Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Sofia: What to Eat, Drink, and Do in Bulgaria’s Capital City

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

Today I am back with THE History Fangirl, Stephanie Craig, a travel writer and an American expat/nomad based in Sofia.In the last episode, we talked a lot about cultural Bulgaria and its history.Today is a deep dive travel guide on everything you need to eat, drink, and do when traveling to Sofia, as well as day trips you can take.You’ll discover:* The best view in Sofia* Where to hang out at night* The best walking tour to go on* The best cafe to get work done* The beaches you should visit* And more.You’ll also get a real flavor of what it’s like to live in Bulgaria, and learn about:* How the pandemic is affecting Stephanie and her expat family; * What it’s like to give birth in a country that’s not your own and how much it costs;* Bulgarian bureaucracy; * And a culture tip that you need to know to avoid awkward situations with the locals.You will definitely hear a baby in this episode and one f-bomb that I had to leave in because it was just too funny.Enjoy the episodeThe cheerful musical interlude in this episode is called Calimba by artist E’s Jammy Jams.*************I'm your host, Sarah Mikutel. Thank you for spending some time with me today. Have you ever thought of starting a podcast yourself? Find out how I can help you.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Today I am back with the history fan girl Stephanie Craig, a travel writer and an American expat nomad based in Sofia, Bulgaria. In the last episode, we talked a lot about the cultural side of Bulgaria and all of its rich history. And today is a deep dive on everything you need to eat, drink, and do when traveling to Sophia, as well as day trips that you can take. You are going to discover the best view in Sophia, where you should be hanging out at night, the very best walking tour to go on, the best cafe to get some work done, the best beaches to visit, and more. And you're also going to get a real flavor of what it's like to live in Bulgaria, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So you'll hear about how the pandemic is affecting Stephanie and her expat family, what it's like to give birth in a country that's not your own and how much it costs. Bulgarian bureaucracy.

And Stephanie's going to tell us about a culture tip that you must remember to avoid some really awkward situations with the locals. It's a real head scratcher. And you are definitely going to hear a baby in this episode. And one F-bom that I had to leave in because it was just too funny. But there's your warning. There is one expletive in this episode. All right.

Enjoy the show. Welcome to the Postcard Academy, a show about travel, living abroad, and location independence for people seeking a more meaningful freedom-fueled life. I'm your host, Sarah Micahettel, an American who first moved abroad on our own at age 18, and who has been permanently enjoying life in Europe since 2010. I am so glad you're here. My guests and I will share with you how we made our travel, living abroad, and location independent dreams come true, and how you can too, because you will never have this day again.

make it matter. So what are some hidden gems that we could go to, especially if we wanted to, like, I guess, experience modern Sophia. It's not a hidden gem, but if you want to see what modern Sophia is like, you've got to go to Vitocha Boulevard, for sure. Some of my favorite hidden gems

are some of the socialist monuments that are a little bit further out. There's a place called the Bells monument, which people know about, but it's less visited just because it's location. And then it's funny, Boyana Church isn't a hidden gym, but so many times people who come here to tour Sophia don't know about it. I think it's kind of, Sophia is one of those places people tend to just show up.

I mean, I just showed up. I do a lot of prep work. The nice thing is the way the town, the city is laid out, you really can see 90% of the most important sites on a three-hour walking tour and two or three days, well, I don't think it's enough, is good for an overview. A really great place that everyone should go is since rooftop bar. So since hotel is a really nice hotel, but they opened up this rooftop bar that has the best view of Alexander Nefsky Cathedral from above in the city. And even if you don't stay at the hotel, the rooftop bar, you can just go get a drink. And they open the windows in the summer, but it's a glass-en-cased rooftop bar, so it's open year-round. It's actually one of my favorite

