We walk back into two to pick up an 11am walking tour of the centre of Sofia. It’s free (although tips can be given) and we saw it advertised in our hostel the night before. As we are only in Sofia until 6pm it’s a good way of getting to see the main sights of the city. Our worry is that we will be the only ones to turn up. However this is soon put aside as there are 25 people joining the tour. Our guide, Mitko, is a recent history graduate, and knows his stuff. Even though the main sights in the city are located close together, it still takes over 2 ½ hours to go around all of them, and as well as this history we get some good local colour with stories about how the authorities didn’t even know where the city got its name from, so they put up a statue of St Sophia, instead of commemorating the Aya Sofia church (not the one in Istanbul, the original one here).
After the tour is finished about half of us join Mikto for food in a local diner. As it is our only Bulgarian meal, Dorota and I seem to choose a lot more items than the others. Afterwards we all go our separate ways, ours is to the main shopping streets where we pick up some supplies for the journey. Sofia is surprisingly well stocked for shops.
In the evening we head for the train station to pick up our bags and find our train. This is a challenge, as it is delayed due to an incoming train being delayed, and also as there is more than one platform 6, where we are due to depart from. We find the right one (at the second attempt) and wait for the incoming train in what is turning out to be a bitterly cold evening. When we figure out our train, we realise the Orient Express it is not, it is only two carriages long and has very basic facilities.
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