Programming, life, travel, book and movie reviews...
Monday, October 26, 2026
Europe Trip 2026 - Sofia
Bulgaria was a shock. On paper, the GDP per capita in PPP ($44k) looks like it should be a relatively rich, developed place. On the ground, the country looks worse than Croatia. Abandoned, falling apart, neglected buildings. Overgrown fields. Rubbish along train tracks. Graffiti on all trains. Train station toilet stench so bad you want run away (Ruse!). Car drivers that want to run you over, even on a zebra crossing (or was that Romania? these two get mixed up in my memories regarding car drivers - both were awful... checked my notes: yes, happened in both - they're leaders in road deaths per capita in the EU)... Türkiye looked more developed.
No matter how poor a country is, there should be no rubbish just dumped in the field.
Was this platform renovated and then it started falling apart again?
A symbolic image of Bulgaria: an old man sitting in front of an industrial building with broken windows.
Old military vehicles.
Communist-era military barracks.
These Siemens EMUs are not old.
Strong Croatian architectural vibes - we're in the Balkans.
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What are Bulgaria's strengths?
Sofia (urban pop. 1.5m) has an incredible geographical location: although the city is mostly flat, you can take a city bus up the nearby Vitosha mountain, and ski in winter.
There's still some snow up there in the middle of May.
The most professional and most engaging tour guide on my trip was in Sofia (and I also did Bucharest, Vienna, Bratislava, and Amsterdam).
Sofia's public transport (trams, buses, metro) is very good: frequent, fast, clean, comfortable (not the trains, and not all bus/tram stops).
Sofia is very green (that was not the initial impression).
Sofia seems very safe (that was not the initial impression).
People seem to be soft-spoken.
There's a lot of railway construction along the line from Istanbul and I think a significant amount of construction in general, at least in Sofia.
Partially renovated station.
First view of Sofia
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First impressions of Sofia
The central station is run down. There aren't too many people around. People don't look good (middle aged and old, overweight, everyone seems tired) - Bulgaria lost about 27% of the population since the fall of communism - because of low birth rates and emigration of the younger people to the west, mainly to Germany. There's graffiti, broken down lifts, rubbish. I was hungry, couldn't find anything to eat, didn't know how to get to a tram stop, had no internet (no public wi-fi at the station), the place looked sketchy. Anxiety kicked in. Bought coffee and something to eat from a small restaurant operated by an old man who didn't speak English - used Russian. Found the tram stop. Found my hotel. The room was great. The wi-fi was working. I relaxed. Multiple cats on the way. I was still in the cat lands.
Since most of the buses and trams are the same as in Warsaw (Solaris, MAN, Pesa) with the same seats, buttons and sounds, and there is a lot of communist era housing with vast spaces between buildings (compared to Australia) filled with trees, and lots of cars parking everywhere, I felt a lot like in Warsaw.
Footpaths are wider and in better condition than in Warsaw.
There are almost no bike paths.
My ticket/credit card was checked 3 times in one day on buses/trams.
Sofia Central Station
A tram stop at the central station.
Modern, low-floor Pesa Swing tram.
Bollards made of artillery shells. Where? Near a military hospital.
Sofia is green
Everyone is relaxed, including cats, dogs and pigeons:
Church of St Petka of the Saddlers. From the guide: during the Ottoman rule, no Christian church could be built taller than the smallest mosque, hence this one is barely above ground.
Roman-era ruins. Sofia is old. People lived here 9000 years ago.
This tram is not riding with doors open - the car driver stopped on a tram stop.
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Bikes
Although at first I did not see any bike paths/lanes, there were some, but I didn't see people riding them, instead I saw a few people riding on the road and on footpaths. The weather was nice and Sofia is quite flat. Part of the problem may be that I haven't see many young people. It seemed like most people walking and taking public transport were retirees and young or younger people were driving cars.
A bike lane protected by rubber dividers, destroyed by cars.
A bike path in poor condition.
Proper bike path along the road to Vitosha.
This bike lane ends soon.
The only people on bikes I remember were these guys on Vitosha. They got a scolding from the bus driver for riding down the mountain.
