In the shadow of mighty Vitosha, the skyline of Bulgarian Sofia rises up like something out of a Tolstoy novel; romantic, rich, peppered with bulbous onion-domes and silhouetted by the looming shapes of Suppedaneum crosses and Byzantine builds. It’s unquestionably one of the gems of the European east; a place where a lively local crowd wanders betwixt ageing Austro-Hungarian relics and the ruins of old Rome still linger beneath the streets.
But, as any Sofia tourist guide will tell you, this city at the heart of the Balkans is not simply an ageing relic of the old Europe. Far from it. There are clubs, techno bars, rakia drinking houses and cool boho drives like the tree-shrouded Lodkite. Then there’s the café culture; hip, happening and laden with the Bulgarian nouveau riche from morning to night.
Today, Bulgaria’s capital is also known as the gateway to the country’s great outdoors, with many people opting to explore the Black Sea beaches in the east, or perhaps most notably, the budget pistes and ski fields of the nearby Balkan Mountains.