Sofia, Bulgaria 12.12.25.

 Travel Day, Sofia, Bulgaria - Friday 12.12.25.

Alarm went off at 04.30 this morning, picked up Jess and Chris from Dunstable on our way to the airport, nice brekkie before we boarded the plane, taking off at 08.25. Flight was on time and smooth, bit of a bumpy landing, immigration took a little while but wasn’t too awful considering the new changes with the new entry system of taking fingerprints.

Once through we were trying to find the shuttle bus to terminal 2 so we could get the metro into the city but we couldn’t work out where it picked us up. Thanks to ChatGPT we did manage to get on the public bus (no.84) into the centre which only cost 70p which was handy, took around 25 mins due to a bit of traffic, from the bus stop it took us about 10 mins to walk to the hotel which wasn’t too bad.

As we got there around 15.30/16.00 we managed to check straight in and get into our rooms, was a bit of an odd hotel, the decor was random but for the few nights we were there it was fine, especially at £100 for 2 nights, bed was comfy and not too much noise considering there was a bar right across the street (Central Boutique hotel).

Off on our travels we went to the Alexander Nevsky cathedral which was a very beautiful building. Inside was amazing too, a big open space with a lot of illustrations and scripture, big chandeliers.

Walking on we were all thirsty by this point so we looked for a nice bar to have a nice beer, we found one called Long Johns, it was a lovely cosy place, we had 2 beers which only came to 14 BGN which was £6 which was a bargain! 

From there we walked onto our dinner venue, Alehouse. I had a lovely rack of pork ribs with potatoes, Chris G & Jess had a selection of German wurst and chips and Chris T had pork belly, all was really scrummy and well needed after a long day travelling. There was also your own beer tap at the table which was pretty cool and different, the beer wasn’t the best but we gave it a go anyway as was a novelty having it right there.

Once we had full bellies, we went onto the biggest of the 3 christmas markets, the christmas fest near the theatre.This one was massive, loads of stalls mostly all food, so much meat!! Lots of german sausages, chicken, pork plus then also all the sweet stalls so churros, popcorn, hot chocolate, mulled wine, pretty much anything you can think of! There were a few stalls around the outside selling clothes, decorations etc but there was lots and lots of food, they had a stage with people singing, lots of photo opportunities with different decorations they had set out. 

We walked back to our hotel which was about 25 mins away. It seemed like a long walk but I think this was because we were all tired by this point. We had a quick beer in the bar across the road from our hotel before going to bed for a well needed sleep!

Day 1 Saturday 13.12.25.

No rush to get up this morning, we all had a bit of a lie in before getting up and out around 10.30. We walked towards the city centre today and found the smaller christmas market, this was only about a 6 min walk for the hotel.

We had a walk round, this market was more of a mixture between food & decorations stalls and also had information in English whereas the big market was all in Bulgarian. Prices on both markets were reasonable.When we came out of the market and carried on to the city centre to find the CSKA Sofia shop there was a gentleman playing the violin, he was really good and we watched him for a little while before carrying on, the football shop was another 10 min walk, we all had a walk round there before deciding to go back to the hotel as we had free use of the spa facilities, which were not much to be honest, a small jacuzzi pool, sauna and a steam room. We grabbed a drink to take down with us and relax, we was in there about an hour or so which was nice.

Once we had all got changed, we headed back out to find a drink somewhere before Jess & Chris T went off to watch the local CSKA Sofia game, the stadium was only a 20 min walk so wasn’t too far out. We found a taphouse which we had one in before we split up for a few hours, once Jess and Chris T went off to the footie my Chris and I went to a sports bar and watched some of the English footie before heading back towards the hotel, we went back to the small Christmas market to see it all lit up in the dark and it was very pretty but really rammed! So many people! So we literally just walked through and out again as there was just no room to move.

We also decided to walk back to the Alexander Nevsky cathedral to see that all lit up and it didn't disappoint it looked really lovely with all the spotlights on it.

We walked back to the bar opposite our hotel to wait for Jess & Chris, once they arrived back we went to the restaurant nearby called Spaghetti kitchen, this was a really nice place, lovely chilled vide and the food was yummy ! We found eating out very reasonable, both the alehouse and spaghetti kitchen the bill was £70 so only £35 per couple which was a really good price.

Day 2 Sunday 14.12.25. Home time.

No rush again this morning as we didn't need to check out until 12.00 and our flight wasn’t until 19.20. Around 11 we went down checked out but left our bags at the hotel whilst we went for a walk round, Jess and Chris T didn’t get chance to go back to the christmas market near us last night at it shut at 22.00 so we popped back there for them to have another look round, was busy again but a bit more room to get around compared to last night, they grabbed a decoration. We went off to find somewhere to chill for a few hours before having to go to the airport. We went to Sense rooftop bar, lovely views from up there, we played cards for about an hour, just rummy, no money involved but got told we weren’t allowed to play cards as was illegal which was really odd as when we googled it, it was mostly to do with betting which wasn’t doing, anyway that killed our nice relaxed chilled vibe.

We grabbed our bags back and went to find some food, and ended up in KFC which did the job before hopping in a taxi back to the airport (£10) as we struggled to work out the metro and find the bus stop to get back, was one country that was difficult to navigate due to less signs and information in English. Wasn’t much in the airport but it was a smooth transition and flight home, we landed about 20.30 so about 35min early which was handy and home around 22.30.

Ready for our next adventure now in 2026!