Sofia; Saturday, 12 October, 2019

Thankfully breakfast was a lot quieter this morning when I got down, so I was able to get a table straight away and have a more relaxed breakfast than the previous day. After breakfast I headed out of the hotel and caught the tram over to the National Cultural Palace and its park.

The Palace occupies a major site at the southern end of the main street in the city and the park was very busy with locals and visitors enjoying the grounds and fountains. I had a bit of a wander around the park and over the Lovers Bridge – a connecting bridge that links the park to other public park areas in the south of the city over the multi-lane ring road. This could just be a functional bridge, but instead the city has placed lots of display boards along the length of the bridge, turning it into an outside exhibition space.

Also visible from the lovers bridge are the impressive mountains that sit to the south of the city. Looking at the mountains I had a sudden thought about whether you could easily get up them, and a couple of minutes later, after a quick check on Google maps, I was heading to the Metro.

I caught the metro to the end of the line and there changed onto a bus that took me out to the cable car station located to the south of the city that allows for quick access to the mountains. The cable car is part of a network of gondola cars and chairlifts that, during the winter, make this a major ski resort. During the summer months the lifts only operate at the weekend, but that was good enough for my needs. I purchased my ticket and headed for the gondola lift up the mountain.

I’d brought a combination ticket that allowed the use of the gondola lift and the two chairlifts to reach the very top of the mountain. However, the instructions weren’t that clear on the route you were supposed to take and in the end I caught the gondola all the way to it’s very top station, it passes through three intermediate stops along the way – an impressive 6KM ride that must have also climbed the best part of another KM along its route. In reality I should have got off at the penultimate stop where I could have easily changed onto the first chairlift.

Up at the top station I had a wander around the area before I set off to find the chairlift. It was shortly after here I found out about my mistake as I was very clearly at the mid-way point on the first chairlift – and with an almost sheer drop to get down to the lower station there was nothing for it but to hike up the side of the mountain to the change over station where the 1st and 2nd chairlifts meet.

The hike was very steep and despite only being about 500m horizontally it felt it was a similar height vertically, so it took me nearly 20 minutes and by the time I was at the chairlift I was knackered. I hopped on the chairlift and spent it’s 10 minute journey both enjoying the stunning views as well as trying to recover from the hike. At the top station it was a short walk to the very top summit of the mountain, though in reality the views from here weren’t as great as I thought they would have been, with other parts of the mountain obscuring the view of downtown Sofia. However, the journey back down on the chairlift turned out to be stunning with the mountain ridges giving way to spectacular views over the city, with the golden dome of the cathedral glinting in the sun.

Back at the bottom of the 2nd chairlift I swapped onto the 1st chairlift and continued my journey down – with its spectacular ride down the near sheer drop that I’d decided not to try and get down earlier, and down into a hollow in the mountain. From there it was a short walk, that I should originally have done in the opposite direction, back to the 4th station on the gondola which only operates in the up direction, so I had to go all the way back up to the top station.

At the top station I had another quick wander round, and more importantly a quick stop in the WC, before catching the gondola all the way back down to the lowest station, a journey that took nearly 30 minutes. Back down at the lower station I caught the bus back into town and then the metro and tram back to my hotel to freshen up.

Once it had gotten dark I headed back out over to the National Cultural Palace to take some photos of the city centre at night and wandered back up the main street before stopping part way up to grab some dinner in a very nice restaurant. After dinner I had a bit more of a wander through the old town before making it to a trolleybus stop just in time to catch the trolley bus back to my hotel and a good nights sleep.