Speed Walking through Sofia, Bulgaria

Sofia’s public mineral bath house (now a museum)

We arrived to the city of Sofia after an exhausting night of traveling through Greece. We excitedly exited the train station feeling the cooler air and walked several blocks to our hostel for the night. Will actually found Hostel Mostel had single rooms in our price range. We checked-in to a bustling lobby filled with the typical backpackers. The receptionist was extra inviting and took about fifteen minutes to get us acquainted and excited for the city. We were only planning on using Sofia as a stopover point, but the welcome made us happy we had arrived.

As we walked to the single rooms which were located a short walk away in an apartment block, we learned that our room not only included breakfast, but dinner as well! Excited to save some money, we joined the other backpackers at 7:00pm back in the Hostel’s main common area. The hostel employees were serving out three meal options: spaghetti, lentils with rice, and fried egg with and Asian style salad. As an added bonus, we could wash down our choice with a glass of beer. Is this what we’ve been missing by not staying at hostels? Chatting with some of our neighbors, we learned that Hostel Mostel had another branch in a town north east and that there is a highly recommended tour at that hostel. Just like that, we picked our next stop.

Enjoying local beer at Halbite – our view into the courtyard

That night, Will and I walked across town to a small pub, Halbite. While searching for breweries in the area, I learned that the pub was the best place to get quality beer. We walked to the address I found online but got discouraged as we approached. We could not see any signs and the street did not seem to have a store front or anything inviting. At the exact address, there was an open door leading down a long hallway where we could see a table in the distance. Hoping for the best, we walked back and were pleased to find an open courtyard full of people enjoying dinner and a bar inside a building further back. It was so unexpected. As promised, we found some excellent beer tying two locals, Glarus Ale and Stolichno Bock.

Gold plated sculptures on the National Theatre – can you see why the artist was fired?

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

After our free breakfast in the morning, we joined several other travelers from the hostel on a walking tour. Free Sofia Tour did a great job hitting the city highlights, giving an overview of the history, and keeping everyone entertained. It was interesting to hear how many times the country has been occupied by other empires in its long history. We saw and heard how influential the communist times were on the city. My favorite part was visiting the Square of Tolerance where there are four different religious centers practicing their different faiths in the same city block. Bulgaria seemed to have a religious tolerance that was unexpected. The tour guide even explained how the country prevented their Jewish residence from being expelled by Germany even though they were allies (and required to deport their Jews) during WWII.

After the tour, we had lunch at a restaurant recommended by Free Sofia Tour. We arrived to another business set back off the road with only a nondescript hallway leading to the courtyard. Our very friendly waitress at Lubimoto recommended we split the pork knuckle. It was the perfect suggestion because our lunch was delicious and the portion was plenty to split.

Will enjoying the two liter on the train

We headed back to the hostel to collect our packs from storage. On the walk to the train station, we picked up some freshly made sandwiches from Farmers and grabbed a cheap two liter beer for the ride. We boarded an evening train for a five hour journey to Veliko Tarnovo for a stay at the other Hostel Mostel where a UFO tour awaited us…