Sofia

I had no idea what to expect from my low cost trip to Sofia. I'd found a cheap budget flight to get there and that meant arriving at the older of the two airport terminals. This particular terminal was definitely showing it's age and the entire airport isn't really very busy. Ignoring the taxi touts (same at every airport worldwide) I took an OK Taxi (that's the name) to the city, the cost was about 15 Euros. Euros isn't the currency here, but taxi drivers accept them and hotels seem to prefer them. The city looks as is if it is undergoing a transformation, there are plenty of older, crumbling buildings, but more modern ones are coming along. In ...

Our visit to Sofia didn't get off to an auspicious start. The other half spent the eve of the trip throwing up in the only bathroom of a hostel in Veliko Tarnovo and we would have stayed there another day to permit his recuperation had we not already reserved and paid for our tickets to the capital. By the following day I was off my food and the day after that I was availing myself of the bathroom facilities, making sure I got my moneys worth! I suppose the ill thing was due - almost three months of rich food, too much alcohol, late nights and living life to the full was bound to catch up with us sooner or later. All of which begs the question - what exactly ...

So, why would theediscerning and his mother drag themselves off to Bulgaria? Well, in that direction it's the nearest large country they hadn't been to yet. Reason enough, surely? But don't worry, you're not getting *all* his thoughts on *all* of it. No, to start you in gently, just some comments on a smallish city both tucked away in the middle of Eastern Europe's old Soviet / Warsaw Pact areas, yet far enough away from us in the UK to have some of the mystery and oddity the near east brings - Sofia, the capital. You will increasingly see this as a location for a long weekend holiday, for it is yet another fine eastern European city falling ...