places to go for at Christmas time. Oh, that sounds beautiful. So even though it's not like a secret, I don't think enough people understand that. that like this is the best Instagram spot in the city and you can just go. Like you don't need to be staying there. Great tip. You mentioned Christmas. So I think Sophie's got some Christmas markets going on. Are they worth visiting Sophia for in December? I like the Sophia Christmas market. It's actually called the Sophia and German Christmas market. I love it. It's very, but I like it more as a I happen to live here and I like going to a Christmas market. I wouldn't, if you're doing like a Christmas Market bucket list tour of Europe, I would not put it on your list. But if you happen to be here,

when it's open, you should definitely go. When do you think it's the best time to visit Sophia? I think September, if you're going to the Black Sea August or first week of September, if you want to do like road trips and see the city and stuff, I think it's the weather in September in October are great. And the foliage in October is really beautiful if you drive out to like But Boulosia, it's, you know, it's as good as driving in New England, I feel like. Yeah, let's talk about some trips outside of Sophia. So what are your favorite places, I guess, for the Black Sea, but then also if we want to, like, see something historical. So if you want to see something historical, I would go to Boulouja, which looks like a communist UFO.

It was created as the party headquarters in the 1980s for the Sophia Socialist Party. but it wasn't in use long enough for them to really know what to do with it when socials and bell. So it's kind of abandoned. There are a bunch of projects in the works to get it to be restored. So now if you go up there, you can't go inside because so many people have broken in over the years, they finally got a guard there. But hopefully, you know, in 10 years it would be great if it was more restored to what it originally looked like. But it is just incredible.

And you can, it's about a four hour drive from Sophia, but it's completely worth it. If you're going to the Black Sea, a lot of people go to Sunny Beach. Some people knock Sunny Beach is like too commercial. But I really like it. I really enjoy the kitchy beach atmosphere of it. There's just something really fun about being like in a kitchy beach town with nighttime boardwalk stuff. And I really like it.

But if you're coming to Bulgaria and you want to see something that's more Bulgarian, the sunny beach is very touristy. There are other towns like Sina Moritz and there's tons of beach towns all up and down the coast. When you are in a Bulgarian Beechtown, though, the nice thing is you can rent a chair. I think for 3011, you get two chairs in an umbrella. So about $18 for the day, it's definitely not cheap. And it might be cheaper in like Pormorier, where more of the actual tourists happen to be Bulgarians than in Sunny Beach where most of the tourists are Russians and English. But I like Sunny Beach.

It's just fun. There's something fun about being in a town. It's very like Jersey shore of the Bulgarians. But because I live here, it's fun to see that. Whereas if you're coming for a Bulgarian beach town and you were coming from somewhere else, you might want something, you know, more like from Moria. Other day trips that you might want to take. Blavdiv is a really popular day trip.

You can take the bus or you can go for a couple days. Velikotarnovo is also great. Velcarinovo is the medieval capital of the Bulgarian kingdom. There's some really cool medieval architecture there. It's also just really beautiful. It was built over some hills that means that there are some really cool vantage points there. There's lots of monasteries out there to go to. Not a lot to do at night there, so it does make a good day trip.

My fiance likes being there during the day, but he's like, this town is dead at night. If you only have a day, you're not missing out on like a nice party at night. If you're going to be looking for, there's lots of hiking. There's Central Balkans National Park. Troyan Monastery is another monastery. That's a good day trip. Rila Monastery, it's the most important religious place in Bulgaria, and it's just beautiful.

It's a Neo-B Byzantine church in the middle dating from the 19th century, but some of the monastery has actually been there since the 10th century, and some of the buildings that are there, I think, dates still back to the, maybe the 1300s. There's been a series of fires, so nothing, like there's not everything. is original, but you can see a lot of different time periods there, too. And it's just gorgeous. What is transportation like in Bulgaria? Do we need to have a car or can we get to these places some other way? If you're going from Sophia to Plavdiv, Reveloch, Chernobyl, there are lots of buses, but they don't run all day.

So you do need to get your bus tickets ahead of time because we'll sometimes show up and think it's going to be easy. And then we'll find out that, you know, we can't get a ticket until the one o'clock bus. And who wants to leave? for a day trip at 1 o'clock or that you know they only go at certain times so if you go to plavdiv the last bus back i think is at seven but there are trains too but buses are better than trains in terms of just like reliability trains can be really slow i took the train to sunny beach last summer and it was really slow how do we buy the bus ticket is there a place online yeah i would just we have we have guides on on our website on how to get to most of the places.

