Back to Bulgaria

My friend Larissa visiting me in Istanbul provided the perfect excuse for a mini-adventure.

I had a few things on my bucket list and after careful consideration we decided to do a road trip to Bulgaria.

Well it wasn’t exactly a road trip because after doing a bit of research I discovered it wasn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped to rent a car in Turkey that we would be allowed to take across the border.

We were fairly short on time, but in the end decided to go via train to Sofia. This way we’d get a good night sleep in and wake up in the city centre. That’s what we thought anyway.

We would arrive mid-morning, spend the afternoon exploring the city before having an early night.

Early the next day we would collect a rental car and travel south to the Rila National Park to do some hiking and check out the Seven Lakes.

Finally, on the Saturday, we would make our way east towards Turkey, stopping at Buzludzha to explore the long-abandoned Communist Monument before heading south to Plovdiv to meet the overnight train back on its way to Istanbul from Sofia.

That was the plan anyway.

In reality, as is nearly always the way, it didn’t really pan out that way.  In the end though, we managed to do everything we had wanted to (and a little bit more).

I went to Sirkeci station to buy the train tickets a couple of days in advance to make sure we’d get decent spots, in a sleeper carriage, on the train to Sofia. Online research told me the Bosphorus Express left Istanbul around 2200, cost about 40 euros and was pretty decent.

When I got to the station, the guy informed me that were was no such train and instead we had to take a bus to the border before changing for a train.

It didn’t sound TOO bad, but I threw the decision at Larissa. We could leave early the next morning and fly into Sofia for about 200 euros. We’d have the ordeal of getting to and from the airports and security and the like, but it’s still be a quicker journey.

She was up for an adventure and so at 2130 on the 14th of October, there we were. Waiting alone in the cold  and dark at Sirkeci train station…for a bus.

The bus pulled up and looked OK. There were only about three other people on it and so we had plenty of space to stretch out and get some sleep.

We arrived at the border around 0100 and suffered a freezing two-hour, fairly inexplicable, ordeal at the border.  There were only about ten people trying to cross, and it was the middle of the night, but still, somehow it took forever.

Before long we were on the tiny-two carriage train, waiting to depart.

I had read online that the (non-existent) train from Turkey split into a few sections at the border with parts rattling off into the darkness towards Romania, Greece and Bulgaria.  I figured our delay had something to do with this – but I guess we’ll never really know.

The train was pretty terrible compared to the bus. There was more room, but it was FREEZING. They didn’t turn the lights out and there was this annoying Romanian guy talking at these two Germans. All. Night. Long.

Eventually the sun came up – and we narrowly avoided freezing to death.

We pulled into Plovdiv around 0900, not to be informed that we’d be zipping off, high-speed to Sofia in several minutes, but rather, our connecting train would be along in a couple of hours.

We’d pretty much had it by this stage and so grabbed our stuff and went off in search of an alternative means of transport.

We managed to find WIFI without too much trouble, and then, using maps, we located the bus station. From there we discovered that there was a 45 minute wait for the next bus to Sofia. We thought this wasn’t too bad but decided to find a car rental place in the interim and see how that panned out.

As is the case with everything in my life at the moment, the language barrier at the car rental company meant a generally simple question turned into an hour-long ordeal, and left us not entirely sure of what we were signing up to.

Thankfully, our efforts weren’t in vain. We managed to secure a fancy (and pretty new) four-wheel drive and were off on our way.

We stopped off to grab a local sim-card – the source of yet more drama, had a quick bite to eat – and were on the road (just shy of when the original train was scheduled to leave. Winning!).

We made it to Buzludzha in good time – about two hours, and although we didn’t really know what to expect, we were pretty impressed with what we found.

We probably spent a good three hours exploring the monument and its surrounds before jumping back in the car and making a b-line for Sofia.

At this stage we were getting pretty sleepy. We’d had a long night and both of us were now going on two nights without a decent sleep. We decided to stop in Kalofer for a walk to beat the fatigue. We stocked up on fancy Bulgarian road-trip junk food before settling into a little local tavern for dinner.

After a hearty meal of all sorts of weird and wonderful snacks (and indistinguishable meats) we were back in the car tearing towards Sofia.

I think we arrived around 2100 – exhausted – and checked into our better-than-expected hotel.

On Thursday, we had a fairly slow start to the day, and, after overindulging at the breakfast buffet, we hit the road, headed south towards Rila National Park.

I knew there was a short-ish hike you would do that would allow us to see all seven of the Park’s famous lakes. I didn’t know much more than that but we were keen and eager to see what else we could discover.

It was a good hour-and-a-half to Panichishte – the town at the foot of the mountains – and when we arrived we found a visitors’ centre which put us in the right direction.

A little further up the road, we bought our tickets and hopped on the chairlift to the top of the mountain and set off on our “short, easy hike.”

Fast Forward six hours and we’re trudging down the hill, in the dark, covered in mud, all while on the lookout for bears and wolves.  

I’m not entirely sure how we ended up there, but that night we found ourselves elbow deep in meat, at a traditional restaurant next to our hotel. Just what the virgin mountaineers needed after a long day of adventuring in the countryside.

After another bout of overindulgence at breakfast, we set out on foot to explore a bit of Sofia.

Like most cities in that part of the world it was pretty grim and very grey but there were still some interesting sites to see.

We had a quick lunch on the relatively trendy Boulevard Vitosha before heading back to the hotel to pick up the car.We made decent time on our way back to Plovdiv and returned the car with 15 minutes to spare.

We trudged back to the bus station, bought our tickets to Istanbul, dumped our bags and decided to spend some time looking around the city.

Plovdiv is definitely worth a look, and easily nicer than Sofia, so I’d recommend popping in if you’re ever in that part of the world.

We explored the old city and had dinner in a fancy place with a nice panoramic terrace (that was closed), before heading back the bus station, thoroughly exhausted.

Crossing the border on the way back was easier but still not as efficient as it may have been in other parts of the world, but the bus was warm and pretty comfortable, and the service was good – they kept giving us food and drinks and the rest.

Around 0550 we pulled into the main bus station in Istanbul and we were home free.

Had we had more time, I probably would have liked to squeeze in a visit to the UNESCO listed Rila monastery and perhaps a little bit more time at Plovdiv, but that can be another adventure for another time.