Balkan bites

Today is going to be quite long. We have booked an overnight bus from Sofia to Istanbul which leaves at 11pm. One more full day to enjoy Sofia!

With this in mind we took it easy in the morning and just missed our checkout time. Luckily people are relaxed here and it was no problem. We left in search of a post office, which was an interesting experience, and a coffee shop to enjoy. There are heaps of coffee places in this city and some of them are exceptional. The one we chose was no exception and It was great having a flat white while reading about the history of coffee in the books shared on the tables. This city has a lot of cool independent gastronomy outlets which give the city a busy but relaxed vibe.

We then wandered back down to the Palace of Culture for a view of

Mount Vitosha, the mountain that overlooks Sofia. The best view was from a restaurant/pub/club with a balcony, so this called for a beer and a spritz to enjoy in the sunshine.

Speaking of gastronomy we are doing a free food walking tour today with Balkan Bites. We met up with the group and headed off. This is a cool concept and gives you a taste of local foods and restaurants for free with an option to return later and eat for a discount. We had everything from cheese spreads to Bulgarian doughnuts, but the highlights were the local cheese wrapped in courgette/zucchini (depending where you are from). An interesting insight into some local restaurants.

Afterwards we still had seven hours until our bus, so a lie down in the park was well needed. During the day we had both come out with bites that looked quite suspicious. After some googling and talking to some other travellers we were sure we had been bitten by bed bugs. Yay. This called for a strategy meeting so we adjourned to a local craft beer shop for a few beers before the best meal we had in Sofia, a restaurant called Aubergine. Despite the name, this had a massive range of meat meals that were paired with craft beers. Absolute winner.

We dragged out the meal as long as possible before picking up our bags and heading to the bus station for our overnight bus. This will be better than the train in Norway right?