Is Sofia, Bulgaria Worth Visiting? Our Honest Opinion and City Guide to Sofia, Bulgaria
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- Should you visit Sofia, Bulgaria? Want to know our honest opinion about living in Sofia, Bulgaria for a month? Today Bek has prepared some quick fire questions for Ross to answer as honestly as possible about Sofia, the Bulgarian people, and the best and worst things the city has to offer - let's see if Ross passes the test!
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Hey, we are Ross and Bek! We have a real passion for all things food and we've started to travel full-time! We like to stay in a city for a month at a time to really get a feel for the city and experience it like a local. We’d love for you to subscribe to our channel and join us on our adventures: tiny.cc/aing4y
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#Sofia #Bulgaria #HonestOpinion #digitalnomads #fulltimetravel #rossandbek #travel #budgettravel
As an American I live in Marseille and on a whim went to Sofia for four days in December. I loved it!! Marseille is dirty and agressive but Sofia is clean; friendly, cheap and very interesting. Im going back in March!!
Plovdiv is even better. And there is a lot more. And Veliko Tarnovo, and many, many more. The mountains are beautiful, and we have a lot of them. And the people in the mountains are even friendlier by far.
@@jordan9339 Yes, I will definitely go back!
@Claudio Canavaro No shit.
please visit it in summer, it is amazing ;)
For anyone interested in ancient history, I absolutely recommend a trip around Bulgarian cities (not just Sofia, but Plovdiv, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Stara Zagora, etc.).
Cities here are so old that people are literally walking the same roads they used 2000 years ago.
There are entire ancient houses, tombs and even whole cities just below the modern town.
I'm studying medicine in Stara Zagora and in the basement of our hospital there is literally a whole neolithic-era village, with a couple of houses, pots, ceramics and statues that are 8000 years old. Part of it is turned into a museum.
I can't wait to visit Bulgaria next year! Thanks for mentioning the other cities! Plovdiv and Varna look amazing too.
God bless Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people ♾
Motherland Bulgaria
I love Bulgaria so much
Live love Bulgaria 🇧🇬💚♾🌹❤️
That is so, so sweet of you to write ☺️.
God bless motherland Bulgaria and you too!❤️🇧🇬
Ross & Bek...I'm American...living in Sofia now for almost 1 year...married to a Bulgarian...I left the U.S.A. to be with the love of my life. I have experienced only great things about Sofia. I have made great friends. Back home, people ask me "Why Bulgaria?" Seems like you and Bek have all the right answers so...I invited them to watch this video and hopefully they will want to visit. Great choice on the Bonitsa...my mother-in-law makes the best. By the way you guys were shooting video in the same area I rented an apartment for the first 2 weeks I was here. Directly across from St. Sveti Sedmochislenici.
my dads from london and moved to bulgaria two years ago.im driving over this year.so looking forward to visiting there.love from scotland.
@@rossandbek2407 hi yeah ive heard great things and how stunning it is.my friends are just back from sunny beach and loved it and its very cheap all round to stay.
@@rossandbek2407 thanks.my dads comfortable out there on his pension.couldnt live on it in the uk..especially london.
Nice review. Plovdiv and Veliko (Great in BG) Turnovo are a great city and town to visit. The first one is one of the oldest cities in Europe and the second one is the old capital of Bulgaria. I'm sure you'll enjoy them.
Plovdiv is oldest town in Europe.
Great video! I was there in the summer and like the city very much. Next year I'll spend the summer there again. You have everything you need and a great community there 🤩. Kind regards from Cyprus.
Sofia sounds like an awesome place by your description. Historic places have also been our favorites it gives much better insight on the culture. The people question got you a bit Ross 😁 good to know about the head shaking actually means yes 😊
I love Bulgaria. My favorite town is Plovdiv, Nesebyr, Sozopol, Bansko, Sandanski...All the best from Poland.
You’re videos have made up my mind to visit Sofia in September, I was going to catch a train to Varna for a couple of days too.
The most beautiful parts of Bulgaria are not in Sofia. We have great nature and historic monuments all over Bulgaria. You should have visited smaller cities but near mountains or forests. There you would experience the real culture and the people are really nicer in the outskirts. There are many beautiful and breathtaking views.
thats a great tip. thank you
There are many interesting places in Bulgaria.You can also visit Plovdiv,Veliko Tarnovo,Varna,Burgas,Sozopol,Nessebar and more.