And with links to, I usually buy them through like a clearing house that looks at lots of different companies. Because there's like four or five companies. So you want to find the one that fits the best time because there's not a big price difference. And also if you buy them online, you can buy them with a credit card. Whereas if you show up, you can't. I don't believe most of them take credit card in the actual booth.

Yeah. I'm glad he sounds so happy. Yeah. I want to go put him in his crib and let me just put him in his crib and see if it sticks. It probably won't. If it does, that'd be great. Okay. This episode is sponsored by me, or rather by my online course, podcast launch academy.

You are a podcast lover, and thank you so much for being here. But I was wondering, have you ever thought about creating a podcast yourself? Well, visit sarahigatel.com to learn how we can work together and to take the podcast personality quiz. My favorite way to get around is turn a car. It's not always feasible. But cardals are not. expensive and the roads here tend to be pretty good. You've just got to make sure that your driver's license works here.

What does that mean? Most places don't require an international driver's license to rent a car, but I was turned away by like one person for not having it. So I would just double-check with your rental car that they'd take your driver's license. Okay. Good tip. Should I keep going? Like I walked into her bedroom and I'm not even kidding. There was a fucking pigeon in our bedroom.

Like it's just the worst. There was a pigeon in your mom. room? Yeah, because we live on the eighth floor and all the doors are open so that like the apartment can get air and a pigeon was flying around the room had flown in. I just, all right, let me go get him. One's like, all right. All right. We'll see. All right. It's not even possible for me to be like, I can reschedule for X day because the way his like the restaurant right now because of the pandemic, he never knows if he's even going to get shifts or not. So I never know if he's working until like that morning. I don't think we finish this, but is he Bulgarians?

No, he's from Zimbabwe. Oh, okay. Because you mentioned South Africa, and then I was like, I'm not sure if we closed that loop. Okay, I'm going to switch gears and talk about food. So, all right, what foods do we need to try in Sofia? You definitely want to try a Shapska salad. It's like the Bulgarian national salad, and it is the same colors as the Bulgarian national flag. So it's red, white, and green.

The green is cucumber. The red is tomatoes. Bulgarian tomatoes are fantastic. And then the white is a Serenia cheese, which is like a Bulgarian version of feta. My other favorite dishes are Mishmash, which is like a fun breakfast, garbage kind of scrimbled egg dish.

And everybody's got to try Rakeo, which is Bulgaria's fruit brandy. It's so beloved by Bulgarians that not even kidding, my fiance, went to the doctor to get his knee looked at. and the doctor told them to put Rakea on his knee. So not drink it, put it on his knee. We should also be drinking it too, obviously. That's the most important liquid in the world.

But if you want extra help, this was from a doctor to put it on his knee. I do love Rakhia myself. That's popular in all of the Balkans region. Yeah. The main difference between like Bulgarian Rakhia and what you find in like Serbia, it's really just how it's spelled because it gets translated wrong different. different. So it's R. A.k.I.A. here. R.K.I.J.A. in Serbia and Croatia. It's the same thing, but it can be made. So it's typically made out of plums or apples, but it can be made out of almost any fruit.

And there's like a wine region as well in Bulgaria, isn't there? There's actually a few. Last summer, I went to the Balkans International Wine Festival, and I'm going back this year at some September as press, and I can't wait. Last year, I got. Last try I found I was pregnant five days before I was supposed to cover a wine. I was supposed to get to try all the great Balkan wines, but I didn't end up getting to. The Balkans are great actually for wine. There's wine in every country here and like good wine. Bulgaria is particularly known for its rosé.

