Living in a neighbour country of Bulgaria, I’ve visited it very late in my life. My first trip was to Bansko and then a short day trip to Sofia. Afterwards for work purposes, I was able to visit Sofia once again on a day trip. Back then my stroll around the city had one goal, looking for cosmetic studio. That was not really successful, though, the agenda was full.

The first time I was in Sofia I stayed in a hostel called Hostel Mostel. The second time, I stayed with the same brand, but now in an apartment. For a one night stay both were very central and with good value for money.
On my last visit in October 2025 I opted for the same apartment, and that is going to be my last time.
Exiting the Metro from the airport was pretty straight forward. Once you see the Balkan Palace Hotel, and the Sveta Nedela church, you know you are in the city centre. The first thing I did was a stroll along Vitoshka street, then checked out the area around the National Theatre.

My stroll continued towards the tram street, which was giving very retro vibes, and I stopped at a greek bakery – Kostas. I remember my spinach pita being amazing. Then I went to check a specialty coffee shop, named Drekka, it was very interesting minimalistic store, and the coffee was great. Then off to little souvenir shopping I strolled to the Levski boulevard, and bought coffee from Dabov.

As lunch time was approaching I decided to finally sit. I chose central place, where I went for more healthish option at Rainbow Factory. Here I was able to also work a little bit. The place was really nice back at that time.
Recently this part of town became the home of more hip places like &Bread, Sabale, Obred to name a few, and actually those places reminded me that I have picture only post from Sofia, so I decided to add some words.
In October I met my besties in Sofia and we visited some of thep laces above. &Bread had amazing pastries, the savory were my favorite. There is no place to sit inside so on a good day you can indulge the delishes in front of their window.
Sabale was my favorite. It reminded a lot of a Danish eatery, and all the dishes that we had wew 120% on point. It was so good that we came back for lunch, unfortunately they were already sold out. Obred is the place for bagels, and on a saturday afternoon they were sold out waaaay earlier than their closing time.

There was new coffee shop discovered, Doppio, their staple is coffee and tiramisu. Then the bean bar Flow for hot chocolate From the more traditional things I had Shopska Banitsa pastry, and to satisfy the sweet tooth of my friends, we literally walked the extra mile for the Y Dough rolls. According to them they were amazing.
I also snapped a photo of places that I would like to visit some next time

Sofia is walkable and you can see a lot in a day even on foot. If you put my places on a map, it is visibly that I went through the whole extended central part in half a day, with constant walking, and as the temperature was not the most pleasant, I decided to go to a cinema, even though I am not so much of a movie person, and until I had time to take my flight, I enjoyed La La Land.

You can tell I was there long time ago, however the places recommendations are still strong and trustworthy.

MORE CONCRETENESS