So as you could read yesterday we went to Sofia, and the second day was a lot better than the first as we had more time to really explore the city. We got up early to leave around 8 o’clock in the morning, to go to a small bakery that sold balkan style bread. I had some kind of chocolate croissant, and L took some meaty sandwich and a huge bottle of water. Again we were laughing at the price, as this only cost us 3 euros. Cray-zay.

We were not just happy about the prices of food and taxi’s: we, or actually mainly I, was extremely excited about the beautiful blanket of snow that was on top of everything. Yes, the roads were slippery, yes it was minus 4 degrees, but wow, those beautiful snowy trees everywhere, they were really taking my breath away. Sofia has a crazy amount of parks and so there were a lot of romantic wintery sceneries to check out.

Alexander Nefski Cathedral

We went to this beautiful but dark cathedral called Alexander Nefski Cathedral. It was so silent inside, but that made it a bit godly. Unfortunately the people that worked there (and are mainly there to tell tourists they have to pay 10 lev for taking pics…) were talking pretty loud, which made this divine hideout a little bit less peaceful. I was very impressed with the big, powerful white man with a beard that is staring at you from the ceiling, and from the size of the cathedral in general. It was amazing and I liked how it was not super golden like Catholics usually make it.

Afterwards we went to the Russian church, that looks a bit like a mosque, but is actually a bit like the cathedral from the inside. Dark, many drawings everywhere and candles to remember the dead. After this, we wanted to check out the German Christmas market we had heard a lot about, but we were very disappointed when we reached it.

There was not really much to see, many stands weren’t even open yet and the things for sale were a bit meh too. The only little hut we really loved was the one in which we could take a super corny Christmas photo. It was amazing, we have laughed about it many times and our friends and family really liked it too. It was so tacky, with a fake fire place in the back, me holding this big teddy bear and L looking so happy. AAAW.

Christmas market meh

Anyway, after the disappointing Xmas market we walked around for a bit and then we went to the area where the Balkan Bites free food tour would begin. I was a bit skeptic: why would restaurants give us free food? I expected them to try to offer us drinks, but they didn’t. Also I expected the tour guide to be pretty crappy, but she (Mira) was amazing. She was cute, she told us so many things about Bulgarian culture and we could ask her anything.

It really was a great tour. Not just because you will probably have low expectations, but in general. Five restaurants opened up their doors for the group and offered nice little samples and even some wine at one place. It was a nice variation in restaurants and a cool but not too long walk. Which was excellent as it was so cold. And they would even offer vegetarian options for me, yay. The vegetarian burger sampler at Skeptoburger was amazing. The other tourists were pretty nice too, so we had some chit chat with an American man and a few Dutch people and Belgians, which was cool.

I will tell you more about our trip tomorrow, which will be the last bit as it was an extremely short city trip, hihi.