The Diary Game 12/04/24 | Eastern Elegance & Cultural Crossroads | Gateway to Eastern Europe

“The Balkans produce more history than they can consume.”

• Winston Churchill

Greetings travellers, bloggers and Steemers! I guess today’s the day, today’s the day I’m finally going to make a post about my city. Well not that i never thought about it, it’s just there’s something very strange when i think of showing off my city.

I guess it’s just that when you think of showing the place where you grew you never think about it as some destination that you can make a good post of.
Well that’s not the case, cuz there’s lots of tourists here and they quite like it, maybe because of the music primarily.

Anyway here’s what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna warn you that this post is going to be very mixed and by mixed i mean the photos. I just have so much photos to show, so many snaps and memories, so this post is going to be sorta like this year - very chaotic.
Also think this post as a vlog\blog post where there’s story, memories, accents, filters and playing photographer.

Tales from the Capital

So what should begin with? Maybe I’m gonna start with some photos from the centre then maybe share with you some views and then what bars, clubs and discos you could enjoy.

So the first photo is basically a golden hour photo of the St. Sofia statue in the background. This statue is dedicated by the city of Sofia to commemorate the coming of the third millennium.

Now you’re gonna see different shots of the same exact place where there’s a bar called Largo and it’s very vibrant during the summer.

If you are wondering about the building in the middle it is the National Building Assembly. Also there’s a conspiracy behind this. So remember the St. Sofia Statue?

Well the Statue is supposed to be white and not holding and owl, which basically represents some masonic symbols. Also the conspiracy behind this statue is its black eyes, cuz the statue is like 25 meters tall and the eyes look straight to the cabinet of the prime minister. Interesting isn’t it.

So i guess you saw enough of this part of the centre, let’s hop to other parts. So this is Vitoshka this is the main part of the centre with all the shops and cafes and stuff, crowded with people. No matter the weather you will always see people walking by, well it’s more crowded during the summer, but still very crowded.

You know the pink photo i have already posted, also the National Assembly in other posts, but I didn’t want to ruin the experience, cuz this post is kinda special. I have posted so much content from the capital i had no photos left to make a whole post.

I know i can always go out and take some shots, but i sill have so much left. Maybe i could next time show you the statue more up close to see how chilling it is.

A Cultural Odyssey

Okay let’s talk about the elephant in the room shall we? It’s probably the landmark Bulgaria is most known of - St. Alexander Nevski. You know now writing this I'm getting a deja vú effect, cuz i have posted and talked about so much about this Cathedral here, but I don’t mind sharing it again and again, cuz it’s beautiful. This is basically one of the most iconic landmarks in the city and i would say it’s a masterpiece of Bulgarian architecture.

The Cathedral is not just a religious site but also a cultural and historical symbol for Bulgaria, commemorating its liberation from Ottoman rule.

Please don’t think i went there and walked around to take photos. I have so many snap streaks from it i basically don’t have to go anywhere. I go from there a lot when i go out, also when i go out to eat. There’s this restaurant that’s right across the church LA Cattedrale where the food is nice and the views are pleasant for the human eye, especially in Spring and Summer.

Jewel of the Balkans

So here we go, we came to the part where I’m gonna be showing you some very cool places, well basically the posh and exquisite places to be more precise. This part is going to be very mixed, cuz i have so many snaps with some filters on. The first place you should visit is the Millennium which is basically this very posh Hotel which has a rooftop bar called Ozone with phenomenal views to the city.

This place is huge, it offers not only the rooftop Ozone bar, but also has some more restaurants with magnificent food, also if you are very bored you can visit the casino halls, well one of them. I think that there’s like 6 casinos inside this building in fact i think inside the Millennium is the biggest casino in the balkans.

Anyway this is a photo i found which is inside the bar, but if you sit on the corner sides you could enjoy the beautiful views.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find view photos from this exact place, except a video which is by the way from the toilets hehe. Yeah even the toilets have views.

Okay the second place is maybe one of the best places to visit overall, it’s the place where all the tourists, rich people, celebs, foreign celebs go and etc. It’s called Hotel Marinela Sofia and its huge, i mean the hotel is just one part of it. This hotel has like around 10 restaurants and a disco.

The amazing thing about this hotel is it’s garden called Umami, it has its own river and lake with all different kinds of ducks.

Unfortunately I don’t have a full tour to it, but i have a surprise gif for you. It’s not ducks, but something bigger. The best vibes this place extinguishes is that you sit there with your friends smoking hookah, drinking cold iced Frappe and having some peacocks wandering around.

Okay let’s talk about the club inside of the hotel. This club is called Megami and it’s something special, cuz the party is up to the max there, i mean forget the music, cuz the music is yeah balkan pop folk music and tourists seem to like our music a lot, cuz yeah because of the gypsy rhythms, but depending on the day the scene has always picked up some choreography dances, movie elements etc. It’s sick.

The second club you might really enjoy is called Carrousel Club, which is a lil bit different than Megami, cuz it’s on two floors and the music is different. It‘s more of a commercial music you know, the typical commercial music you listen, maybe even call it tiktok music. There’s no pop folk there and if you are young you will enjoy it very much, not that you wouldn’t enjoy Megami, but the youth goes there generally.

Alright this is the last place I’m gonna mention, which is a good pick to visit and it’s called Grande Bar & Dinner. It’s a restaurant basically and it’s particularly high off the ground so it brings some views.

The food is great and the vibes are very pleasing, cuz it’s right in front of a football field, well not our national, but a typical football field for training and the mix between eating your soup with your company watching some football players play is sorta calming.

I don’t know if it’s the taste for everyone, but it’s definitely something different. And by the way for some foreign Steemers i mean football like soccer, not like football like rugby.

Urban Vista

Since we are slowly coming to the end of the post I’m gonna let your eyes rest from reading and enjoy this surprise i have for you.

This is called Kopitoto which is like around 20 minutes from Sofia with a car high in the mountains which at night provides amazing view over the whole city. Lots of us gather around there during the summer when we don’t know what to do. It’s fun activity and it’s a vibey idea to go there during the July morning.

Metropolitan Melodies

Alright guys this is the last part of the post and it’s going to be basically a cityscape photos from around the city. This is the “playing photographer” part. Enjoy! 😄

So this is it guys, i hope you enjoyed my post, I really did my best to combine photography, storytelling and gifs under and interesting and the less exhausting way, cuz this is probably my longest post. I think some of you might really enjoy Bulgaria, maybe the Balkans overall, cuz the Balkans are the Balkans, there’s no better place to live than Eastern Europe.

I will end this post with a gif of just driving around the city under a blissful weather. I don’t know why but i think this suits a perfect end of my post. See ya around guys. 👋🏻😄.

Shot on IPhone 12