Tag: journey

Bulgaria Travel Hack #1

Are you planning a trip from Sofia to Varna or vice versa?

Your options are to travel with your own car (if you have one), a shared ride (might not be the safest), a bus (that feels like an infinity), or by train.

Contrary to popular belief amongst most Bulgarians, a train ride might be the most enjoyable, relaxing and least stressful.

Here is the time to make a disclaimer. I would recommend the train ride only if you chose the “fast” overnight train in a sleeping compartment. Otherwise, some if these rides take a bit too much time to enjoy being confined to a seat.

The sleeping wagons are probably the newest in the Bulgarian railway and very nicely maintained. It is the closest you could get to a Western European experience in a Bulgarian train.

In the current situation with COVID-19, having the compartment only for myself was quite comforting and allowed me to fully relax and sleep like a baby through the whole ride from Sofia to Varna.

There are a few options to chose from. You could either share the compartment with one or two people, or pay the extra few leva (BGN) for the so-called business class which in essence is the same compartment only at your disposal.

There is a sink and a luggage hanger in each comparment. But beware there is no storage available for big pieces of luggage.

Sleeping compartment in the fast train between Sofia and Varna

Bathrooms are shared, but quite neat and frequently cleaned.

A nice surprise was this initiative to promote reading(unfortunately only publications in Bulgarian available at the time).

Books available online for anyone interested

Note: If you are traveling during the touristic season on the Bulgarian Blacksea coast, make sure to book in advance through the website of the Bulgarian railway.

Status• Posted on by Irina Ilieva
Posted in Australian Adventures

Bushfire, fireworks and other Sydney impressions

Posted on by Irina Ilieva

We landed in Sydney 3 days prior to NYE and a month after the bushfire season had started. Just our luck the fires around were still manageable. However, you couldn’t really see the sky in Sydney and it felt kind of stifling already. The week before had seen one of the highest temperature records in this part of Australia, so we were prepared for scorching heat. Well, all the news covarage in Europe was not that right after all, cause we spent 3 quite chilly days in town. On the 30th we strolled around Circular Quay and saw some of the projections and fireworks tests for the NYE celebrations.

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Waiting for tonight #sydney #nye #newyearseve #waitingforthenewyear

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We had decided though that paying an expensive package for a drink with a view, or otherwise competing with 1.4 mln tourists for a good spot are things we could spare despite the experience. We also had initially planned longer time around Sydney to explore the Blue Mountains and some of the Coastline nearby, but due to the bushfires it was getting increasingly smoky and dangerous.
So we opted in for a flight to Melbourne where we decided to welcome 2020
instead.
Anyway, in the short time we spent there, we did manage to see and experience some cool things. Check them out in my next post – – > 3 days in Sydney in non-beach weather.

Posted in Australian Adventures

The Journey Begins

Posted on by Irina Ilieva

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Chinese Proverb

For years I have been intending to start a travel blog. I always found excuses not to: too little time, too much work/studies/too much effort, workpublicity limitations, etc…

So why do it now? 2019 was a remarkable year and ended in an even more remarkable way fulfilling my childhood dream to travel to Australia.

I also breached my personal travel record within a year, caught up with awesome people I had lost touch with, met some new inspiringly successful, bald and charmingly nutty ones, visited and experienced places that made me think twice about what is important in life, burned out at least once, while getting too much into my work and personal projects, made new starts, also put a few long-delayed ends…and all this in the year I turned 30.

And I guess the travel blog made it to my New Years Resolution for 2020, which I should probably write down so I keep it at least this year 🙂

Hope you will enjoy some of the info, tips and travel stories of a moderate traveller mixing in urban, cultural, wildlife, nature hikes and scenic spots explorations.

Thanks for joining me!