When we last heard from our intrepid travelers, they were in the cab from the Централна Абтогара София (Central Bus Station Sofia) to the Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan (picture left). We had decided to splurge since travel was cheap and I also found a good deal on this luxury hotel (80 euro a night). The location was ideal as it was walking distance to good food, shopping, and the major sightseeing locations in city center. If you are on a budget but wanting to walk through an old world European city, then Sofia is your choice. Seriously, Bulgaria should be the travel destination for most people in this economy. To make this post a bit more manageable, I will separate them out into more posts. Starting with the most important: Food.Food: The hotel had breakfast for 18euros each. I thought that was amazingly expensive for Bulgaria and was determined to find a cheaper breakfast. We got lucky the first night as we walked past what looked like a cafe and bakery. The next morning we each had two espresso and shared a small egg tart and pumpkin bantisa (Bulgarian pastry roll). The total cost of the meal was 12 leva which converts to approximately 6 euro.
Google maps performed much better in Sofia than it did in Blagoevgrad. We were able to get a map to the brew pub При кмета (The Mayor's Pub) Mark found out about on the banskoblog. Usually brew pubs are either good for the beer or the food, but not both. However, at При Кмета both the food and the beer were very good. Mark took notes, but then forgot to write them up. I am hoping we find them soon, as I would like to link to them (hint, hint, Mark!).
We stumbled upon another breakfast option--Dunkin' Donuts! Yes, we really did eat there. The chocolate glazed donut holes were surprisingly similar to those in America. The coffee was AMAZING. Now I don't want to slam Bulgarian coffee, but sometimes espresso is a bit much and I just want a large American style latte. I was able to get one here and I was very happy.Google continued to be helpful in locating food options for us. We managed to find a great Indian Restaurant Kohinoor. I had been longing for a curry as Niveditha can attest too (I was actually looking out for ways to ship her mom's mulligatawny soup from Omaha to Bulgaria). This worked out well as a replacement. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera battery charger and by this time the camera was out of juice. Sorry I couldn't get pictures of the beautiful meal.
On the whole, eating in Sofia is cheap and really tasty. There are many options both for Bulgarian and International cuisine. Stay tuned for the next Sofia installment: Shopping and Sightseeing!
