Although we got woken up at 2 am when we crossed the border on the overnight train from Istanbul, overall the ride went pretty good. We arrived to a rainy and cool Sofia. Cabs and really everything was supposed to be fairly cheap in Bulgaria, something we were looking forward to. We met a girl on the train that was staying at the same hostel as us so we all got in a cab and went to the hostel. We made it to the hostel fine but as Joel suspected we got ripped off on the price of the cab. We would learn later that prices for cabs can vary greatly in Sofia, you just have to know what company to go with. Either way it was not absurdly expensive but when you know you could have gotten something cheaper it never feels good.
After settling into our hostel we set out to find some food. The girl we met on the train had a place in mind so the three of us braved the cold pouring rain and after walking around for a while finally found the spot. The food was really good and as expected was nice and cheap. The rain was a real downer, so on the walk back after it picked up some more we decided to stop for a drink at an R&B bar called Funky Town. What a great name.
That night the rain finally stopped. We had heard Sofia has quite the night life so we asked the guys running the hostel where some good spots to go were. They pointed out one or two so we headed out to find the places. As it turned out the first spot we went to had a private party going on and the second spot was dead. Considering it was already 1 am we were surprised, but apparently it was more of a late night spot. We had heard of another area called the student area where most of the students live and where there are some good clubs, so we hopped in a cab and told the man we wanted to go there. After a 20 minute and what worked out to be a 4 Euro ride we arrived at the student area. Basically it was a small street with about 5 or 6 huge clubs all lined up. He recommended Jim Beam’s which played “Black Music” so we paid our 1 Euro entry fee to go in. It turned out to be a pretty cool place with cheap drinks and good music. After a while the place was emptying out so we hopped in a cab and headed to another place that was recommended to us. The spot we arrived at did not seem very inviting and they wanted to rip us off on cover so we decided to walk back to the hostel. On the way back we stumbled upon what turned out to be another cool club. So we went in there for a while. It was getting kind of late the place was slowly emptying out so we decided to finally make the trek back to the hostel. Good news for us it was starting to get light out so the walk back was pretty easy. We arrived at our room around 6 am where an older lady that had been biking around the world since 2007 kindly opened the door for us as she was on her way out to hit the road again.
The next day was cold and rainy which gave us little motivation to see the city. Once again the rain stopped by the time it was dark. That night we made some friends with some Brits and Aussies at the hostel. By our recommendation the 8 of us went back to the student area where we went to 2 other clubs. We all had to check out the next day so we called it a night a little bit earlier.
10 am wake up came pretty early but we knew we had to catch the only train running to Belgrade which was leaving at 11:05. After moving kind of slow during breakfast it became apparent that we had to hurry up or we would miss our train. So at check out we asked the man to call us a taxi so we could get to the station on time. He strongly encouraged us to take the tram instead so that’s what we did. Of course we had no Bulgarian Lev (currency) left so it was probably better we did not take the cab. Either way, the tram slowly crept towards the station. We had neglected to purchase train tickets to Belgrade ahead of time, something we hoped to do before we got on the train. However, at the rate the tram was moving we figured we would be lucky if we got to the station before the train left. So we got off the tram at about 11 and started sprinting towards the station. Luckily some guys guided us to the train where we hopped on with about 2 minutes to spare. Of course they wanted money but we had nothing to give them. So we grabbed some seats in a compartment where there just so happened to be with a Canadian and an American our age that were traveling around like us. After making it on the train we felt the lack of tickets was merely a secondary issue. We had hopped to just pay cash when the ticket man came by even though we had no Bulgarian Levs or Serbian Dinars, just Euros. So he came by and seemed unreceptive towards cash so Joel presented his rail pass which was not supposed to be valid for Bulgaria or Serbia. After a long look the conductor actually accepted it. After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Belgrade where we arrived 2 hours late.
After settling into our hostel we set out to find some food. The girl we met on the train had a place in mind so the three of us braved the cold pouring rain and after walking around for a while finally found the spot. The food was really good and as expected was nice and cheap. The rain was a real downer, so on the walk back after it picked up some more we decided to stop for a drink at an R&B bar called Funky Town. What a great name.
That night the rain finally stopped. We had heard Sofia has quite the night life so we asked the guys running the hostel where some good spots to go were. They pointed out one or two so we headed out to find the places. As it turned out the first spot we went to had a private party going on and the second spot was dead. Considering it was already 1 am we were surprised, but apparently it was more of a late night spot. We had heard of another area called the student area where most of the students live and where there are some good clubs, so we hopped in a cab and told the man we wanted to go there. After a 20 minute and what worked out to be a 4 Euro ride we arrived at the student area. Basically it was a small street with about 5 or 6 huge clubs all lined up. He recommended Jim Beam’s which played “Black Music” so we paid our 1 Euro entry fee to go in. It turned out to be a pretty cool place with cheap drinks and good music. After a while the place was emptying out so we hopped in a cab and headed to another place that was recommended to us. The spot we arrived at did not seem very inviting and they wanted to rip us off on cover so we decided to walk back to the hostel. On the way back we stumbled upon what turned out to be another cool club. So we went in there for a while. It was getting kind of late the place was slowly emptying out so we decided to finally make the trek back to the hostel. Good news for us it was starting to get light out so the walk back was pretty easy. We arrived at our room around 6 am where an older lady that had been biking around the world since 2007 kindly opened the door for us as she was on her way out to hit the road again.
The next day was cold and rainy which gave us little motivation to see the city. Once again the rain stopped by the time it was dark. That night we made some friends with some Brits and Aussies at the hostel. By our recommendation the 8 of us went back to the student area where we went to 2 other clubs. We all had to check out the next day so we called it a night a little bit earlier.
10 am wake up came pretty early but we knew we had to catch the only train running to Belgrade which was leaving at 11:05. After moving kind of slow during breakfast it became apparent that we had to hurry up or we would miss our train. So at check out we asked the man to call us a taxi so we could get to the station on time. He strongly encouraged us to take the tram instead so that’s what we did. Of course we had no Bulgarian Lev (currency) left so it was probably better we did not take the cab. Either way, the tram slowly crept towards the station. We had neglected to purchase train tickets to Belgrade ahead of time, something we hoped to do before we got on the train. However, at the rate the tram was moving we figured we would be lucky if we got to the station before the train left. So we got off the tram at about 11 and started sprinting towards the station. Luckily some guys guided us to the train where we hopped on with about 2 minutes to spare. Of course they wanted money but we had nothing to give them. So we grabbed some seats in a compartment where there just so happened to be with a Canadian and an American our age that were traveling around like us. After making it on the train we felt the lack of tickets was merely a secondary issue. We had hopped to just pay cash when the ticket man came by even though we had no Bulgarian Levs or Serbian Dinars, just Euros. So he came by and seemed unreceptive towards cash so Joel presented his rail pass which was not supposed to be valid for Bulgaria or Serbia. After a long look the conductor actually accepted it. After that it was smooth sailing all the way to Belgrade where we arrived 2 hours late.
