TurboBobi

I am from Sofia and a colleague of mine recommended that I take our guest from Russia to the free tour.
The group for the tour turned out to be a total of 40 people from different nationalities – Belgian, German, English, Indian, Russian, etc. Our tour guide was Kristina.

The route took us through most of the inner city center stressing on the ancient and recent history of the places that we saw left and right.
The tour is outdoors only – the guide states this explicitly. It’s cool that she told us which of the places that we saw can be visited as museums.

What to bring to the tour: definitely a camera. A lot of architectural wonders to behold and from different angels too!
Check out the weather forecast before taking the tour – it’s 2 hours long so you don’t want to freeze or be sweaty by the time it’s over.

Best parts: very good route; knowledgeable, professional, positive guide who handled with care a group of 40(!) people on a late and chilly autumn afternoon. Very good sense of pace and positioning for the lectures.
Worst part: during two of the stops for a lecture, there was some or a lot of background noise so we couldn’t hear Kristina very well.

I do have some recommendations for places that can be included in the tour:
– the Bulgarian Parlament – it’s near the destination of the tour so it can at least be mentioned if someone wants to see it. It’s a beautiful building and the Tzar Osvoboditel square is also very nice.
– the National Library – it’s also near Alexander Nevski so it can at least be mentioned as a subsequent visit.
– the National Theater Ivan Vazov – it’s a very beatiful building with an awesome facade and a nice fountain and part in front of it.
– the Halls of Commerse (Halite) – it’s a shopping hall within a well renovated building.

22.10.2015