We recently stayed in Bulgaria for one month and today we want to share with
you whether it's worth of visiting the place
hey guys I'm Ross (and I'm Bek!) and today Bek has come up with some secret questions that
she's gonna throw down at me and I'm gonna give you an honest opinion of what
we think Bulgaria's like now we lived in Sofia so I guess we're talking Sofia
today if you like this stuff make sure you hit subscribe and hit the bell hit
the bell alright Bek, throw it down to me. What do you have?
It's your first time in Sofia
sum it up in a few words. Hmm it's a historic place - old meets new
there's a modern way of life too Why did you choose Sofia?
Hmm we wanted to go
somewhere that was a bit different somewhere we've never been before
and to be honest guys we just picked up on the map it looked like a good spot
for where we were heading into northern Europe so it was a good spot the other
thing is that it's not part of the Schengen zone however you
say that it wasn't part of it so for us and we could stay there without it
counting towards our restricted time limit in the rest of Europe
What are the people like?
oh, the people are quite relaxed and a little bit reserved and to be honest you
when you first arrive you misconstrue that for maybe being a bit rude or
they're not interested in you but it's so far from the truth
they're lovely people almost every Bulgarian we met was lovely and but you
do just sometimes have to go out of your way to to start that conversation with
them that's what we you found one quirky thing is oh I thought they were saying
no to me they do this, or this, but that means yes so quite often people
will say yes to me but I thought they meant no. oh there's so many in Sofia
Best thing about the place?
Oh there's so many in Sofia
specifically in Sofia it's easy to get around and you know it's quite central
the sort of hot spot of all the things that you need to see the Vitosha Boulevard
so it's very easy to walk in and out of the city and see
everything I love that. The other thing just quickly is old meets new and you
have these historic old buildings big communist-looking buildings very
powerful and you feel that when you're walking around and at the same time
really modern things like fibre internet in our building we had a
hundred-year-old lift and fibre Internet yeah fascinating
both were really quirky and cool to use
how did you deal with the Lev? Well the name is cool. How many Lev have you
got? Lev, Lev we've got some friends called Levs so like a really cool name
it's slightly weaker than the Australian dollar slightly so it was really easy in
our heads to calculate it when you're on the go or you're in a restaurant you're
paying for things. You always knew it wasn't quite as much as the Australian
dollar so it was easy for us. ATMs no scams that were obvious to see just really
easy. Worst thing about Sofia?
the worst thing has to be... the first thing into my mind is the construction
and there's a lot of renovations or construction going on new builds and
stuff within the city and normally when you're travelling you notice these
things but they maybe do one side of the road first and then they do the other
side and so you can still live and coexist with this construction yeah it
was kind of helter skelter like stuff on everybody every bit of the street was
being done. It was interesting to see very hard to live with and but hey they get
it done it looks good good on em and the other thing was yeah
No Uber, they use Taxify which is a
way to book your taxis but it's still standard taxi prices and yes so no Uber
going on and I don't know. I love a free market
Favourite thing to do?
it would, other than eat, eating lots of yummy food it would have to be walking with no
purpose I think in French that Flaneur we might put that on the screen for you
it's totally a cool city to just walk around and see all these old buildings
with a Russian vibe there's definitely a historic sort of
Russian vibe with some of the buildings but you know walking down Vitosha
boulevard and looking up and seeing Vitosha Mountain like that's special
that's something you always remember and yeah
pretty incredible place to walk around.
Favourite Food and why?
for those that know me I just kind of like all food so this is very hard to
put just one thing on an overall style would be barbecued food there is a real
love for barbecued restaurants BBQ meats and the things that go with the barbecue
meats the salads and the other stuff it's delicious
to try there's a lot of local spots where and there's not many tourists in
and we had a lot of fun in those places amazing eats everywhere yeah I also just
love as a quick shout out that influence of the whole Balkan region coming in on
Bulgaria there's you know little snippets of other cuisines going on
there too so yeah beautiful place to just try different stuff
Banitsa or Mekitsa?
Oh, I'm going to get hated on for whichever one I pick here
I'm gonna go with banitsa for me that's like a religion in a Bulgaria the
locals are lining up for the staff how I can't count how many times we would line
up and there's 30 Bulgarians standing ahead of us waiting for Banitsa that's
a delicious dish and Bek, what do you like? Bek likes she likes the Mekitsa
because you can get all the different toppings on there what it's a harder
sort of yeah crispy a donut consistency with the jam and cream that's her favourite.
I like Banitsa too though! She likes both, yeah she's on the fence
Vitosha Boulevard or Vitosha Mountain?
mmm I think the boulevard I just like walking around and having all the people
and having a view of the mountain I think that's always better looking up at
something and but yeah up at the top of the mountain looking down on the city is
a pretty amazing experience too. What is Bulgarian Culture really like?
this is hard to answer because we're not experts
but from what what we noticed and it's a really cool thing to see that older
generation with all the traditional ways of Bulgarian life mixing in with the
younger generation which is really cool you know trendy lots of new things
happening in the younger people space also the younger people speak really
good English and yeah so that was something that we noticed they're pretty
relaxed pretty easygoing people and yeah it didn't realize any tensions or things
happening politically or anything like that so yeah pretty cool place
How did you get around in Sofia? We only
caught two taxis in and out of Sofia and that was it now the rest of the time we
walked we walked a lot we caught some trams the trams are
really easy to use and yeah you just need to know where you're going
obviously the trains are pretty good too we just we didn't need to use them a
whole lot one thing is when you cross the big intersections is you have to go
under ground and walk up the other side but I think a lot of European cities do that
Internet speeds?
for fellow geeks it's fast it's really fast 70 almost 70 megabits per
second perfect for my English teaching online because there's a bit of
streaming happening there and look I've actually had a fair few questions coming
through about the English teaching stuff so I will put some links down below you
can find all the information about it down there or flick me a message and I'm
happy to think you a reply feel like I need a coffee for this one
What do you think is Bek's favourite thing about the city?
What is Bek's favorite thing about the city? well if you missed our
Bulgarian snacks and video check that out because there's lots of bits in
there that Bek likes but outside of that Bek's favorite thing about the
city oh she's she's moving to me doing these guys now I know yeah I should know
bookshops and yeah bookshops Bek's favorite thing. They have really cool
book shops they haven't quite got rid of all the book shops like other cities and
so you go in and you just see these really cool you know old school books
new books she's lost many days in in these places
So, the big question...Is it worth visiting Bulgaria?
if you just watched the last 5-10 minutes of this video you
don't need me to tell you I think you get it. It's somewhere different and
like why not go to somewhere like this it's an amazing place rich in history
culture it's affordable yeah our apartment was really cool like yes visit
visit do yourself a favor and books and tickets right now we loved it.
I think they're all the hard-hitting questions Beck has for me if you like this video
please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to watch our next video which is
a big feast in Sofia we'll see you soon guys bye
how did you deal with the currency hmm money hmm the live sounds cool right
the live do that again - very nearly dropped my coffee