alexandrov, Sveta Nedelya, and Alabin boulevards. We walked north along the Sveta Nedelya boulevard, and stumbled upon the Church St. George, surrounded by archeological sites of the ancient settlement of Serdica. The church is the oldest building in Sofia, built by the Romans in the fourth century.
Continuing north, you will stumble upon a beautiful building with a fountain in front. This is one of the many mineral baths you will encounter when in Sofia. This particular building, the Central Mineral Baths, was used as Sofia’s public baths until 1986. Since 2005, it is home to the Museum of Sofia.
We turned around and walked east along the Todor Alexandrov boulevard until we reached the City Gardens. These gardens are surrounded with buildings of historical value, like the National Theatre. It is the oldest theatre in the country, and hosts the countries’ most important plays. Its capacity is just short of 1,000.
On the other side of the City Gardens you can find the National Art Gallery, showcasing over 50,000 Bulgarian works of art. The building is just one of many examples of Russian-inspired architecture, which gives Sofia a very Eastern touch.
We left the City Gardens behind, and looped back towards the city center. After a few minutes, we stumbled upon the Open Book Market, selling Bulgarian novels, and books on the countries’ history, culture, and cuisine. Unsurprisingly, this market is the biggest book market of Bulgaria.
Unfortunately, we were not able to read any of the books, mainly because Bulgaria uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Luckily, with the help of a handy translation leaflet, we were able to translate the Bulgarian street names into its Latin form. Suddenly, all the street names became pronounceable, and things made a lot more sense.
Our last stop before reaching the main street was the Church of Sveti Sedmochislenitsi, a Bulgarian Orthodox church built in 1901. It is just one of many churches you will find throughout the city.
After walking around the city for a couple of hours (the city is quite big!), we were happy to reach the main street. We decided to get a few refreshments, do some shopping, and enjoy the atmosphere, before getting lost in the never-ending city blocks trying to find our way home…
We, Mark & Herta, are currently backpacking through Europe, and eventually planning to settle in London. Beyond that? The possibilities are endless.
Read Mark & Herta’s full story.