Places to Visit in Sofia – Sofia Weekend Trip

Is there a weekend trip to Sofia? We did it, it is being done, it is very nice. This small city, the capital of Bulgaria, gave us a much better weekend than we expected. My expectations were quite low when I went to Sofia, probably because of Bulgaria's image in us. When I set off, I had nothing more than a low-cost, new country where we could spend a pleasant weekend. places to visit in Sofia After seeing it, we already started to plan where else we could see in Bulgaria.

Information About Sofia

Sofia, the capital and largest city of BulgariaIt is a city worth visiting with its 7000 years of history, which makes it one of the oldest capitals in Europe, and its strategic location at the foot of Vitosha Mountain, a popular ski resort. With Bulgaria's accession process to the European Union, Sofia, which has become more beautiful, also draws attention with its large parks surrounding the city center.

While Sofia does not offer many options for places to visit, it is a city that you can easily visit and enjoy with a weekend trip. Other positive aspects are that it is close to us and quite cheap for us. Although it does not interest me at all, it also offers many options to gamblers.

How to Get to Sofia?

There are bus, train and plane options for transportation between Istanbul and Sofia.

• Since we love train journeys, we preferred to make our weekend trip to Sofia by train. By Istanbul-Sofia train We reached the city at 08:45 on Saturday morning. We paid 67 euros round trip with Sofia Express in the sleeping compartment.
• The bus is both cheaper and arrives in Sofia earlier than the train, around 06:00 in the morning if I remember correctly. Bus companies that go to the Balkans, such as Alpar Tur, also serve Sofia.
• The flight from Istanbul to Sofia takes 01:15 minutes. THY has flights.

A Bulgarian or Schengen visa is required to go to Sofia. For details Bulgaria visa Check out my article about it.

Bulgarian Currency and Exchange

Bulgaria's European Union process continues, but they have not yet adopted the Euro as their currency. Bulgarian currency Leva. We took euros with us and exchanged them in exchange offices. There are many exchange offices on Vitosha Street, you can take advantage of them. Exchange offices are open very often and until late in the evening. In December 2017, when we made our trip to Sofia, 1 Lev approx 0,51 Euro was. Better check the dry again before you go.

Sofia Attractions

We were on our two-day trip to Sofia; On the first day, we toured the city in general and the second day was reserved for museums. Let's take a look at our list of places to visit in Sofia in the order we visited, shall we? First of all, I would like to point out that you can reach all the places to visit in Sofia on foot.

Vitosha Street: Our Sofia trip started in Vitosha street as we came to the city in the morning and didn't have breakfast. You can think of this street as Sofia's Istiklal Street, cafes, bars, souvenir shops, shops and many more options await you both on the street and in the side streets. At the end of the street overlooking the Vitosha mountain, a large garden awaits you, and at the end of the garden is the National Palace of Culture. We continued our tour of Sofia after having a light breakfast and touring the street from top to bottom.

Justice Palace: At the end of Vitosha street, the building with lion statues in front of it is the palace of justice, I don't know if you can enter, we didn't.

Hagia Nedelja Church: When you continue from Vitosha Street towards the city center, you reach the most beautiful church in the city, in my opinion. The church, which was built in the 14th century, was used as a cathedral until Alexander Nevski, the largest church in the city, was built. There is currently an entrance fee. When there is an entrance fee to places of worship, I do not enter because I am angry with this situation, I did not enter here either.

Saint Sofia Monument: When you continue down, you will see the Saint Sofia monument, which is the symbol of Sofia, rises on the left.

Serdika Ancient City: When you look in the direction St. Sofia is facing, you will see ancient ruins and a church below the road level. This is the ruins of the city of Serdika. The name of the church St. Petka's Churcha tiny church. During the subway excavations, it was revealed that there was another city under the city, and they turned the square in the center of the city into an open-air museum with the excavations. In addition, the tunnels opening towards the metro stops became a part of this museum. I love this system, I wish they would turn the remains from Beşiktaş subway excavations into an open-air museum in a similar way.

Banyabaşı Mosque: When you look at the ancient city of Serdika, you will see the Banyabaşı Mosque on the opposite side. The mosque is located in the very center of the city. The mosque, which is one of the works of Mimar Sinan, draws attention with its central location despite its very modest appearance.

Market Hall / Indoor Market Place: The beautiful building just opposite the Banyabaşı Mosque is an indoor market place. There are stalls selling cheese, milk, yoghurt, bakeries where you can buy delicious Balkan pastries, butchers and souvenir shops. We had our lunch with pastries here.

Synagogue: When you pass the market place and continue on the street you turn left, you will see a Synagogue. The biggest Synagogue of the Balkans was the Synagogue in Sofia. I had come across such a big synagogue in Budapest. Generally, Synagogues are far from grandeur and ostentatiousness. Normally, it could be visited, but the time we went was a period of turmoil in Jerusalem, and there was high security around the Synagogue, and it was closed to visitors.

