Travel report: Bulgaria
Date of visit: June 2015
In times of editing, I have not once nor twice but three times missed a flight in my life. Once I got the date wrong, once the flight times were changed without me being informed, and once I was too drunk to wake up. The latter happened in Bulgaria.
Monthly weekend trip to Sofia
In 2015, I started with my monthly weekend trip-series. That means that I want to visit at least one city abroad every month. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was one of my first monthly weekend trip destinations.
I have a friend who lives in Sofia: Peter. He was born in Basel, moved to Dubln and now lives in Sofia, his hometown. After I had already visited him in Dublin in 2014, a reunion followed half a year later in Sofia. This made Bulgaria my 30th country.
I arrived on a Friday afternoon and Peter welcomed me at the airport. After leaving my luggage at his apartment, Peter showed me his city. I haven’t been to many Eastern European countries before Bulgaria so that Sofia was kind of a new experience to me. The city wasn’t a beauty at first glance, as many buildings remind you of the old communist era.
Sofia is neither a city full of attractions and sights. Like in many other Christian-orthodox countries the city’s highlights are cathedrals. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is the most spectacular one in Sofia.
We spent the afternoon outside before having dinner. Peter warned me right in the beginning: “Service in Bulgaria is among the worst in the world. They will treat you like you’re their debtor.” He was not exaggerating, we never felt very welcome in the restaurants we ate.
Night out in Bulgaria
I was in Sofia for two nights only and I wanted to party! Unfortunately, our first night out was a bit lame. We did not do much until 2 in the morning, when we were standing somewhere in a park chatting to his friends. I was like: “Come on dude, I came to Bulgaria to get some action. Now we are in the middle of a park and haven’t done anything yet.”
Peter agreed. Actually, I think he just wanted to sleep because he was already out the night before, but he also wanted to be a good host. As a compromise, we went to a mediocre nightclub and came back to his apartment in the early morning. In the end, it wasn’t really a night to remember.
The first time I missed a flight
The reason why I was so motivated for the first night out on Friday was because my flight back to Zurich was at 11 AM on Sunday morning. That meant that I couldn’t go out until late on Saturday.
Therefore, we decided to go out just for 2-3 beers. Well, at least that was the plan. We headed to a place called Beach Club and after the third double vodka I knew that going early to bed wasn’t going to happen. We came back at 6 in the morning and I had to get up three hours later. The last thing I remember was that I set the alarm clock and fell asleep on Peter’s couch.
I didn’t hear the alarm clock three hours later. When I woke up, my cell phone told me that it was 11.30. My flight had departed 10 minutes ago. Damn. I went straight to Peter’s room and told him that I had missed my plane. He barely opened his eyes, laughed and fell asleep again.
Missing a flight had never happened before to me. That’s the bad thing when you book a weekend trip and you’re flight back is on Sunday morning. Anyway, I had to catch a flight to Switzerland as I had to be back at work the day after.
Nonstop flights from Sofia to Zurich cost 800 Dollars now (I originally paid $150 for a return ticket). This wasn’t an option. Flights to Basel with a stop somewhere were expensive too. Finally, I found a nonstop flight to Frankfurt in the late afternoon for less than $200. A train ticket from Frankfurt would cost $70-80 for the three hours ride.
Although I had to pay for another flight ticket, I was actually glad that I didn’t have to hurry to the airport. I even had a few more hours in Sofia. Peter told me that he woke up in the morning and thought that I had already left and that I must be in the airplane, while I was sleeping on his couch. Yeah, I wished that was true. In the end it was a great weekend with many superb moments.
How I almost missed my second flight
My new flight was at 17.20. Peter told me that I would have enough time if I will leave his apartment 90 minutes before my flight. When we were back at his apartment after having lunch, my watch said that my flight will depart in 80 minutes. “Don’t worry!” Peter said, “you will have enough time”.
We went downstairs and Peter said that he needed to do something and I should wait a few minutes. I checked my watch again. 70 minutes to the flight and Peter disappeared somewhere in a narrow alley next to his place. He came back a few minutes later and we were in an Uber. I was constantly checking my watch… 65 minutes to the flight.
“Don’t worry”, he said. I was like “are you sure? The flight departs in a bit more than an hour and I haven’t even checked-in yet.” He looked at me: “What?! You did not check-in? Why didn’t you?” Back in 2015, I still went to the counters for the check-in. Some airlines didn’t have mobile boarding passes back then and I didn’t have a printer at home.
His serenity changed now. “Okay, now we could be late indeed. I thought that you already checked-in online.” I was shocked. He was telling me all day long that I will be fine and now on our way to the airport he says that I could be too late. I would stay in Bulgaria for another night. It’s embarrassing to miss a plane, but it’s even worse to miss two planes in one day. Now I really tense and Peter told the Uber driver to hurry.
We arrived at the counter just 3-4 minutes before the check-in closed. Phew, what a day. I hugged Peter, as I was glad that I could spend the weekend with him. I had a bit of an odyssey ahead. If everything went normal I would have been back home around 2 PM, but under these circumstances I got back at 11.30 PM. Anyway, I was lucky as I only had to pay $300 or a little bit less for my fault. Knock on wood.
My travel experience in Bulgaria
So, how will I remember Bulgaria? Obviously, the first story I always tell is the one about the flight. The weekend was great though but also short so that I need to come back one day. Bulgaria is not only Sofia. Some people even say that Sofia is the least attractive city in the country and you should go to Plovdiv.
Unfortunately, the flight schedule between Zurich and Sofia has changed in the meantime and the flight times are now worse than back when I went. That means a short city trip to Sofia is not possible anymore without taking a day off. But let’s hope that will change someday so that I can come back.
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