But there's a lot of wineries outside of Plavdiv. So if you stay in Plavdiv for a few days, you can take a wine tour. And then there are also a lot of wineries on the Balkan Blas. sea coast. Yeah, we only touched on Plotiv. Could we talk a little bit more about that? Because I've heard, I don't know if there's like a rivalry between Sophia and that area, but like people talk about one or the other. If I go to Bulgaria, I kind of want to go to both. So tell me a little bit more about Plavdiv. So Plaviv is like a fun arts town, but it's, it's a city, but it's like the core of it that you'd want to see is more of like, has just more of a town feel. But it's

colorful. There's lots of old architecture. There's some pedestrian areas that are really cool. It's built on seven hills. So there's lots of really cool advantage points. You can walk up to the top and see Alyosha, the Russian monument, which was a monument that the Soviets put in, or I guess forced them to put in here. That is a World War II Russian soldier that people feel a lot of ways about watching over their city. There's lots of fun street art. It has a really good craft beer seen. It was the capital of culture in 2019, one of the European capitals of culture. So all the buildings just got facelifts and fresh coats of paint. So it's really pretty right now, like especially. So you mentioned some foods, the wine region. So I would love to go, I think,

stay in Plavdiv and then do some of the wine touring. Are there any particular vineyards that you would recommend or tour groups? There's not a ton of wine tour groups. I think we recommend one because it's the one that is easy to book through Get Your Guide. And if that particular one doesn't work for you, I would go in request, like I would maybe ask for accommodations if they know somebody else. Like wine tourism, wine is not new to Bulgaria, but wine tourism is a newer phenomenon. So not as many places. But that's not uncommon for the region. Like I went on a wine tour in Belgrade and there was only one option for that too. And it also included like five other stops, but it was worth it. Before I let you go, I would love to do a lightning round of your

favorite places in Sophia. So what's your favorite walking tour in Sophia? So the free Sophia walking tour, it's done by the 365 Association. It's just the best one. Like a lot of walking tours in Europe are done by companies and they don't pay their staff and they really want to get, you know, and then you get a hard sell at the end about how you really should tip them 15 euro because they don't really get paid. And while I understand the economics of that, this is NGO that was started specifically to show off their love of Sophia and help. And it's in English three times a day during the high season. And I think twice a day, other than that, it's called 365 because it operates every day,

even like Christmas Day. It hasn't been operating during the pandemic and it almost was shocking. And now they're back up, but they have like regulations for, like health regulations for what to do now, like a maximum number and stuff. They also offer like communist tours and cultural tours and stuff. So I would suggest go to the 365 free tour. And then if you like it, get it organizing one of their communist tours that are through them. There's other people that do good communist stores too.

But there's also a good street art tour here that is free. I'm not sure if they've started back up again. But there that is really good too. And they used to charge for it. And then one day they made it free, that was cool. I didn't personally love that as a business owner and that I would get anything anymore for referring them because that's how we make a living is telling people what, you know, what tours are for. But it's cool for all the people that go that it's a free tour

too now. How about bakery? Baker Brothers is near my office and they have the best scones in the city. They have the best bagels in the city. That's really kind of like they feel mining as a bakery because they focus on things that I miss living here, you know, like, I want to get bagels. So if you're a digital nomad, you should show up there. But if you're just a tourist, any Benizzeria for Benica, which is another, is a dish I forgot to mention. It's like a phylo Joe and serenia cheese dish that can have like meat in it, but mostly it's just usually plain and people eat it here for breakfast. And every Benizzeria is delicious. They know which ones they like, but you as an outsider won't be able to tell what's good and what's not as good.

Okay. So is Sophia an international city, would you say? Or is it very Bulgarian? So for Bulgaria, it's very international. And there's like an international texting here because there's a lot of startups here. Like if you've heard of the company site ground, it's like a web post, they're headquartered here. A lot of customer service jobs are here. So like my friend married a Brazilian who's here working for IBM in the Portuguese department. You know, so there's a lot of things like that going on. But if you're just in a lot of English, like if you go into a restaurant, you can almost always expect somebody speaks English and even English menus are really common. I don't speak Bulgarian. I read Cyrillic and I read Surilic before I got here, but I never learned Bulgarian. And I can do 90% of what I need to do.

