After I left Sofia, i made it to a couple other cities on my trip to Istanbul. This is not a completely accurate portrayal of Bulgaria, simply my brief gilmpses of a couple towns on the way. That should handle the disclaimer.
After leaving Sofia, I went to Veliko Tarnovo. I only spent a day there, as I was in transit to the coast to meet a friend, but the city was truly beautiful. The people were very nice, and just walking around the city for a few hours gave me a lovely peaceful feeling. The produce was delightful, and the one restaurant i managed to visit was wildly decorated, affordable, and tasty.
I stayed at the Hostel Mostel in Veliko Tarnovo, and it was all I needed. Additional useful information, they will pick you up from the bus stop to remove the guess work from you.
Also, being the terrible person that I am, I forgot to take any pictures.
A short bus ride away, is the city of Varna and the Black Sea. The likelihood is that any guide book or web page can tell you more about the city than I know after having visited it, so I’ll let your fingers do the walking on that one. I stayed at a small, hard to find, family hotel outside the city next to the sea. After a rough start, I truly came to enjoy the place. Hotel Amfora was nice, but they lack the sort of shoestring backpacker support that I have come to rely on from many hostels.
More additional useful information: to get to any of the resorts north of town, you can arrange a taxi with your hotel, which may cost you about 25 euro, or you can take the 409 bus from Varna. The information booth in the main bus terminal has a map with bus stops and line numbers on it for about 2 Euro; it’s worth it.
I spent most of the time on the beach as a Birthday present to myself, but I did however manage to snap a few photos of the Black Sea and its patrons.
