So nearly there...

Poor old Sofia probably earns the title of our least favourite city. We arrived very late, just before 9pm and crawled over to our hotel, which was thankfully just across the road from the station.

To reach it, we had to go through this eerily deserted square, which felt incredibly creepy in the dark with nobody else around, other than the people from our train!

We went straight to bed, nervous about what awaited us the next morning! 

After a very slow start, we checked out of the hotel at lunchtime and made our way into the centre. A quick Google search suggested that Sofia has a surplus of churches and museums, but possibly lacks much else to look at. 

Questioning our decision to stop here, we did some more research and discovered Ancient Serdica - the remains of a Roman settlement, discovered 15 years ago during excavations for a new metro line. We pootled over to it, and started exploring. It was fun to see, but it did feel a little forgotten - they'd placed a roof over it and some lights, but other than that it was empty and had buckets artistically placed to collect the rainwater.

The freely accessible ruins in the station itself were actually more impressive!

We paused for brunch, which featured several rounds of dobble!

Afterwards, we went to PHENOMENA, the Interactive Museum of Science and Art, which was fab! Brilliant demonstrations of some interesting concepts - overall a great way to spend the afternoon.

And then, tragically, we were out of time, so headed to the station to catch our final train to Istanbul.