What a wonderful day of sightseeing we have had around beautiful Sofia! Such a lovely city. I had no idea it was so old, they think it’s the 3rd oldest capital in Europe (after Athens and Rome) settled around 700 BC. We found it very easy to walk to all the main attractions, plenty of green spaces and bulk gorgeous Orthodox churches.


St. Nedeyla Church.

St. Sofia statue. Erected in 2000 to replace the previous statue of Lenin.

Grave of St. George. The church and ruins below date to the year 400.

Previous bathhouse now used as Regional History Museum. Absolutely beautiful building, un-fortunately the lighting here doesn’t showcase the colors.


Having a drink at the warm thermal spring bubblers outside the bath house.

St Nicholas Church.

St. Alexander Nevsky Church. Breathtaking frescoes inside.

Eagles Bridge

Church of St. Sedmochislenitsi

Rakija Museum

Noelle sorting out the drinking fountain.

Brutalist National Palace of Culture

Touching a segment of the Berlin Wall. I don’t think the kids grasped the gravity of the situation.

Just after this we decided to take the tram to see the Bulgarian Synagogue and Jewish Museum as I always find this fascinating (albeit gut wrenching). My phone had died so Jesse was in charge of navigation. The tram we jumped on was quite busy so Noelle and myself with Amadeus sat up one end with Gio and Jesse at the other with the pram. When it was time to disembark the door closed on Noelle and I. It seems the open door buttons are just for show as they proved entirely ineffective. And so I found myself jumping off the tram a long stop later with neither phone, pram, money or any nappy changing facilities. Thankfully the Bulgarian locals continued to prove be beyond friendly and accommodating. I crossed the road and confirmed with a lady waiting that the next tram was infact going back in the direction which I had just come. She went to great lengths to reassure me despite lack of English.  After we had completed our fare evasive trip back to where we were supposed to get off, I found Jesse had taken disappeared and I had a crazy Noelle to heard with no stroller or carrier for an indeterminable distance. I approached a bloke about my age and asked for directions to the synagogue: He decided he would walk me there rather than just point me in the right direction. When he discovered my predicament he insisted on letting me call Jesse via WhatsApp (go me for having managed to memorize Jesse’s Australian phone number after nearly a decade!) I got onto Jesse who was walking with Gio up to the next tram stop and made plans to liase back at the Synagogue. My new friend Ahmed still however insisted on walking us there personally. As we went along he explained he had moved to Bulgaria as he had paid someone 12 thousand euro under the impression he would be able to work here. Unfortunately it seems this was a scam and he’s been unable to legally work here for the past 13 months and is trying to sue this person despite having no funds for legal fees. He was such a kind soul and I couldn’t have been more thankful for his care and consideration, Hopefully his situation improves moving forward.

Once all the Johnsons were safely reunited we discovered there was a week long Jewish holiday in place that meant the Synagogue was closed after all. So we made our way back to our bnb to feed the kids some spag bol and sink a few beers. I found Jesse an even bigger (2.5L) local larger which he was pretty excited about!

After this we made our way to Sofia Central Park.

Possibly the highlight of my trip so far. I’ve always wanted to see the dudes in the park playing chess. Particularly speed chess. And here we are, even took our bottle of wine down so we could fit in with the the locals as they had a drink while watching the games. Gio and Noelle had a blast at the playground (European playgrounds go off after about 6pm!) I made great friends with Alex the reigning local champion at speed chess. He played a game in mine and Amadeus’ honour and won them both. The trash talk was both epic and mind boggling to a really bad chess player like myself.

Alex is a chemical engineer born and bred in Sofia. He has travelled a lot, when he was based in Brazil he would play chess for up to 12 hours straight at times. He assured me he never gets tired from playing chess as his “brain is accustomed to working for 14 hour shifts.” When I asked if all Bulgarians work this hard he was completely incredulous. “No! Other Bulgarians don’t work! They just drink coffee and beer all day!”

Below is my Bulgarian bestie Alex. He has been married for 40 years, however his wife and 2 daughters have been based in the U.S for the past 30 as “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.


National Theater just across the park.