Day 8 – The Long Mission to London

I am writing this post from Sofia Airport accompanied by the most depressing ‘bing-bong’ in the world. The airport announcement system plays out a rather sombre church bell effect which you expect to be followed by “Bring out your dead!” rather than flight information. We have a 30 minute delay which means it will be 8 hours from leaving the apartment this morning at 7am to take-off at 3pm.

The day started predictably with the standard over-charging by the taxi driver. We paid 10 Lev to get to the bus station when it should have been only 5. At the bus station we were approached by a random man trying to get us to take his private vehicle to the airport but we managed to shake him off. There are no English signs at the station but we were able to figure out that we needed to buy a ticket inside then hopped on the 7:20am bus which arrived on-time. The cost is 14 Lev to Sofia Central Station. Now I am using the word ‘bus’, but it would be more accurate to call it a coach. We’re not talking about an operation along the lines of National Express here. It’s more like Betty and Albert who have hired an old coach and decided to lay on a daily service to the City to put food on the table. Albert is the driver and Betty collects your ticket as you get on. Neither speak English.

The coach was very busy when we got on but it emptied out after an hour or so when it stopped for a short break. We didn’t have a clue what was going on because the announcement was in Bulgarian. I took the opportunity to take a toilet break. Inside the station is a shabby little public convenience with a plate outside asking for 0.30 Lev. Inside it was grotty and there was no toilet paper. I decided not to bother leaving any money and an angry man shouted something at me as I walked out. I ignored him.

A couple of hours later we arrived at the ‘shiny new’ Sofia Central Bus Station after a slow journey through the run down slums lining the city. I’m pleased to note that Bulgaria does not shut down at the hint of snow fall like the UK. In fact they have old women out shovelling snow from the roads as you approach the City Centre!

At the bus station there are no English signs and both of the cash machines were out of order. I approached the Information Desk to figure out how to get to the airport. If there was a suggestion box I would have written “rename the Information Desk to Rude Desk”. I was greeted by possibly the most rude woman in Bulgaria. She was thoroughly unimpressed that I had interrupted her phone conversation to ask for directions to the airport. She handed me a printed bit of paper that said “Hotel Pliska” followed by a load of bus numbers.

After pondering the information for a few moments I went back to the desk to ask where to go for these busses. She grunted “train station” and ushered me away. I managed to deduce that we needed to catch a bus from outside the train station to the Hotel Pliska and then change for the 84 or 284 to the Airport.

Thankfully a man in the street was able to understand us and told us which bus stop to use. The bus signs are all in Bulgarian so it is impossible to navigate without assistance.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the City bus service must be free for non-Bulgarian speakers. I say this because try though we did, we could not manage to buy a ticket. A kind lady told us we could buy a ticket on the bus from the driver. When we tried to do so he looked at me like he wanted to punch me and grunted. We ended up not paying for either of the busses because nobody asked for our tickets or offered to sell them to us.

The biggest challenge of the day was looking for the Hotel Pliska so we would know when to get off. After some time we decided we had gone too far and would get off. Mario braved the ‘don’t talk to me’ face of the passengers and showed one of them our bit of paper. By a stoke of luck we were at the said hotel. If we hadn’t asked then we would never have known because although the hotel might be called Pliska it doesn’t say this anywhere on the building in characters that an English speaker would understand. When we got off we were in the middle of nowhere trying to understand the signs as you can see in the photo.

At the Airport don’t expect paradise. Even the new terminal is rather small and lacking in facilities. A can of Fanta costs 5 Lev at the Cafe in the check-in area. That’s £2.50! Earlier in the day we bought a big bottle from a bus station in the middle of nowhere for 1 Lev.

If you are travelling to / from and using Sofia Airport then I’m afraid I can’t recommend the bus route. If I ever had to come back here then I would definitely pre-book a private transfer direct from the airport to the accommodation and back.

Tomorrow I will post a round up of my tips for any Brits travelling to Bulgaria for a skiing holiday.