Good video!
By now, I have seen quite a few videos on Bulgaria but have to say yours are some of the best. Your style of presenting is very unassuming, not pretentious and genuine. Kudos
Loved your video. Congratulations for the effort put into creating it and the info. Best of wishes.
Lev means LION by the way, like our countries emblem. 10 Leva = 10 Lions
I love that, sir!
"Lions" for currency!
5 lions; 10 lions; 20 lions -- beautiful terminology!
@@rossandbek2407 Its lion because lion is symbol of power!
Leu is lion in romanian and it is also the national currency. The plural is lei. Un leu, doi lei.
@@rossandbek2407 are you Aussies? An awesome video, guys.
@Claudio Canavaro Yea our money is not backed by gold but by weight in Lions XD
Sofia is nice dependent on where you are but there are so many better places in Bulgaria you ought to visit
Go to the see- sozopol, sunny beach, obzor and the big citys varna and burgas
Where do you recommend in Bulgaria??
@@chromecast4373
See this,
th-cam.com/video/1TSBhHYYcQ8/w-d-xo.html
@@chromecast4373 Plovdiv 100%
Watching this, I realized I know nothing about Bulgaria! The head shaking for "yes" would have definitely been confusing! I love a good city where you can just wander around and observe life, sounds like a lovely place.
What is more disturbing is that some bulgarians which know good english, when speaking in english, they nod like english people, but when they speak in bulgarian, they nod like bulgarians :D
I am bulgarian and I do like this ;)
So always listen what they say, not how they nod.
Btw, you should visit more cities and places. Actually there are many much more nice and interesting places in Bulgaria.
I hope by “old” you don’t mean the communist years cause that’s actually very new to our history. This city existed even during the Roman Empire and it was one of the main cities in this province. It’s not just old it’s Ancient city with a lot of history. I mean our country was created 681 AC and I imagine that the communist theme is just one of the many this city had so don’t call that “old meets new” because old met new even before our great grandfathers were born.
Billy The Bully Was not created 681 AC! Anyway, cheers! Roman emperor Galerius was born in Serdica(Old name of Sofia).
simeon simeonov what do you mean lol? I mean yeah some people say it was created even before 681 but that’s the official statement of the creation of Bulgaria
Billy The Bully the official statement is wrong, this is it! Nothing more! For example the city Alba Bulgarica, now is called Belgrade, means the white city of the Bulgarians! It was officially given to the Bulgarian King by emperor Zenon by a treaty, in year 441 AC! Why the Bulgarian historians are not willing to speak I don't care, so I personally don't accept the official 681 year and all the rubbish they say! Cheers, man!
simeon simeonov I feel very good to see someone knows our history. Thanks for the information I apriciate it a lot. I said 681 because if someone sees this comment and find himself interested to learn more this is the basic statement of google or almost every book or video they would find. So I decided not to bother myself explaining that aswell
Billy The Bully Also I was unaware of this and many other important fact about our history not more than a year or two ago! Anyway, all the best and cheers!
I expected you to mention stray pets as a downside of Bulgaria. Im bulgarian myself and Im happy you visited and experienced our country. Everytime my boyfriend and I get to visit (living abroad) I get really upset because animals are abused and stray as I said and theyre everywhere. Makes my heart shatter how mistreated they are. Another good thing is that its pretty affordable for how much you get. Its a beautiful sight especially where I come from Varna - youll love it in summer! Please explore more and thanks for your video ♥️🇧🇬
Edit: the best and most interesting thing you can eat in Bulgaria is sarmi 😇 its my favourite dish! Homemade though!
Sdwejs 2ejfl. Yes totally agree with the mistreatment of animals. Almost barbaric. We have been here 8 years and still can't adjust to the rampant cruelty to animals. A stray cat adopted us very soon after moving here. We have taken strays to vets etc, but sadly we have to almost accept the situation because there is only so much you can do. To explain how bad the situation is, we live in rural area and they have the killing of the pig. Couple of years ago some locals were in process of killing the pig and probably drinking too much local brew. Anyway they had difficulty in killing the pig and resorted to getting an axe to finish the job. But unfortunately this seems normal to them. It's horrible and disgusting
I went a few months ago and did not notice any of that. There were stray animals, but neutered and well cared for. People fed them well. While in other countries they are killed for pleasure as in Spain with bulls.
@@cafeconeli3711 Oh the famous stray bulls of Spain.