Now if you need to bank or sign a contract or get a visa, good luck. Those services will tell you they don't speak English, but even when they do because they don't understand why you'd be there. But as far as just like living day-to-day life, it's really easy here. And there's lots of international people here. What's your favorite coffee shop? So I used to never tell people this because before we got an office, I didn't want people to go because it was already too crowded. It's actually called from Barista. And it's on Bachelu Kiro and it's fantastic.

But this is the first. You can't even find those words on our website about telling people how to travel here because I do. I did not need another person showing up at the coffee shop making it impossible for me to get my work done. But we got an office in November, so we no longer work from there. So it's a good place to go and try to do some work if you don't have an office then. Yeah. Yeah, but show up early because it all, I mean, I don't, who knows after all this stuff happens, if things will be different, but before it was hard to get a seat after like 11 a.m.

What's your favorite restaurant? 33 gastronauts, but my fiazzi found out how to make their signature dish because somebody who works in one of his restaurants, he used to work there. So now he makes it for me at home. Which is great because when we leave, I'm going to be like, I need my 32 gas not sausage, please.

But then if you want more of like an authentic, so that's like a, that place is just fantastic. But if you're looking for more of like an updated take on Bulgarian food, Ricketta is also really great and has like a fun kitsy socialist theme too. And they specialize

in their own Rockias. They have a spicy Iraqi that's really good and their food is all updated Bulgarian traditional Bulgarian cuisine. What's the food hall scene like or like food markets? There's not really one. So they're thinking about getting a food market here. Like there's some there's a food market that I go to because it has tacos and that's really rare here. But it's really like a food market for people that work in a particular building and is not really for other people. Okay. Markets, there's lots of markets, but they tend to be open-air markets to sell like fruits and vegetables and things and not the kind of things that you would sit then and eat there.

But Jinsky Bazaar is the oldest market in the city. Jensky Pizarre means women's market. And that is a fun place. You should go and just walk around, but don't expect to like eat lunch there. Would we find like designer things there like from local designers? No, no, no. No.

It's more like people who bring in their fruits to sell for the day. I see. Well, is there something like where we could buy from local artists at shopping area? So there are some cool art galleries by the opera house that I personally like to shop at. But local art is kind of hard to find here. But I would say if you go to the opera house, the streets around it are the best places. And there's some icon painting shops and stuff too. So I know that you've got a little baby right now. Yeah, I've been. You didn't want to be quiet.

You just even thumb as loudly as possible. But in your freedom days, when you could go out whenever you wanted to, where did you like to hang out at night? So, Betocia is a really fun place to go at night. There's lots of bars. Bulgaria is a really big club scene. The clubs are open to like 5 a.m. The clubs that I used to are to probably aren't the ones the typical tourists when I go to because

they were more of like the African expat club scene. But, and I don't know if somebody coming to. in would want probably just something more of this like typical Bulgarian. I would say like club sugar and Gotham are fun, but, you know, I would if I were you and he were coming and you really wanted to have like a really wild club night, I would get into the Sophia foreigners group. It's called Foreigners and Friends. Sophia foreigners and friends are foreigners and friends and Sophia.

It's a great Facebook group. I would ask because people will tell you straight up like what is cool that night. Don't come here for New Year's Eve. every place a New Year's Eve will have a cover of like $60 New Year is the worst holiday to be here ever. As someone who's spent three New Year's Eve's here, I seriously would rather shoot myself than be here for another one. I think New Year's everywhere is pretty overrated when it comes to going up. It's just like crazy here. Like I do have a secret place you can go for dinner on New Year's Eve without paying a cover.

And I know because I called 30 restaurants one year that it's the only one, but I will, I will take that information to the grave. Okay. I won't pry it out of you. What if I wanted like a chill, like, I don't know, going to a cool local bar? 5L is a speakeasy that was built in an old collect shop, which collect shops are shops that were people who operated businesses out of basements because it was cheaper after the fall of, after the fall of communism here. It was cheaper to rent a basement. And so people would rent basements and do like a corner store, drugstore type situation.

but out of basement so you lean down and tell them what you need. So the speak-easy is built in a former collect shop. I personally love the collect shops and I wish they would just stay. But if they're going to get turned into something else, the speakeasy is pretty great. And like if you just walk up and down the to show, you'll find spots to chill. Rafi there is popular.