If you squint, there's a person on a bike in this photo.
Ruse. Is that blue thing on the left a bike lane?
Bulgaria (and Romania) have little cycling infrastructure.
Percentage of people who own bikes is also relatively low in Bulgaria and Romania.
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Going to Romania
Before I started this trip I didn't realize how isolated Bulgaria was from the rest of Europe transport-wise. Most of the border between Bulgaria and Romania is the Danube river. There was Constantine's bridge over it from year 328 to about 350, then nothing for ~1600 years, till the Danube bridge in Ruse-Giurgiu opened in 1954. From western Bulgaria it was faster to travel to the rest of Europe through Serbia until 2013 when the Danube bridge 2 opened in Vidin-Calafat.
No direct train at this time of the year (May). I have to take a train to Ruse and change there for a train to Bucharest.
Sofia Sever (North) train station.
A homeless person lives here with their dog.
My train to Ruse.
These carriages are modern. This one is certified for 200 km/h.
On the way to Ruse:
Polski Trambesh in Bulgarian means "Trambesh of the fields" - the word "pole" in Polish means "field", but "Polski" means "Polish".
Station dogs.
Despite appearances, there was no war in Bulgaria since 1944.
In Ruse I had to change to a Romanian train. This was the first time since I was a kid in communist Poland when I rode on a train with broken windows:
These are not old trains, just abused. Siemens Desiro DMU of Romanian CFR.
Two windows were broken like that.
My notes: The train from Ruse to Bucharest is a small diesel unit. It's slow too. And it's too hot. I'm in a t-shirt and I'm sweating. And the seats are hard and uncomfortable. WTF is this train? Two windows are broken - they broke into thousands of pieces but are kept in place. Siemens Desiro DMU. This train is chugging at 50 km/h. Unbearably hot. Windows don't open. There is no soap in the toilet. The toilet is dirty.
A few other comments from talking to people: my Turkish companion on the train believed that Bulgaria is populated by Turkish people who converted to Christianity. My Bulgarian guide hinted at animosity with North Macedonia. I looked it up: Bulgarians think that North Macedonians are historically Bulgarians and want them to acknowledge that it in their constitution, otherwise they veto their accession to the EU. Bulgaria occupied and annexed most of Yugoslav Macedonia (today North Macedonia) in 1941.
Also from the guide:
Bulgarian society, including Muslims, is not very religious. That matches my observation from the train window: no churches. When he was in Warsaw he had a feeling that Warsaw was like Sofia, but 10 years in the future. That matches my feeling of familiarity in Sofia. Sofia is safe. Sofia is unique in Europe for not having a major river flowing through it.
Bulgaria joined the axis pact during WW2 because of an ultimatum from Germany who wanted to move troops from Romania through Bulgaria to attack Greece. But Bulgaria did not assign any troops to fight alongside Germany. Bulgaria deported Jews from territories it occupied. Bulgaria was the only axis country to gain territory in WW2 and keep some of it (Sothern Dobruja gained from Romania in 1940).
I knew a bit about Bulgarian Jews - practically 100% survived the war, but then most left. It turns out they were leaving first for the Mandatory Palestine and then from 1948 to 1951 for Israel because of a agreements with the US and Jewish/Zionist organisations/Israel (who were pushing for it: "In 1944 David Ben Gurion flew to Sofia [...] to lobby the new Soviet government for Jewish emigration to Israel, allowing 7,000 Jews to emigrate to Israel from Bulgaria between 1944 and 1948." ). They could only leave for Israel. The Bulgarian government was paid cash, per head, by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The government also confiscated all assets: properties, bank accounts, etc. and stripped them of Bulgarian citizenship.
Bulgaria together with Orban's Hungary were the only 2 EU countries that joined Trump's Board of Peace.
I learned a lot about Bulgaria, but I still know very little and saw very little. I wrote down that I visited some history museum, but I cannot find any photos. Weird - maybe taking photos was not allowed. I hope the train connections between Sofia and the rest of Europe improve, the car drivers become less aggressive, and the country deals with the abandoned properties.
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