Bulgaria Travel Thread [was: Drinking Tap Water in Bulgaria....?]
Jul 4, 2019, 3:53 am
#16
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Other than that that English is widely spoken especially by people under 30.
I highly recommend the free walking tour of Plovdiv. It is in English, starts at the town hall and in 2.5 hours covers all of the highlights of Plovdiv. One starts at 11am and one at 6pm. Wear comfy shoes: lots of cobblestone streets and you’ll climb 4 of the 6 hills of Plovdiv!
https://www.facebook.com/FreePlovdivTour/
today we are taking the bus from Plovdiv to Bansko. Wish we had more time here!!!!
Jul 4, 2019, 6:39 am
#17
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i would be very curious what Bansko is like right now. We loved the area, but when we were there (early June) the town was deserted. All but 3 restaurants were closed, supermarket was closed, it was like a ghost town. We were glad we got the half-board package at our hotel!
Maybe we were there too early in the season? Very curious about your experience!
Jul 4, 2019, 6:54 am
#18
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Greta memories, thanks for this write-up!
i would be very curious what Bansko is like right now. We loved the area, but when we were there (early June) the town was deserted. All but 3 restaurants were closed, supermarket was closed, it was like a ghost town. We were glad we got the half-board package at our hotel!
Maybe we were there too early in the season? Very curious about your experience!
Fellow nomads that that we met in Chiang Mai and Da Nang over the winter are spending the summer there so we are checking it out and visiting them on our whirlwind tour of Bulgaria.
Hopefully i’ll Catch up on my blog posts this week. When I do i’ll Post links.
Jul 4, 2019, 7:08 am
#19
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Bansko has become a summer mini hub for digital nomads.
Fellow nomads that that we met in Chiang Mai and Da Nang over the winter are spending the summer there so we are checking it out and visiting them on our whirlwind tour of Bulgaria.
Hopefully i’ll Catch up on my blog posts this week. When I do i’ll Post links.
Jul 7, 2019, 5:27 am
#21
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Well. We came, we saw, we liked, we are staying!
After meeting the amazing Coworking Bansko community we decided it was time to slow down, catch our breath and get involved in a community.
So we canceled our tickets to Tbilisi, Georgia, joined Coworking Bansko and decided to settle here in Bansko, Bulgaria for a while.
Yes, many restaurants and stores are closed for the season. But plenty are open especially down the hill around the main square. And we were able to rent a 1 br 2ba duplex flat for a month for 195 euro! Not sure we’ll stay that long but for that price we have the flexibility to do so.
There are about 90 ‘location independent’ members of the community and there are social, networking and seminars every day.
A series of summer festivals also start this weekend. So I suppose that’s the start of ‘summer high season.’
Feels like a great decision so far!!!
After meeting the amazing Coworking Bansko community we decided it was time to slow down, catch our breath and get involved in a community.
So we canceled our tickets to Tbilisi, Georgia, joined Coworking Bansko and decided to settle here in Bansko, Bulgaria for a while.
Yes, many restaurants and stores are closed for the season. But plenty are open especially down the hill around the main square. And we were able to rent a 1 br 2ba duplex flat for a month for 195 euro! Not sure we’ll stay that long but for that price we have the flexibility to do so.
There are about 90 ‘location independent’ members of the community and there are social, networking and seminars every day.
A series of summer festivals also start this weekend. So I suppose that’s the start of ‘summer high season.’
Feels like a great decision so far!!!
Jul 7, 2019, 3:57 pm
#22
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Jul 7, 2019, 4:11 pm
#23
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And we do see some Bulgarian tourists.
But it's still like a zombie apocalypse ghost town at the top of the hill and even at the bottom it's active but never crowded.
One thing that's really interesting about Bansko is that the mountains are SOUTH of the town. So...South is UP. North is DOWN. That confuses lots of people. At first I thought it was just me, but then I saw a tourist map and it was south-oriented (the top of the map was the south part of town...up the mountain). So clearly lots of people get confused!