Can I go back to the Kleck shop for a second? That sounds fascinating. So are they still there or no? And there are some that are still here, but not all of them are still here. And was it just for tax purposes? Like if they were operating out of a basement, they weren't going to, why were they in the basements exactly? It was cheaper.

So people didn't have a lot of capital to start businesses, you know, coming out of the socialist regime. So it was a lot cheaper to rent a basement and then take an order and go get the cigarettes or the milk or the soda and bring it to the window than to have a store that displays where people can walk around. It's like a, almost like a drive. through except they're in a basement. So they're at your feet level and you lean down to talk to them. Yeah. Okay. So interesting. Okay. Where do you go when you're in the mood for some culture? I actually really like the Bulgarian opera. I wouldn't go there a lot just because like opera is a lot. But I think once a year going to the opera anywhere, it's kind of nice. And the Bulgarian opera, it's really inexpensive. We went and saw Carmen last year, which was great. Opera is also great too

because most of the theater here is not in English. Oh, that is cool. How about museum? What's your favorite museum? My favorite museum here is the National Gallery 500, which is touted as like the international museum. It's right behind Alexander Neski, but actually there's tons of Bulgarian artists in it, like just tons. So yes, it has an Africa wing and an Asia wing, but the 19th and 20th century Bulgarian artworks are just amazing. And I've been there probably four times and I would easily go back. If you're more into history, the History Museum is, it's out in Boyana by Boyana Church and is in the former President, like Communist Presidential Palace. So the building itself is just a work of art because it's this crazy brutalist palace with giant chandeliers inside.

Is that the National Historical Museum? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and it has artifacts from, you know, all the way back to ancient race and the Neolithic period. Through today. it's a little bit hard because it doesn't have great explanations in English. So I like to take in the objects, but you're not going to walk away with a great understanding of what each individual object is. But if you do, if you see the whole museum, you're going to walk away with, you know, maybe more emotional understanding of Bulgaria's past, even if you don't know specific dates. What culture tips should we know before we go to Bulgaria? So the one that's crazy is that if you shake your head, no, like if you, if you think, think of like an American, you shake your head, no.

That means yes. So it's flipped. And they say it has to do with like the Turks forcing people to become Muslims. I don't know if that's true or if that's just a borderline problematic story. But it's like it is true that everyone here shakes their head differently for yes. And it's bad because like for me personally, my fiance is from Zimbabwe, you know, like, and he's lived in South Africa. and he has an accent that sounds kind of like Trevor Noah's accent in terms of like he sounds like a person who grew up speaking English in Africa. So when he shakes his head, no to mean yes,

it drives me insane, but he also still sometimes shakes his head no to mean no. So he'll shake his head and I have to interpret what he means because he's lived here for so like for long enough and worked in Bulgarian kitchens for long enough that he has adopted it, but he hasn't forgotten the other one either. So that's a problem. And then, also when I was having my baby, I had a C-section and I was having problems breathing. And the woman was, and I was like very drugged up for the C-section. I was like so out of it, but I couldn't breathe. And I was like, like, really having problems.

And she was like, are you okay? And I couldn't physically talk. And I was trying to shake my head, no, like, no, I am not okay. And she was like, is that Bulgaria no or American no? And it's like, I am too drugged up with my stomach cut open to explain to you. this like I need you like it was very traumatic so I no longer find that to be a funny cultural difference and it actually has caused me problems but if you just like out of the days it probably won't cause you any problems but it is serious it's not like one of those things that they tell

you that's not really true and it's just like it used to be no like today if you see Bulgarian shake their head no they mean yes so yes means no and no means yes I they don't really do up and down for no it's mostly just they'll shake their head and you think they're saying no to And it's usually in regards to a question where it would be rude to say no. Like, can I use your bathroom or something? Okay. And they, but they mean yes. Oh, my gosh.

