You know that feeling when the temperatures outside are rising and July is just round the corner and you start thinking about the seaside, the mountains, travel to another country, basically a holiday. Summer is often the season when you get that call from a friend: I’ll be visiting Sofia for a few days, can I stay with you? Or the even more familiar, you know any nice airbnbs?
And then… where are we going, what are we doing?
Sofia has a lot to offer for people visiting for the first, second, or hundredth time. There’s always something new to discover, a new place to visit, some new food to try or to just chill in one of the local cafes. Recently I had a bunch of friends coming over and had to devise a whole weekend plan – from Friday until Sunday and what a plan that was…
Our Friday night started with a wine tasting with a real sommelier. Sounds fancy, right? Truth is, it‘s not at all what we expected. The place is La Bottega Due Piani, the beautiful old centre – still kind’a easy to miss. Firstly, we went to the wrong restaurant, told them we have a booking from Gift Come True and they just told us to go upstairs, but then it turned out there’s no second floor. We went back downstairs to ask the guy at the door – turns out it’s the place next door. Lots of laugher on our part and obviously in a better mood we go there and sit on a table for four that’s waiting for us. Our sommelier comes over and starts us off with wine and then wine and wine again, one from Northern Italy, one from Sicily, and the antipasti, mmm, let’s just say we were neither hungry, nor thirsty.
Our evening continued in a lovely courtyard in one of the most secluded bars in the heart of Sofia - 5L, the cocktails were gastronomical, astronomical, and totally smashing. We had to go inside at 11 PM due to noise regulations, but it didn’t kill the mood in the slightest.
Seven or eight hours later… overslept, underslept and totally still tipsy we get up and go to our next exotic adventure in the centre of Sofia. We must have been a funny sight, a native citizen of Sofia, a Dutch guy and two English girls, “gone with the wind” with a cup of coffee in hand and slightly closed eyes we’re nearing Alexander Nevski, where our Gift Come True tour guide is waiting for us. We enter the catacombs of Saint Sofia, we learn so many cool and random historic facts, city legends and all around have a great time walking around the non-touristy places. We then enter the Archeological museum and finish off in a board game bar where we get the chance to taste some Bulgarian craft beers and afterwards a very exotic drink – right old craft mead. Very tasty and we’re quite tipsy immediately after the first glass.
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The next morning we woke up early and headed up for a calorie-filled brunch. The place is Beer Box, a bit far from the centre, but right next to the underground – we had the chance to grill our own bacon and haloumi right on top of the table. We drank some beers, which were great as well, but the bacon, oh that bacon… fantastic. From there we headed straight for the underground and…
Our Sunday afternoon continued with a stop at Public Bar – we’re making cocktails. No, we’ve not be held captive and made to work behind the bar – it’s just something entartaining to do as a group. We have some fun with the shaker, we break a couple of glasses and afterwards we‘re just sitting at the terrace overlooking some picturesque rooftops and enjoy our own concoctions.
Reading back our weekend adventure we realise that we sound like total drunks, but each experience was actually paired with lots of laughter and memories, so we don’t mind at all. :)