Street Art in Sofia

Another highlight from our Sofia, Bulgaria trip was a graffiti and street art tour. Prior to the tour, we assumed that graffiti was legal in Bulgaria, but that's not the case. With that said, there are some workarounds for street artists. 

I don't remember the stories behind all the artwork we saw, but the tour did highlight the importance of turning around. Many of the pieces we saw we would not have noticed if we did not turn around. Our guide was personable, knowledgeable and gave us ample time to snap photos of all the great street art we saw along the way. 

We made a reservation for the free tour, but you can also book a paid version through Airbnb and other websites. I am not sure how much Charles tipped our guide (who is one of the founders of the tour and a street artist himself), but I suggested he tip at least as much as it would have cost if we booked the paid tour through another site. 

This piece is a bit controversial because it shows their patron saint, George, in a different light. There are strict rules about how saints are to be depicted and this does not follow the rules. 

This was my favorite piece from the tour. I love pop art! This piece also gives a nod to where graffiti and street art started with a NY subway car. 

I asked why this piece showed a woman holding an American football helmet. The owners of the restaurant (which our guide recommended, but we did not have a chance to try it out) studied in America and grew to enjoy American football. 

At the end of the tour we were all tasked with creating our own graffiti tag. This is what we came up with!

This was our group for the evening. The lady on the end was visiting from England and the three ladies were visiting from Hungary. 

Day trip to Plovdiv, Bulgaria

When visiting Sofia, there are a couple popular day trips to choose between. One is to the Rila Monastery and the other is to Bulgaria's second largest city, Plovdiv. It was a tough decision between the two because we only had one day to dedicate to a side trip, but in the end we chose Plovdiv.

We booked a guided tour which left Sofia in the morning. We rode a van with five other tourists to Plovdiv which is about two hours from Sofia. We saw tons of sunflower fields on the drive! It would have made for some great photo opportunities if you were driving yourself. 

Our guide did not have us introduce ourselves to each other, so I am not quite sure where everyone was visiting from. We found out toward the end that one couple lives in Italy. I think another couple was Italian, as well. But the lady that sat next to me in the van was quiet the whole time. I never heard her speak. It was a little odd spending a good chunk of the day with a group and knowing almost nothing about them. 

This building is now a post office, but its roots are from the Communist era (if that wasn't obvious from the style).

The city has unearthed a lot of Roman era ruins. 

Can you believe it's free to see this? A lot of places would charge you to enter and sit on a Roman era amphitheater. 

Our guide told us about this Bulgaria tradition. They give each other friendship bracelets and then hang them from trees in the spring. After he told us about it, I noticed several hanging from trees around the city. 

This was near the Old Town area of Plovdiv and gave fantastic views of the city. But I had to capture this lovely message spray painted onto a rock. 

And here's the view! 

This was the group we toured with except for the couple with the child. They inserted themselves into our tour at the previous stop and, for some unknown reason, thought it would be cool to be in our group photo. People are weird! But it gave us something to laugh about. 

The story behind this statue reminded me of the one in Bratislava. This was a man that often sat in this spot that was well-known to the people of Plovdiv. After his passing, a group of people raised funds to erect this statue of him. It is rumored that if you whisper a wish into his ear it might come true. 

One thing not pictured was a visit to the Ethnographic Museum. It was a small museum, but it had some nice pieces on display including beautiful traditional Bulgarian outfits. If you love clothing and/or folk art, a visit to this really affordable museum is a must. When we visited there was a small market in the front garden. It prevented us from getting a picture of the building (which is beautiful), but we were able to pick up a couple souvenirs.  

Seeing Bulgaria's Communist Roots

Bulgaria has been under a variety of rulers over its history. Most well known is when it was part of the Communist Soviet bloc. Just walking through Sofia you can see the remnants of this period of their history by the number of Communist-era buildings. 

When I was researching before the trip, I came across a suggestion to visit The Red Flat. This is a small museum showing a regular Bulgarian family's apartment. With your ticket (which you purchase in a really cool gift shop filled with items from local artists), you have basically unlimited time to spend in the apartment and a very thorough audio guide telling you about all aspects of the items in the home, life in Communist Bulgaria and more. It was so fascinating!

Another part of the trip that was really fascinating was the Museum of Socialist Art. After Communism fell, they took a lot of the statues erected during that time and placed them outside this museum. It is a great way to connect with history. The grounds were filled with both well-known people (like Lenin) and statues of everyday workers. There were also many statues of women which I was surprised by. 

The inside of the museum had some artwork that was not as interesting, but the ticket is very affordable so why not check it out?

Dining in Bulgaria

I have had a few people ask me about the food in Bulgaria. We ate really well and inexpensively there. 

Charles enjoys Thai food and we don't eat it very often. I found a highly rated Thai restaurant and had it in mind for his birthday dinner, but we ended up eating there the night before instead. It was so good! I had the yellow curry and a Thai beer. 

