I arrived to Ten Coins Hostel in Sofia, Bulgaria around 7:00am absolutely exhausted! Why so exhausted? Let me recap the previous 14 hours. Rushed to my bus since I was an idiot and had the wrong time on my computer and barely made it. Took a 12 hour overnight bus from Athens to Sofia that I barely slept on because of a crying child. Found my way to the hostel via the metro…exhausted.

I did not expect a bed to be ready so early in the morning, but I was delighted to be able to drop my luggage and sit. I ended up falling asleep at a kitchen table with my USC hoodie on and my teddy bear as a pillow. The hostel owner woke me up about 10:00am and told me there was an early checkout and he had a bed ready for me. I immediately crawled in with all my clothes on and finally went to bed.

Flash forward to 2:00pm when I woke up and needed to get my day going. I went into the city center and walked around for a bit and had a great lunch (12 USD for two beers, a salad and fish). Then I went on a free walking tour with Free Sofia Tour and took in the sites of the capitol of Bulgaria.

I also maybe accidentally bought some new shoes. 🙂

Anyhow, fun facts I learned on the tour:

– Sofia s over 6000 years old

– Bulgaria was established in 681 and the name has never changed

– Apparently when Bulgaria joined WWII they declared war against the USA and UK thinking nothing would happen since they were so far away. The US bombed Sofia.

– People from the country still come to Sofia to take a selfie at the communist department store as this was the first place moving stairs were in Sofia