Visiting the Queen of the Names
The city that changed its name many times. Serdika, Triaditsa, Sredets. Massive history highlighting mysterious Roman ruins, Ottoman mosques and Soviet occupation traces. Still modern, lively and cultural. This is Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
We took the 12:45 BA flight from London Heathrow and arrived around 18:00 at Sofia. It’s EET time hence 2 hours ahead of GMT (UK). The flight went fast as always with a nice combination of Kindle/iPad. On Kindle I was busy with “Why We Sleep” by Matt Walker. On iPad I was on fire with Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Because we wanted to save some time, we had arranged a car to pick us up and take us to the hotel, although taxis/metro were completely fine. We stayed at the Sofia Hotel Balkan on Sveta Nedelya Square, in the heart of Sofia just next to Serdika underground station. The hotel was built in 1956 as a fusion of classical design and lavish décor. It’s an iconic building part of the President’s Palace complex and beneath its foundations lies a historical Roman fortress. It has a classical style blending quite well with the contemporary restaurant where breakfast is fantastic. Another interesting fact is that the intricate floor is inspired by the Byzantine mosaics. Alright, enough of the hotel. We dropped our stuff and went straight away to walk around. First thing we noticed was the St Nedelya Church, a medieval orthodox church that has been reconstructed over the years many times. Then we saw the Church of Saint George, an Early Christian red brick rotunda that is considered the oldest building in Sofia. We continued towards the National Assembly building; a monument of culture used sometimes for parliamentary debates. After that we passed the Prince Alexander I Square, the largest one in Sofia and also called Battenberg. We continued to the Russian Church Sveti Nikolay Mirlikiiski, another Orthodox church on Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard. Next, we saw the Crystal Garden and turn left to head to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral, built in Neo-Byzantine style and apparently one of the top 50 largest ones in the world. It was pretty cold, so we decided to make a little stop for coffee in a place called Coffee Bar on Tsar Ivan Shishman which looked like a London tube stop. While enjoying the coffee, we were already looking for a restaurant to have some light dinner. We left the coffee shop and on our way we saw the Church of Sveti Sedmochislenitsi, another Orthodox one built in an old mosque. Yep, Bulgaria is an Orthodox Christian country and has a larger number of churches. Perhaps even more churches than coffee shops. Time for dinner. We found a pretty cool vegetarian restaurant called Sun Moon. We had the classic Shopska salad (green salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted herb potatoes, homemade pesto, cheese, olives) and a wholegrain crust pizza with avocado. Kristina had a local Ale beer and I had a ginger kombucha. Did I tell you I love kombucha? It’s a fermented tea rich in probiotics, antioxidants and has some interesting health benefits. Besides all that, it’s super tasty! Time to rest, so headed back to the hotel with a mini-stop appreciating their green tram and colourful buildings on Garibaldi square.
We woke up at 7ish for a little work out and then breakfast. This was an outstanding buffet in line with Luxury Collection hotels offering a variety of options for pretty much every dietary requirement. We spent a good hour enjoying this. I loved their Shopska salad which is very simple but on the other hand you need good ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers and grated cheese on top. There was also some Banitsa, a Bulgarian pastry typically eaten for dessert and breakfast layered and buttered with phyllo dough. If you were craving for more sugar then there also was Palacinka, the Bulgarian pancakes which are really crepes as they are very thin. And of course, it was not strange to find Baklava everywhere, a sweet dessert pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped walnuts with syrup or honey. Yes, for breakfast too! Time to take our private tour for a day trip in Nis, Serbia. On the way back we went for a walk to Vitosha Boulevard, the main pedestrian street in Sofia with tons of options for food, drinks and shopping. We decided to have dinner at Shtastlivetsa Vitoshka restaurant, a collection of tastes and aromas. This was the motto of the creators and chefs. The restaurant had certainly a very distinctive style. It was chic and vintage at the same time, like a domestic urban interior of Europe in the 1930s. The food was delicious and we had some interesting Mavrud wine from the region of Plovdiv. The winery was Dragomir. The wine had a vivir purple red colour with violet nuances. The aromas were dominated by berry fruits, leaves and spices. I’d say it was a medium well balance body with some spicy notes. In fact, we learnt that Bulgaria became the 4th largest wine producer in the world during the 70s and 80s. Obviously it was not well-known in Western countries because 90% was sold in the Soviet Union. After the socialist regime well, Bulgaria was out of the wine picture for long time. Now they came back with more than 150,000 vineyard acres. You’d be surprised to know that Bulgaria has very well-known wine varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. And all local! Yes, more than 2,500 sunlight hours per year allowed this. The main wine regions: Danube Plain and Thracian Valley.
In a nutshell, this is a place worth visiting and in our next trip surely, we’ll visit some of the wine regions in Danube Plain such as the North Black Sea or we might decide to see the South Black Sea in the Thracian Valley.