My family is part Bulgarian part Lithuanian. We go to both countries almost every year.
Ross and Bek :D 😄
Sofia seems really nice. Where history meets new, thats is an awesome description.
I really appreciate that you explain the head move of what it really means, this can create confusions so it is important to know.
That elevator hahaha.
Wow, that is amazing to think about the Russian influence.
We had no idea they were big in BBQs, loving local places.
Banitsa truly looks like a delicious food, I think we would also go with it. For some reason we are not big on jams.
Great tips here guys. Like many have said, knowing that the head shake/bobble meaning yes is very helpful
Love this video and can’t wait to watch more of yours! We might have a chance to stop in Sofia for a few days on our way from Romania to Turkey next month and this video got us realllllyyyyy excited!! (Especially the internet speeds and bookstores!) did you do any day trips from Sofia?
Thanks for the video,Ross.Polite and well informed.Keep it up
The correct pronunciation is SOfia not SofIa :)
neither.. Sofia In bulgarian is София last letter Я sound like Ya Try Sofi YA
Yv...is right
Also bAnitsa (unlike mekItsa)
@Claudio Canavaro мекица исках да напиша. mekitsa :D
I have heard great things about Sofia. Definitely somewhere I would love to get to! Do you think y'all could go back and see more?
Ross and Bek good to know! I definitely want to get to Eastern Europe. For now I’ll be here in Asia but definitely sometime in the future! Were there any other cities in Bulgaria you wanted to visit?
Sofia is fine for 3-4 days, but the best of Bulgaria is Rila Lakes for hiking. Are you thinking of going? We posted a video of Rila Lakes and the cultural capital of 2019, Plovdiv.
Big Small_Travel just watched it! Was great! Messaged y’all on insta! Would love to make it to Bulgaria
I definitely can show you a lot more than that, Musala peak, Golden bridges in Vitosha mountain, rock rivers also in vitosha, Bansko resort, Melnik(smallest town in Bulgaria), Plovdiv, the Seaside and many other
Hi both, great Q &A around Bulgaria and your thoughts on where you stayed, your honesty too is always refreshing, you say it as it is Ross! A place we need to visit and explore, thanks guys! 😎👍💕
Nice and interesting video, thanks for posting it with your story
Wow the place looks amazing!🤩🤩🤩
Banitsa is our TOP dish! Classical (with cheese) is my favourite one!
Hello very happy to see you good guys
Thanks for all good things you said about my native country! 🤗
I am bulgarian like if u r bulgarian too
Banitsa is one of my favorite Bulgarian foods! It's a very delicious treat!
We love that head bobble "yes" so interesting. Look very clean and neat there in Sofia. We like the shared bike systems.. anything like that there? Great questions Bek!
No shared bike system unfortunately. Waking would be the way to explore.
A country that's on a list that we haven't been to! Thanks for the info!
Next time when you come to Bulgaria you should visit Ruse
It is a very beautiful city
With a lot of history 😊🇧🇬
I went to Sofia in December, I will look up Ruse!
@@ronc7743 l recomendate Plovdiv too. Plovdiv is the oldest town in Europe. All the best from Poland.
Hi I've been following you since your Greek videos and I really enjoy all your content! I've notice that in all your videos you say that you work online and travel to places for a month . May I please ask what exactly you do online?sorry if that's too rude but I'm looking for the same kind of living too and you guys have been a huge inspiration! Thanks in advance, you guys rock🙏
I've been living in Sofia for the last 7-8 years and it's ok but I honestly prefer smaller cities like Varna, Plovdiv, Burgas, Nesebar, Blagoevgrad, etc.
We have never been but enjoyed watching this and thanks for sharing your honest opinions! All of the food is a must try it sounds like, plus the history behind the are has to be really cool to experience!
Bulgaria is very beautiful country!!I am born Sofia-fantastic place..Every people good going for holidays!Not only Sofia and everywhere in Bulgaria.Golden beach is magic for people only one time need go after not want come back home...TRYING
Ross and Bek Bulgaria is magic country!For holiday better but for living very bad....