Jul 7, 2019, 9:18 pm
#24
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Jul 10, 2019, 4:38 pm
#25
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Just published my first blog post about Bulgaria...this one about Sofia.
In it I recommend staying on the Vitosha pedestrian street. It's a really vibrant and fun place to be for lunch, shopping and especially dinner.
We also did a self-constructed and guided walking tour of the city center. The history of Sofia is really, really interesting. From ancient tribes to Alexander the Great to Romans Ottomans to Soviets. And each empire left its mark on the city...and the city has been busy excavating and displaying each period.
The food in Sofia alone is worth a visit. So much meat! And Shopska salad is the delish!
We even managed to get in a swim and watch crazy kids jump off the super-high dive platform.
Bottom line is that Sofia is a surprisingly fantastic. I can't recommend a few days there highly enough!
https://readyjetroam.com/2019/07/10/...ia-for-3-days/
Disclosure: this link is to a blog post that I wrote on a site that I own and have a financial interest in.
In it I recommend staying on the Vitosha pedestrian street. It's a really vibrant and fun place to be for lunch, shopping and especially dinner.
We also did a self-constructed and guided walking tour of the city center. The history of Sofia is really, really interesting. From ancient tribes to Alexander the Great to Romans Ottomans to Soviets. And each empire left its mark on the city...and the city has been busy excavating and displaying each period.
The food in Sofia alone is worth a visit. So much meat! And Shopska salad is the delish!
We even managed to get in a swim and watch crazy kids jump off the super-high dive platform.
Bottom line is that Sofia is a surprisingly fantastic. I can't recommend a few days there highly enough!
https://readyjetroam.com/2019/07/10/...ia-for-3-days/
Disclosure: this link is to a blog post that I wrote on a site that I own and have a financial interest in.
Jul 14, 2019, 8:25 pm
#26
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
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https://readyjetroam.com/2019/07/10/what-to-do-in-sofia-bulgaria-for-3-days/[/url]
Disclosure: this link is to a blog post that I wrote on a site that I own and have a financial interest in.
Disclosure: this link is to a blog post that I wrote on a site that I own and have a financial interest in.
Would you advise a private guide or just rent a car and go it on your own?
Jul 15, 2019, 1:40 am
#27
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That all said, car rentals are dirt cheap in Bulgaria. We are in Bansko now and are rent one for under 20 euros a day when we need one. My understanding is that it can be half that price in Sofia!
Jul 15, 2019, 3:55 am
#28
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
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As a geneticist I find this thread really interesting, from an educational point of view: there are people (e.g. my ophthalmologist) who simply don't understand how it was possible that evolution led to such a diversity of life forms on earth in "only" a few billion years. Now, this thread started on the quality of drinking water in Bulgaria, went over to discussing general tourism over there and has now moved (after a few posts on one particular area) to modalities of tourism. I'm waiting to see whether there will soon be a selective pressure that will lead the thread to, perhaps, discussing Bulgarian opera singers (of whom there were/are quite a few excellent ones). Mind you we've only arrived to post # 27, so this may take much longer! 
PS Mind you, this is not a unique phenomenon in FT, it happens quite often...
PS Mind you, this is not a unique phenomenon in FT, it happens quite often...
Jul 15, 2019, 4:38 am
#29
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As a geneticist I find this thread really interesting, from an educational point of view: there are people (e.g. my ophthalmologist) who simply don't understand how it was possible that evolution led to such a diversity of life forms on earth in "only" a few billion years. Now, this thread started on the quality of drinking water in Bulgaria, went over to discussing general tourism over there and has now moved (after a few posts on one particular area) to modalities of tourism. I'm waiting to see whether there will soon be a selective pressure that will lead the thread to, perhaps, discussing Bulgarian opera singers (of whom there were/are quite a few excellent ones). Mind you we've only arrived to post # 27, so this may take much longer!
PS Mind you, this is not a unique phenomenon in FT, it happens quite often...
PS Mind you, this is not a unique phenomenon in FT, it happens quite often...
Perhaps the request is still still under consideration.