Cities
Route Istanbul to Sofia by night train
Time 3 days
Season October
Notebook no. 19
Sofia was my first night-train arrival and I keep going back to check it is still as good. It is. The centre is walkable in a morning: the yellow brick boulevard, the cathedral with its gold domes, the Roman ruins under the metro station, the mineral baths where people fill bottles from the taps outside.
The art market by the cathedral is where I buy the postcards I never send. Vitosha mountain sits at the end of the main street like a promise, and on the third day I took the tram to the bottom of it and walked up for an hour, which is enough.
