Should you travel to BULGARIA?Cost, Safety + Attractions. Beach
I am coming to you from Sofia Bulgaria. Travel to beach. And I'm actually on the tail end of my stay before I head on to another city and I didn't want to film this video until I was at the tail end because I really wanted to experience the city, you know, before making my opinion and giving guys a really concrete sort of picture of what you can expect, if you're coming here for the first time. So if you've been following my journey, you probably would have seen that I was in Greece before this This and how I actually got here was by land border. I took a bus from Thessaloniki to Sofia. It took about four hours. And to be honest, the whole process of immigration between the two countries was fairly seamless though. I was the only person that was going in between the countries with a passport instead of just an EU card. So kind of got pulled to the side and ask some extra questions. But All if you are a Canadian right now, you are able to enter Bulgaria without any mandatory testing. And after spending so much time here, I would absolutely recommend people come here. So hopefully, today's video will pique your interest. Time has been so hard on us. My friend sun goes down but we get back again. No matter what they call. I know a lot people appreciate when I touch on safety concerns in my video, and being a single female traveler, you know. Oh, the people that shouldn't be traveling by themselves. Feel like I'm a good representative for things to watch out for. And thankfully here in Sofia, I have had zero, count them zero issues walking around by myself, even late at night. Of course, I'm not going to random sketchy sort of areas. I am staying in the more central part of the city, overall I found the people incredibly welcoming as soon as they kind of hear that. A Time, an obvious Foreigner, they always want to ask where you're from, they want to give you tips of what to see and do and I've just founded a very kind-hearted and very peaceful country so far. A big part of what I really appreciate about Sophia was seeing this beautiful mix of their cultural heritage because they had been ruled by a few different Empires such as the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. But at the same time still having so many buildings that are very modern, all the amenities you could ever ask for as well as some beautiful green spaces that was probably one of my Favorites because it felt like you were genuinely in a forest, not so much, a little city park. So it was really nice to feel like you were getting away for the day. Something else. That was a surprise was actually how good the shopping was in. Sofia, not only did they have Little Indie boutiques but their malls were actually quite good as well. So that's important to you, not to worry. Sofia has many options I was also really impressed with Sophia's public transit options, they have a great mix of Metro trolley buses and regular buses, the tickets themselves cost 160 love, which is around, 1 US dollar. The only thing is that you do have to have separate tickets for every different mode of Transit. So if you were taking the metro and the bus, you would need separate tickets for that. But overall, I found it very efficient, very clean. Obviously, in these covid X, you do have to wear a mask while you are on the public transit. But I found it really easy to get around the city. Some of you may remember that back in Greece, I had my little Sony action camera break. So I went off the Beaten Track to a more local neighborhood where I found a Sony verified.Shop and dropped it off there. I have yet to pick it up since I'm in other parts of Bulgaria. So I'll let you guys know how it goes, but I loved that. I got to go to this area because they had a very Eastern European style of Market. The same that I'm used to and Ukraine and Russia and I love coming to these types of parts of a city because just staying in the center, you, of course, get a very inflated sort of look of what the average life is like, In any country. So I always recommend going to a local neighborhood just walking around maybe even talking to a local if somehow you can find common ground because it's in these kinds of parts that you get a much clearer sort of window of how the average person lives. Bulgaria is a part of the EU, but their salaries on a whole are on the lower side with the average monthly income around 500 Euros, which is about 600, u.s. dollar. But of course, this is going to range depending on whether you're in a big city or in a smaller town and obviously which career field you are in. For one, please. Yep, that's perfect. Thank you. Of course, not. Wow. anybody else to Watching closely. You tell tell mr. I Need Your Lovin. No wine. Cellar steel, Wine, Cellar. Uh-huh or klaussner. Wow. Duh. Rudy previously. he's Storia. Vinaigrette Tom Papa Wow. The shooter. So that restaurant was such a cool experience. I would highly recommend going there, the food was amazing, prices were reasonable and super nice staff. And technically the first person that I had a full Russian conversation with because wild Bulgarian and Russian do have some similarities. They are pretty far removed from each other. Like, when I'm walking down the street, I don't really understand what Are saying strangely enough when I read the language, since it is Cyrillic. I tend to understand that a bit more. So don't know if it's just the pronunciation. That's kind of losing it for me. But since we just had that delicious meal, I thought that I would now touch on the approximate cost and that I found things to be here in the city. What you can expect if you're thinking of coming at this point in time. So for example that meal that I had that's a super popular tourist.Friendly sort of restaurant though. I did see quite a few locals, they're speaking Bulgarian. So my meal came to 22 love and that was with a main with that really delicious bread and with the drink so approximately that would be about 15 u.s. dollars. So I think that's extremely reasonable for the quality that we had but you can of course find places where it's a lot less you could probably get a full meal for like five to Seven dollars. And if we're talking about accommodation costs, I'm currently staying at a beautiful. Absolutely beautiful Airbnb in the center of town. I will link it in the description. Have an Airbnb discount code. If you guys don't already have an account and I'm paying about 32. a night. So maybe 25 American, I did get a discount because I had a longer sort of stay overall. Accommodation is very reasonably priced here, you can find hostels for 10 American dollars and the mid-range sort of hotels start around $70. Sofia has a lot of different interactions and things to see and do but just thought I would name a few of my personal favorites while I was there starting with their National Gallery which is absolutely Gorgeous. The gallery is primarily focused on vulgarian artists but they do have special exhibitions where sometimes it's an international artist or some kind of other Unique Piece. But I think in these crazy covid times, it's especially important to remember to support the Arts that aren't just digital. There is a lot of history in these types of places and they do need our support another. Favorite of mine was going hiking on the bush. Russia, which is the very large mountain that basically surrounds. Sofia, it would take you days upon days to see the whole area. But if you want to just a quick easy day, trip of a hike, the one that I did was called boyana waterfall. And it took about two hours from the bottom to get to the actual waterfall and it was just an absolutely beautiful hike. I would absolutely recommend it just vitosha In general, has such incredible nature. Now, not to confuse you. But there is also a really famous pedestrian street and Sophia called Shh, Beautiful. this is really the Social Hub of the city where a lot of people go to meet up with their friends. There's lots of amazing restaurants, lots of stores on either side of the street and it's just a really lively place especially at night. There's lots of street performers. If you're staying downtown, you We can't miss it. It actually takes up quite a large area of space and was definitely one of my favorite places to just, grab a meal, relax and take in the city. And right at the end of the tosia boulevard, there is the National Palace of culture, otherwise known as ndk. And this is also another really great place to just hang out. Any time of day, the large cultural building itself is, of course, used for different kinds of concerts and exhibitions right now with covid. I highly doubt a lot of going on, but just in general this is a really beautiful area and you can't miss it. When you come to Sofia, So that brings us to the end of the video. My friends. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope it gave you some insight about this beautiful city and I'm genuinely so excited to keep exploring Bulgaria. I actually have a train to Varna in two days, all the way on the east coast and the Black Sea. Let me know in the comments if you guys have ever been to Bulgaria and what your favorite parts were? If there's any locals, please. Let me know what things I should absolutely do while I'm here in Bulgaria. VISIT BULGARIA ..... see more
