Sofia Days

Sumit Poddar
Jul 24, 2018
5 min read

An exclamatory marked expression of once a colleague and now a friend stated, "What is there in Sofia?"

Well at that point , I too had no clue absolutely, only the fact that I have a Letter Of Assignment that requires me to go this City of Sofia.

The next quick googling was the moment, when the travelbug in me jumped, winked and probably did a somersault when the google images loaded on the screen. I knew this would be a fabulous opportunity to roam around and explore a beautiful eastern European City in between work.

A street view near The National Palace Of Culture, Sofia

Eventually the phases before any sort of travel started. The Visa stamping, the flights and hotel booking and then the packing of the bags and backpacks. Power bank should be in cabin luggage, hotel should have microwaves and refrigerator. Minute and micro detailed sticky notes in the mobile phone was just another way of self assessing the excitement of the upcoming adventure.

The day arrived when on boarding the Qatar Airways' midnight flight was the only objective and probably something which I will always remember.

I feel no shame in declaring that Stupidity on my part was at its height due to overexictement of things to come.

Post immigration, when I was called in for security check I pushed my check in backpack containing my electronic gadgets into the conveyor belt along with my passport and boarding pass, so the bag and the tray went in successfully through the scanner and there I was hands up ready for security check only to be asked, "Passport and boarding pass", I was like ... dumb and fumbling I replied , "its in my bag". "Where is your bag?", the officer asked.

to which I replied, "I sent it for scanning" , and there I was in airport security with nothing on me, no wallet , no mobile and definitely no passport and boarding pass. Disgusted , the security officer look'ed at me, and probably due to some good karma that I did earlier, went behind the counter only to bring my bag and handed it over to me , saying, "Never ever repeat this", and I was like you are the best cop I have ever seen.

I said 3 thank yous before leaving the counter that night .

Meanwhile below is the first glimpse of the European mainland that I was able to capture from the flight, the water here is Black Sea for your reference !

After we landed at the Sofia airport, the intent was to collect the bags and leave for our hotel. This is point where I should tell you that you should be hiring cab from the desk counters you will see near the exit gate. Please note, guys will approach you saying belonging to the same taxi company(e.g OK Taxi) but you should ignore them and go till the counter and get your designated cab through a voucher. Prepaid taxis do not exist here.

The cab dropped us to our hotel, Hotel Marinela Sofia, charged us 18 Leva for the same.

The day of arrival on the city was initially laid back owing to the long flight hours and more importantly it was final event of FIFA 2018 world cup.

Watched the match and room serviced the dinner. Being in the summer here in Sofia, witnessed the sunset around 9 PM local time. Took the below shot while capturing a time lapse video from the window, the view gives a glimpse of the city.

Next day was the first working day here in Sofia and one which starts here at 9 in the morning and ends at 6 in the evening, so before the darkness covers the city I did have three hours at hand. Thus it was time for utilizing the same for exploring the place.

It started with the visit to the nearest departmental store(Mandarin) , pretty similar to that of ours, only with the difference of the below section, you know what I mean.

Objective for the evening stroll for that day was however finding a place for dinner. However, that being the first walk in Sofia was really interesting.

We were able to see that people around are enjoying the summer here. We could see folks hanging out in the parks, kids playing football, few are out walking their dogs , in short it reminded me of the song , "What a wonderful world" ! .

The below flower shop caught my attention and the old lady in the shop was so welcoming when I interacted with her.

We finally spotted a McDonald's , rather a McDrive where we had our dinner later that evening.

Post dinner we strolled back to our hotel and by that time the sun has set , the church right opposite to our hotel were looking like it has just been made ready for a postcard snap.

The two next working days were too busy for me to keep on exploring the city, however not everyday you can stop one who actually wants to wander off. So there I was, post work, on the way to the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. A huge octagonal structure spreading across a beautiful park, adorned by friends and family spending a quite summer evening. The structure being built in the communist era in this country is a proof of not so long ago happenings here.

The place seemed like a cool place to hang out for locals, kids playing football, young couples being cosy, friends chitchatting, guys enhancing their roller skating skills, folks out here for walking their best friends(read dogs) are a common sight here. Reminded me of our very own Victoria Memorial Gardens in Kolkata. While I was there unfortunately the fountains were not working.

Our next destination for the day was right across the street, it was the famous Vitosha Boulevard. The word boulevard represents a wide street in a town or city, typically one lined with trees. In Vitosha Boulevard along with the trees are lined up container shaped glass pubs,bars, cafes and restaurants. Each one of them offering something different and exclusive than others with the common denominator being the chilled out factor. The young and happening local crowd loves to hang out here for a sip of coffee or just chilling out with buddies. Tourists flocks here just to stroll on the pedestrian street of Sofia. An aura of happy hormones will run through your mind and body once you start walking through Vitosha Blvd. Will allow the pictures do the explanation, note few shots below are intentionally hazed out so that the limelight of the aura I am talking about remains for the blvd instead of anyone specific.

In short if you are in this city and want to know how vivid and lively Sofia can get, you need to stroll through here on a Friday evening.

Also you will see live music being played by local musicians as you pass by street.

P.S: Food and drinks here are costly as compared to the other parts of the city, also avoid haling a cab while on this street, better cross the road and get one from around the National Palace of Culture. (Backpackers Theory)

Meanwhile you get to visit few beautiful souvenir shops as well for your loved ones here in Vitosha Boulevard. We visited the one below and got a few collectibles marking the visit here.