I arrived in Sofia a couple of weeks ago. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is the largest city in Bulgaria with 1.3 million people. It's incredibly old going back centuries BC. Some of its history is visible at ground level with exposed stones from the Roman empire and Ottoman ruins. Most of the landscape, though, is modern buildings, euro-style of course, shops, restaurants, subways stops, etc.
Entering the country was refreshingly easy. Because it's part of the EU, and because it's still small compared with other global airports, the customs area was organized and simple. Not to mention, I changed planes from a larger one to a two-by-two before arriving in Sofia, so there were fewer co-passengers to form long lines.
I'm staying relatively near the city center, so everything is convenient to reach both on foot (35-minute walk) or by cab. Having been in a few cabs in NY, I can really appreciate how dirt cheap it is to take a cab here. You can't sit down in a cab for less than $5. But even that being the case, I've never taken one anywhere for less than $30 in Manhattan, or $10 in Brooklyn. Well divide that by 10. The cab fare here is $3 or less for about 2 miles. If you're going further, $10 max will get you there. Tipping cabbies is also very simple. You just round up and add 1. So if the fare was 2.35, you give the driver 4. Simple.
Yesterday, I had the pleasant experience of heading to a mall. I like window shopping, no matter what country I'm in. I was surprised to see that many of the prices were the same or close to American prices. The average income in Bulgaria is much lower than the average income in the States, so I expected the prices of clothes to be lower also in proportion to that. Later, I asked someone about that. She said brands are brands, so they like to keep their prices high, but some more local stores are less expensive.
While shopping, I had to try on a few European styles, of course. I had a couple items and headed to the dressing room. Surprisingly, there was a big dude in the dressing room directing traffic. I've definitely been shopping with Christopher where he was kicked out of the dressing room. So I was not expecting to have such a presence. But after I'd shopped at a few stores, it was clear that they either have a huge shoplifting problem they are trying to stop or they have never had any shoplifters for fear of the angry looking men standing around.
I've had a lot of fun so far, touring the city on foot, dinners out, hanging out. I'm looking forward to whatever comes up next!