We are a dessert every night kind of family. Our first night we did not want to venture back out for gelato so we decided to try out the room service. Check out this fancy looking dessert! 

Another type of restaurant we tried while in Sofia was a BBQ joint. Being Southern BBQ lovers, we had to see what Bulgarians are doing with their BBQ. We were pleasantly surprised. We also tried some Bulgarian beer. I did not really care for mine (pictured above), but Charles' was good. I took a picture of our BBQ platter, but it turned out blurry. That's what I get for not checking before digging in. Our platter had a great sampling of different items--ribs, pulled pork, sausage, pickles, bread and corn. It came with a pineapple BBQ sauce. Mmmm! 

For birthday breakfast, we walked about 15 minutes to a place that came very highly rated on Google. When we arrived, they had a sign that said closed for renovations. Sadness abounds! Around the corner was a very hipster coffee shop called Chucky's so we gave that a try. The coffee was good. I had lemon cake and Charles had banana bread. Not exactly birthday level special, but we made do. 

One of our afternoon treats was bubble tea from a tiny place down the street from our hotel. I had green apple fruit tea and was not going to get any pearls, but the owner insisted so I chose cherry. It was very refreshing. 

This was Charles' choice for breakfast one of our mornings. It's a Bulgarian fried dough. Mine was topped with Nutella and bananas and Charles had honey and walnuts. It was pretty tasty!

For Charles' birthday dinner we tried Bulgarian food. The restaurant was down the street from our hotel (did I mention how conveniently located our hotel was???) and it was so affordable. We ordered a bottle of wine, an appetizer and two entrees for the grand total of about $40 USD. Wow!

Our wine was a Bulgarian white wine and it was very refreshing and light. 

The appetizer menu included several different dips to choose between. We chose this one which had garlic, tomatoes and cream cheese served with bread. It was delicious.

Bulgarian food has some similarities with Greek food. My meal, for example, was like puff pastry stuffed with chicken, spinach and cheese. It was really, really good. Charles' entrée was like a pot pie with several meats in the filling. 

Our very amazing hotel left Charles a birthday treat! What a fun surprise to come back to the room to this. 

Our very first meal in Sofia was at Supa Star, a soup restaurant. Each day they have a variety of different soups to choose from. It was quick, filling and delicious. Plus, like many of our other stops, was right down the street from our hotel. This is the broccoli soup. 

Can you have a European vacation during the summer without gelato? We didn't think so!

Bulgaria? Where is that?

With Charles' recent birthday, that meant it was time for another vacation! Our original plan was to visit two new countries--Kosovo and North Macedonia. I know... very random. When he first mentioned North Macedonia, specifically, I was like "what?!?!" After learning a bit about the country, I decided it sounded cool. Unfortunately, the price of the flights went up which prompted Charles to look at other options for our vacation. He found a really cheap flight to Sofia, Bulgaria and our decision was made.  

Bulgaria was another country that gave me pause. What is there even that would interest us? But soon after starting my research I was very much looking forward to visiting. 

The capital city is Sofia and that is where the bulk of Bulgaria's population lives. Bulgaria is a very old country, but has been controlled by many different groups over its history. Most recently, they were part of the Soviet block. Sofia has an interesting blend of all this history. 

All around the city you will find lions. I have not done the research about why, but nonetheless, here's a picture of one of the lions we found while strolling around Sofia. 

There are also a number of beautiful churches in the city. This one was my favorite that we walked by and I was so disappointed not to be able to visit the inside. We visited during a warm week, so I was wearing tank tops and shorts most of the time. The churches in Bulgaria, much like in Italy, have stricter policies about your attire when visiting. I probably could have gotten away with a quick visit inside, but I did not want to be disrespectful.

This church was in an area we visited a few times when grabbing meals. On our last morning in town we had crepes and coffee and sat on a bench in this square to enjoy them while doing some people watching. 

This is the main cathedral in Sofia and it truly dominates the skyline. We visited the inside, but did not take any pictures. I could not quite tell if regular people were allowed to freely take pictures inside or if you have to pay a small fee. So, I just lived in the moment and enjoyed it without the pressure of taking pictures that would not capture the artistic creations inside. 

Can you believe this view from our hotel room? We stayed at the Intercontinental Sofia. Can I just say that their service from beginning to end was top-notch? They were spectacular. They greeted us at the cab when we were dropped off, took our bag to the room for us, let us sleep in a different room on our last night when the club around the corner was playing their music so loud (that's another story), and even surprised Charles' with a birthday treat. Plus the location was perfect for our stay in the city. There were tons of restaurants down the street and it was an easy walk or cab ride to everything else we wanted to see. If you visit Sofia, please consider a stay at the Intercontinental!