Sofia by night… by bike

Just came back from a bike tour around night Sofia with more than 140 participants. Quite an exciting experience. This is already the 5th Sofia Cycling Night.

There are very nice street lights around almost all the city center so you get a very different (in a good way) impression at night. Our winter guests all know that since almost the whole winter our 6PM tour finished (and at some point even started) after dark:

I didn’t stay till the end of the bike ride because I was not well prepared. Biking with more than 140 people you would expect a mess. Especially in a city where bike lanes look like that:

But I can assure you that the 5th Sofia Cycling Night was quite an organized group, following traffic rules, respecting the others.

Well, maybe making too much noise at some points but it was all for good cause. A symphony of horns and shouts of excited people. Add to that the sound of the so-called “magic tiles” and any composer would be jealous of the results.

I spent a year in the Netherlands so when I came back I definitely missed biking. This spring I decided it’s high time to fix my bike and get back on two wheels. But it’s still not easy in Sofia.

It was very funny when policemen at the National Parliament quickly asked “Are you protesting against something?”. The answer from the organizers: “No, we are just biking. It’s just that a tiny bit more people showed up.”

Indeed, there’s a lot to protest and improve in our country when it comes to bikes:

• raise awareness about bike usage and bike safety
• make the car drivers more careful both when driving and parking
• more bike lanes (like the ones in Netherlands, not like the ones we have now)
• better sidewalks for pedestrians (and better roads for that matter)
• the possibility to go with bike into subway (under conditions, of course)

If you want to experience night Sofia by bike, Sofia Cycling Night(click here) is organized every Thursday at 21:00 from Ariana lake at the entrance of Borisova Garden. There’s a possibility to rent a bike beforehand.

Another possibility to join a group biking event is the Sunday Morning Biking. It starts every Sunday 10:00 at the same spot and go around the big park in Sofia (here’s the route and more information).