Women's Market: When you continue on the street where the synagogue is located, this time you will see a place with shops on the right, this is called Ladies Market, Women's Market. There are many shops such as butchers, restaurants, souvenirs, snack shops and handicrafts. Since it was late when we went, most of them were closed, it is better to go early.

Lions gate: One of the entrance gates of Serdika City is the lion gate. You'll know you've come to the right place when lion statues meet you on the bridge over the Slivnitsa river.

History Museum: When you return to the Banyabaşı Mosque from the Lion Gate, you will see a building with very beautiful architecture behind the Mosque. This building is currently used as the History Museum. It used to be a city bath. There is a hot water fountain outside the building, it is believed that the water flowing from the fountain heals.

Long: Taking the St. Sofia Monument behind you, you will see a magnificent triangular building opposite the wide square in front of you. The name of this building is Largo. Although the buildings built during the communist period were under heavy bombardment in 1950, they still stand in all their glory.

Archeology Museum: When you proceed to the right of Largo, you will see the Archaeological Museum on the right. Although there are not very interesting works on the ground floor, you should definitely enter the small halls on the upper floor.

Presidential Palace: Opposite the gate of the Archaeological Museum you will see a building with high doors, this is the presidential palace. In front of this building, every hour between 08:00 in the morning and 08:00 in the evening, there is a changing of the guard ceremony of the soldiers. It doesn't interest me at all, but people are interested in these ceremonies, we came across it by chance.

St George's Rotunda: This building has high iron gates, but the entrance is free. There is a church in the middle of a large courtyard. This church is the oldest church in Sofia. The church, which was built in the 4th century, was one of the important Christian centers in the Roman Empire.

Ivan Vazov National Theater: The theater building, which has a very beautiful exterior, was built in 1907. There is also a large park in front of the theater building. The Christmas Market was set up in this park when we went.

National Gallery of Art: There is an art gallery right across the garden in front of the theater, we did not enter here.

Natural History Museum: Located in the building right next to the art gallery, this museum contains many examples of natural assets, from natural stones to stuffed animals, from endemic plants to insects. We toured the four-storey building for a long time.

Russian Church: When you continue from the Natural History Museum, you will come across a church with an onion dome in a garden. The name of this church in Russian architecture is the Russian Church, it is a cute little church.

Basilica of St. Sofia: As you head towards the Alexander Nevski Church, the red brick building you can see on your left is the St. Sofia Basilica. This is where Sofia gave its name.

Alexander Nevsky Church: This church, which has become the largest church in Sofia and the symbol of the city, was completed in 1912 and is a fairly new church. An antique market is also set up on the right of the road leading to the church, do not pass without taking a look at the stalls.

Parliament Building: The big building right behind the Alexander Nevski Church is the parliament building that is still in use.

When I wrote it as a list, I realized that there are quite a lot of places 🙂

Sofia Christmas Market | Christmas Market

The time we went to Sofia was just Christmas time and we wanted to go especially at that time so that we could coincide with the Christmas Market. The market, which is located in the park in front of the National Theatre, was constantly crowded when we passed it at different times of the day.

Sofia has a small but colorful Christmas Market with small shops selling mulled wine, all kinds of Christmas cookies, hot dogs and various sweets and souvenirs that we are used to seeing in Christmas Markets.

City Transportation in Sofia

Places to visit in Sofia are generally within walking distance. But if you go in the middle of winter like us, I write the transportation options in Sofia below in order not to walk in the snow and cold or to shorten the times:

• Bus, Tram, Metro: If you are going to use public transport in Sofia, the price of a single ticket is 1,60 Lev. If you buy a daily ticket, you can ride unlimitedly on 4 Leva and all public transportation vehicles. It is quite nice to get on the old trams that travel in the side streets of the city and get off on any street you want.
• Taxi: After all, it's a Balkan country, so it's good to ask the price before taking a taxi so you don't get scammed. You can use the TaxiMe application.
• Bike: Sofia is an easy city to travel around, renting a bike is also an option, but I think summer months will be more enjoyable, you can find the details on sofiabike.com.

Places to See in Bulgaria Outside of Sofia

After we went to Sofia, we started to research where else we could go in Bulgaria. We made a list for ourselves, if you have any additions or suggestions, you can add them as comments to the article: Rila monastery near Sofia, Eyes of God Cave in Prohodna, Plovdiv as we know it, now Plovdiv, ski resort Bansko, Burgaz Varna to Bulgaria Places I want to come and see again.

We've already made our Plovdiv plan.

Plovdiv places to visit  Check out my post too!

Stay on the road…