You can also jump on a bus from the central station by Princess Maria Louisa boulevard, right next door to the centralna vlak gara, or central train station. For under 50 leva, you can be at the Black Sea in about 5.5 hours. The southern beaches are less populated, so the farther south you go from Burgas, the smaller towns have a nice mix of rocky coastline and sandy beaches. All the way south, past Sinamoretz, on the way to the Turkish boarder is a special beach, but I will not give it's name. Just say, I love to swim among the submerged rock formations in the warm, brackish (not salty) water. I would say early September is best, still very warm water and Fall has not come yet, but less tourists. I would find a smaller, family guest house, get the feel of being with the family. Very affordable stays and just explore and try to practice your: Na zdrave, Leka nosht, and Obicham te. (www.centralbusstation-sofia.com/)
Hello Ross and Bek I love it story . Very nice tips . Great day:)
I have been really researching Bulgaria/ Sofia recently as I would love to visit, maybe spend a few months travelling around Bulgaria.
Thankyou for your video - can any other Bulgarians here recommend some places for me.
I am hoping to visit later this year, depending on the Covid situation
Awesome video! I’ll make sure to visit it one day!
Love the video!!!
Thank you so much for the nice feedback! I would recommend visiting Veliko Tarnovo and Varna.
Subscribed!👌
like2, Sofia Bulgaria, when my dream true to go there. Thanks for your infomation my friend. Have a nice day
I (Maria) would go crazy with all those books
Yay to Bulgaria !
You should visit Plovdiv. It has more beautiful places where you can go.
No Burgas is 100%
Sofia is the biggest city,it has more beautiful places than Plovdiv!
Well there is alot more to see about everything but overall yes everything you say it is true! very good video !
Great tips and review. Hope to visit here one day.
Glad you like it. Think of it this way - the mekitsa is the kid, the banitsa is the mother. Banitsa is 10 times harder to make too :)
Just a question, how did you book/arrange your appartment? Did you find it online? Also, is there a minimum rental period?
@@rossandbek2407 Thanks a lot! Last time I was in Bulgaria I rented a room in a share flat but the appartment is the way to go!
Next time I travel I'll do the same.
Cheers
Hi there. Have just discovered your channel. We also love travelling. Looking forward to watching your previous videos :)
70 mbps? I live in a village right next to Sofia and have 300 mbps. You were in the wrong place :) Nice video btw. I'm glad you enjoyed the city, but where Bulgaria really shines is the Nature. Sooo many places to visit. But to each his own, I guess.
Good call on leaving the Schengen zone. Also no Euro!
I like both banitsa and mekitsa and make both at home. Cant beat homemade food.
We have over 80 museums in Sofia - did you visited them?
I like Taxify which I used in Estonia 🇪🇪. Are you heading to Baltic countries? Spent time in university town of Tartu which deserves more video coverage.
Question. The 120 hour TEFL is indeed what a lot of countries want. What specific immigration departments vaccept an online only qualification? This is not a British Council RSA qualification. Thanks.
Best video
Yes, Uber was functional in Bulgaria for less than 1 year.
The local guys shut it down through the administration and the courts. Just one bit of the local corruption scene I guess.
But hey, good review overall and thanks for visiting!
Uber is bad for its drivers and customers alike. It's very exploitive of the drivers, where it often costs its drivers more to operate than they earn; for customers, Uber is notoriously unsafe, as they're not very picky with their drivers' background and criminal history. Bulgaria, corruption or not, is better off sticking with traditional taxi services.
wow, you really travel a lot, thanks for sharing Ross
Our 3rd line subway is on the way that’s why there are renovations..
Yeah, sofia and Bulgaria are worth it
@@rossandbek2407 Thank you very much
Why not everywhere is a must if you haven't been there b4 .
It's worth living there for me not only visiting
Enjoyed this video of you and the talking microwave. If your heading up to Bucharest, check out Veliko Tarnovo for a couple days. I was in Sofia may 1 - Jun 4th.
Hi man, I am buying banica from the same shop every day. It is on the corner of Shishman street and Slavianska street. This place get good banica!!!
I'm of Bulgarian descent mainly from my father's side of my family.
@@rossandbek2407 Thank you so much! I loved my visit to Bulgaria too!! It was awesome!! I enjoyed meeting with the Bulgarian people!! They're great!!!
Banitsa looked really good!
New to your channel will keep following
Trust me, the taste is even better ;) The bad thing is ... It will make you fat really fast :D A shit ton of carbs and fat ;)
The reconstructions might be a good thing around the world but when it's worse after them like here in Sofia, no, thanks. :)
Bulgaria was not influenced by other Balkan cuisines. Everybody in the Balkans eats the same things, so it is difficult to say who came up with this type of food! on top of this, Bulgaria is one of the oldest countries in the region.
