Thread by @fuenareva

After an amazing week in Bulgaria 🇧🇬 with @JoanMerinals, when I was too busy to tweet, it's time now for a travel thread 🚞🧵 of our trip

Sofia - Varna - Veliko Tarnovo - Sofia - Rodopi Railway - Blagoevgrad - Sofia

Spoiler: there will be plenty of trains, trams and epic views

Here's the short thread of the first day with some cool tram pics and my attempt to ease communication with BDŽ ticket sellers.

The rest of the trip continues on this thread.

Day 1️⃣ София - Sofia

Started the day walking to the centre through the "Women's Market".

The old baths is one of the mains sights, now a historical museum.

A reminder of the "thermal" past are the fountains of hot spring water, where people go to fill their bottles.

☪️ Banya Bashi Mosque is just next door to the old baths, right in the centre of the city.

Reminded me to the cute little mosques of Bosnia. Very colourful inside.

Built in 1566, it's the only remaining mosque of Sofia.

Independence sq. or "Largo" was the centre of power of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, with the main building hosting the HQ of the communist party. Still today, hosts several ministerial offices.

It's a fine example of Socialist Classicism architecture (or Stalinist style).

Mix of architectural styles in the centre of Sofia.

Last pic is the cute little "Russian Church" that was built after the liberation of Bulgaria, where a mosque used to stand. It was and is used by the Russian community of Sofia.

☦️ Alexander Nevski Cathedral, it's the largest *finished* orthodox church of the Balkans (looking at you Beograd and București 😒).

The inside is really impressive, but it was just too dark to make any good pics.

We continue the walk around the centre of Sofia.

Here a ministry that still maintains the esthetics of "previous times", with the combo of brutalist building + a full façade mural.

The Monument to the Soviet Army. It was built in 1954, and as everywhere in the former Eastern bloc, there are endless debates on what to do with it.

It's currently a popular place for young people, skaters, etc to meet.

Some more brutalist bits of Sofia.

Sofia theatre and a mural sculpture in one of many underpasses of the city.

Национален Дворец на Културата
National Palace of Culture

A brutalist block built in the early 80s.

🚋 Trams of Sofia

🚇 Metro in Sofia.

From the super new Metro Line 3, opened in 2020… to one of the still-unrefurbished old units in Line 1, with their iconic soviet look.

Although compared to other metros in Eastern Europe, Sofia Metro is pretty new, opened only in 1998.

And after dinner at a local restaurant, time to get ready for our #NightTrain 🚃🛌🌛

We're traveling to Varna on Б (fast) 3637 train. Two trains depart for Varna every night, but ours, with a slightly longer route via Karlovo, gives us 20 minutes more of sleep 😁

Just some minutes before departure of Б 3637 #NightTrain Sofia-Varna, made up of 4 seated & 2 sleeper cars

I always feel like there's a special ambience before the departure of a night train. As if it was a bit more of and adventure than a day train. Old-school, yet comfortable

Compulsory pre-departure pic 😄

The sleeping cars are very comfortable. They're fairly new, made in Turkey in 2012.

Compared to other sleeper trains, the compartments felt slightly larger.

A ticket in a solo compartment (бизнес класа) for the Sofia - Varna trip costs slightly under 25 €.

Лека нощ from the #NightTrain 🚃🛌🌛

Day 2️⃣ Варна - Varna

At 7:00, spot on time, we arrive at Varna station.

It's raining way too much to go out, so for the moment is time for warm freshly made баница and coffee from a machine, as we admire the railway scene.

The girl at the bakery of the station spoke really good Spanish, which surprised us a lot, although she seemed even more surprised than us, of finding two young foreign tourists at 7:10 of a Sunday in the Varna train station.

She literally asked "what are you doing here?" 😂

On another sidenote, @JoanMerinals and I agreed that the national icon of Bulgaria should be the street coffee machine. Expect a little mini thread (when I finish this one) with coffee machines in random locations.

After dealing with the local bus website in Bulgarian, we arrived to the first sight we wanted to visit in Varna.

The very impressive "Monument of the Bulgarian - Soviet Friendship" 🚩🇧🇬, built in the late 70s.

The monument is located on top of a hill, and is reached after climbing 305 steps.

The "friendship monument" shows rather well the power dynamics of the era when it was built. Fierce looking male soviet soldiers, meeting Bulgarian women.

I'd represent "friendship" differently.

It's nevertheless an impressive monument.

And from the top of the hill you get some beautiful views of the city and the Black Sea.

◾ Черно Море, Варна, България
🌊 Black Sea, Varna, Bulgaria

🌊⛱️☕ Кафе Латте by the Black Sea

🍂 Autumn in Varna

Old style, new brand.

A very 80s socialist looking shop in central Varna.

After a walk around town, the seaside, and lunch, it was time to get back to the station to continue our trip.

We had a bit of #Bahnzeit at Централна ЖП Гара Варна as we waited for our train bound to Sofia.

Ready to depart on train Б 2614 Varna - Sofia. We will be traveling up to Gorna Oryahovitsa where will connect to another train to Veliko Tarnovo.

The train is a beautiful old-school loco hauled composition, with 1 first class and 4 second class cars. All #FensterAuf obviously.

🎥🚞 Departure of train Б 2614 from Централна ЖП Гара Варна.

📸 Railway shots as we passed by Varna depot. Once again, old, old but refurbished, and new.

🌬️ #FensterAuf 🇧🇬🚞

📸 #PicsFromTrain

Somewhere across the plains and hills of Northern Bulgaria

The scene repeats itself station after station.

Arrival with the station master outside.

He/she goes inside to communicate the arrival of our train.

Comes out once again, and with the green stick, signals the departure of our train.

#BeerOnTrains 🍻 & #FensterAuf 🌬️

Happiness.

Arrival at Горна Оряховица after 3½ hours.

Gorna Oryahovitsa is the main railway junction station of Northern Bulgaria.

🎥🚞 Departure of Б 2614 from Горна Оряховица towards София.

Changing 🔀 trains at Gorna Oryahovitsa 🇧🇬🚉

Not exactly #FallBlattLiebe, but still, almost the same wonderfully retro sound at the направление (departures) board of Gorna Oryahovitsa station.

#Retro

Ready to depart on МБВ 465 Горна Оряховица - Димитровград.

From early June to early October, this "international train" will get an extra car attached at the end, a TCDD 🇹🇷 sleeper car making the București Nord - Istanbul route.

For us it was just a domestic Международен train.

🎥🚞 Best seat view en route between Gorna Oryahovitsa and Veliko Tarnovo.

A little spoiler of the beautiful Veliko Tarnovo from the train window.

Arrival into Veliko Tarnovo, right in the #GoldenHour.

Departure of МБВ 465 from Veliko Tarnovo, as it begins its climb up the Balkan Mountains towards Dimitrovgrad.

The train is pulled by a rather old, yet very sturdy, series 44 loco, built by Škoda in 1979.

#Bahnzeit in Велико Търново 🚉🇧🇬

Thread continues here ⬇️