I got to Sofia on a minibus from Nis. The bus was much smaller than I was expecting, but it was efficient and arrived an hour earlier than I was expecting, as I didn’t realise that Sofia is 1 hour ahead of Serbia!

I had to wait almost 24 hours for the bus to Sofia, as there were only 2 buses and 1 train to Sofia from Nis, one train at 2.45 am, 1 bus at 4.30 am and one bus at 4 pm. I got the 4 pm bus and was there slightly early, to avoid any problems. The bus was actually a minibus and slowly filled up as we got towards the border, with one or two stops in smaller towns. I had a Serbian woman working in Sofia sitting next to me, who was able to talk about food, where I had been and where I was going. The border crossing took a long time and after about 40 minutes of sitting around we were in Bulgaria and on our way to Sofia. The bus driver dropped us in the bus station and I got the metro to my hostel.

The hostel was in a residential area and was along some completely un-lit streets and past some barking dogs to the road it was on. The dogs were behind fences and the area was safe, but I did take me torch with me, just so that I could see where I was going. The person running the hostel was a Ukrainian who had travelled widely and we sat around talking about different places until it was a bit late to go and find somewhere to eat. As the only local options were Aladdin’s takeaway and a Chinese restaurant, I decided to go into Sofia and get a taxi back. The train ride in was fine and I found the restaurant that he had recommended, which was great, but got ripped-off by the taxi driver on the way back. He ended up charging me 4 x the normal fare and must have had an extra-fast meter, as we did not cover the distance that the price he charged me could have covered.

I changed hostel the next morning as the one I was in had little-to-no atmosphere in it and there was no-one there other than some Bulgarian men. I went to another hostel closer to town, which was perfect and probably one of the best I’ve stayed in. The woman on reception was friendly and helped us with everything and they had a balcony overlooking the street they were on. I spent the next 3 days walking around Sofia, going to the Yalta nightclub, going to the Museum of Socialist Art and walking up a mountain in Vitosha Nature Park with Alastair, an Australian I had met in the hostel.