Bulgaria is not one of the oldest countries in the region. Bulgaria is the oldest country in the region!
Do that again do that again 🤣🤣🤣
Thank God you didn't drop your coffee Ross
Hmm I get the impression is oo to visit it but not too long stay.
The food sounds amazing
And about the construction man let me tell you in Canberra is construction everywhere 😥
Great to watch your video guys
Have a great week
Hi, mekitsa looks like hungarian langos which i love, is mekitsa only sweet or you can get one with cheese ?
We eat it both ways, the other way is Mekitsa with Sirene(feta cheese)
cool, thanks
Tbh it's kinda both and neither at the same time ... Confusing ? Fuck yea :D Thing is they just didn't show a good picture of it. The mekitsa is plain. There are no toppings or anything like that on it . It is just a crunchy dough . You are the one that adds toppings . So basically you decide what it is.I've ate them with chocolate friging chilli sauce. Yes....
Hey ross, for me it's all about the nightlife, can you say if it's any good?
Fun fact... Bulgaria has the 2nd best internet in the world after Korea👍🏼
Or at least it used to be...
@@rossandbek2407 Glad to hear that💕☺️💕
You had me at bbq ross 😆👍👍👍
Did Bek visit the Bookshop cafee? :P
Good video
definitely banitsa over mekitsa, any time, any day! :)
@@rossandbek2407 Nah, thanx goes to you for doing such justifiably good advertisement for our capital. Would've been even better to have some of us natives take you to a bar or two, then you may have stayed (at least) another month, lol
no Doubt
Go and explore Sofia, its mor than worth :-)
Very nice
Greetings to sofia from mitrovica i have one friend there and i will visit him one day ✌✌
Hi , could you please list the addresses of the bookstores you visited in Sofia? They look very pretty!
Ross and Bek Thanks a lot!!!
Ross and Bek Where there any books in English in that bookstore?
There is a saying here that we did this thing with the head in reverse for Yes and No because when Ottoman empire was the ruler of the land they will put a sword below our neck and ask to join their army or not. So we had to say yes in reverse.
Because it’s such an old city, they are doing construction everywhere!! And it takes forever -,-
Yes, our capital is old, but that part with construction isn't true, there are doing construction on constructions because they made everything from 'expensive' material by catalog but after some checks, we can find that the material is very cheap, also workers are so stupid that they can't put pins in straight line in 21 century. We have 240 government poops which are just taking our money and doing nothing for us. Also, we have stupid peoples who vote from them, that's the craziest thing about our country. :)
Edit: To fix 3km 4 lanes street with sidewalk they will need about 6 months, after 4/5 months they will need 1 more month and than something will happen and again they will need some more time to fix it(cheap resources sold as expensive).
Thank you for your honest review of my country. Personally i hate what Sofia has become . It used to be much cleaner back in the 70s and 80s . Now it looks horrible and i was born there. Same for Chicago. 90s were good with only less homeless. Now every street on Michigan avenue is filled with homeless begging for cash. California and skid row is much worse leading in crime homelessness and Chaos.
Please cone again and next time do visit more places. We have more history than most countries. Well actually Macedonia has been around since Christ so they are even older by 680 years.
Dont jump on the tram tracks ross! 😂
Nice👍👍🙏
Your title is a bit offensive. It’s like saying “ I talked to John yesterday. Now I’ll tell you whether it’s worth even talking to him”. Glad you had a good time but I think there are some better places to visit, like Veliko Tărnovo or Rousse...
One has to be born somewhere to know the place. There is positive and negative things to say. I will omit the negative. Next time try mountain resort.
The level of culture of the anglo-saxon tribes who visit Europe is fucking scarry!
i would also go for mekitsa, ooh yeah! 😋😋🤣👍❤
The emphasis is on O in Sofia .-.
Hi guys. Thanks. Vitosha. Veeetoshay
No, why do people always go to capital cities, go somewhere different like Plovdiv
The background music is way too irritating to watch this video all way thorugh,not sure what it achieves but certainly puts me off,sorry.
Test that you are not just pandering: How many major cities have you been to where you publicly declared they are not worth a visit? I thought so
Worst thing? Probably the sidewalks outside of the center of town. You really gotta watch out because they are in such bad condition, I fell on my face once coming back from a bar but there might have been other factors involved other than side walk condition....