And so it begins!

It was 10am when we finally surfaced, giving us enough time to grab a coffee and a croissant.

Our first stop of the day was the Palace of Justice, where we planned to join the Free Sofia walking tour with Vasil; we would cover all the main sites including the Statue of Sofia, St George Rotunda, various churches, the opera and of course, the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

One of the main highlights of the tour was the Roman ruins; Sofia is built on a number of levels so you can walk under various parts of the city, or look down on them through glass windows installed to preserve the ruins underneath. Serdika, is the historical Roman name of Sofia and was founded 2000 years BC by the Thracian tribe Serdi. In the 1st century AD, the town was conquered by the Romans, who appreciated the important and strategic location as well as the mineral springs. 

Speaking of mineral springs, this was definitely the next highlight. There were lots of locals filling small bottles, as well as huge cannisters. The water is warm, but has been tested and is completely pure and safe to drink. We thought we might as well do as the Romans do!

The tour finished at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, but we chose not to go in for now. Instead, we had 20 minutes to find the meeting point of the Balkan Bites food tour. We met at the Stefan Stambolov "big head" statue before walking straight to our first stop.

Supa Star was the first soup bar in Bulgaria that opened back in 2009; its a healthy alternative to fast food restaurants which have been gaining in popularity. There are traditional and creative soups, but we were given Tarator, a traditional cold cucumber soup. Given that I hate cucumber, it wasn't the best start, but it tasted better than expected.

Our next stop was Garafa Wine Shop where we got to try some more Mavrud, I definitely enjoyed this tasting more than the soup.

Skaptoburger was the next stop and about a 10 second walk from the wine shop. Its not hard to guess what they sell, but everything was freshly made and delicious. We only got a quarter of a burger each but there was still a few more stops to go.

Time for dessert, well kind of. The next stop was Mekitsa & Kafe where we tried Mekitsa, which I would say is a cross between a yum yum in the UK and a beignet in New Orleans. It was delicious and my favourite so far! We agreed this was going to be breakfast the following morning!

The penultimate stop was Bohemian Hall, a food hall, and was exactly what you would expect, except it was a modern version and really trendy. Here we got to have beer and Banitsa, a pastry filled with cows cheese. We bought an extra beer to drink on the go, yes its allowed in Sofia, happy days!

The final stop on the tour was Hadjigraganovite Izbi, a traditional Bulgarian restaurant. It was a cellar restaurant and was beautiful inside. Here we tried three different relishes on top of bread; the best by far was Lyutenitsa. Its a ketchup made of roasted peppers, tomatoes and eggplants and is bright red in colour. By this point, we were feeling quite full and all that was left was to toast the tour with Rakija, a fruit brandy.

The tour ended a short distance from our hotel so we decided to go for a beer, and plan the evening ahead. As part of the free walking tour, we were given a booklet with recommendations for Sofia which ranged from shops and restaurants to clubs and escape rooms. We decided on a restaurant for the evening, and thought it best we ask our hotel to make a reservation for us. The booking was for 7pm, so we had a few hours to relax then walk to the restaurant which was located next to the National Palace of Culture and about 20 minutes walk from the hotel. 

Aubergine Restaurant is all about Craft beer and Craft food, and its the only restaurant in Sofia which pairs beer with its meals. It was located down a really quiet street, so we would never have found it had it not been recommended. I decided to start with a very large wine to go with the nibbles and dip, I was pretty sure I would be "beered out" before the end of the night. My first course was grilled goat cheese with baked strawberries, and pomegranate and strawberry molasses followed by roasted pork ribs in homemade BBQ sauce, and baked potatoes. Both of these were paired with a different craft beer. Unfortunately, by the end of the meal, I was too full and couldn't manage dessert. In fact, we were both stuffed, and decided to walk slowly back towards the hotel. 

We made it as far as a coffee shop which was full of coffee dispensers and completely automated, Iain was determined to try an espresso although I was pretty sure it would be terrible. 

We eventually made it back to the hotel having walked for miles; it was now time for bed after a successful day of sightseeing, eating and drinking.