What was it like having a baby in a foreign country? I was not super thrilled with Bulgarian hospital food. If you're going to have hospital food anywhere in the world, it's not super great. But like, it's weird to be in another person's, like, it's weird to be in a different culture with their hospital food. like because it's like all you want in the world is like you know you're in pain you just want to eat something that at least seems familiar and your breakfast is Bulgarian yogurt and Benica and it was actually very tasty that wasn't the problem the problem was just like not the items that I wanted and so I would have people sneak me in food in the hospital and my doctor didn't like that but I was like I'm sorry like I cannot eat chops to salad every day for the next five days and also One thing I really did not like was that my fiancé was not allowed to be in the operating room with me for a C-section, which in America they would be. And he wasn't allowed to spend the night at the hospital because all the private rooms were booked, but they didn't tell me that beforehand. I just felt like we never really knew it was going on.

And that's very Bulgaria, like between the bureaucracy and people just kind of accepting being told the way that things are when they are. like, you know, or like when we founded our company here and we had to go to seven banks to get a loan because not alone to get a bank account because none of them wanted to give a bank account to foreigners because my business partner is American. But like it's illegal to deny them. So like finally her husband threatened to like get the EU involved, which was crazy. He had a Karen moment, but like finally they let us come back in and do it. But yeah, we went to seven banks to get a bank account. So that kind of stuff drives me. insane. But the doctors here are really good. And all like, I think, you know, I had a C-section

was in the hospital five days. And I spent, I think my final bill was around $3,000. And I mean, that obviously doesn't include all of the appointments before that and all of the appointments after. But, you know, what surgery can you have in the U.S. pay out of pocket and not go bankrupt? Yeah, I was going to ask you about your fiancé being allowed in the room because I have a friend who gave birth in Bosnia, and it was the same thing where her partner wasn't allowed in the room. She actually liked that. She preferred having it to speak here in the doctor.

In retrospect, I'm fine with him not being allowed to be there, but they, like, didn't even want him to come in. And this happened. So this was in mid-January. So if I was giving birth this month in the middle of the pandemic, it would be terrifying. Oh, God. I just happened to, like, do everything right

before things got scary. So like, because like for the first two months, I was having to go back to the hospital a lot. And of course, now he's falling asleep after making noise the last hour. Now we're wrapping up. Yeah. But it was just what bothered. It wasn't the rules. It was that I, it's very hard in Bulgaria to get information about what things are going to be.

Yeah. So I asked them ahead of time if I could get a price list because their website says, you know, like, if it's, I went to a private hospital. Yeah. And my, I don't have Bulgarian insurance. and I said I need a price list for what it will cost without insurance so that I could make sure that I had that much on me the day that I need to check out of that, not on me, but like I can make sure I had it because it's like, you know, you don't want to find out that if there's an error in a hospital bill, it could be $1,000, $10,000. You know, if I'm going to go in and I need to know how much I need to have, then I need to know it. And obviously I wanted a cushion, but so I came in and then I go to check in. the day before my surgery.

And also they make me come in a day before. It's just like in America's C-sections or kind of treated like drive-through surgery. And in Bulgaria, it's five days, including showing up a day early. And that doesn't, day doesn't count as part of your five days. So I go to check in and they're like, they give me the price list. And it's different than what they had given me by like a thousand dollars. So not in the world. Like as far as health care costs could go.

But not exactly what you want to find out right before. where you have to, you know, have surgery and have a baby that like the most important things you've been told, like, can your partner be there and how much things are going to cost are all incorrect and they also have no sympathy for you that it's incorrect because of the way that the society is structured. They just, you know, you should know, you should have known that you were given bad information is a very, and so it's just at the point where I love Bulgaria, but I cannot have a permanent life here. It's just too hard. But, Everyone should come here for a trip because it's a beautiful place to visit.

It's just they don't make it easy to integrate. Yeah. So making friends are like, what are they hard to get to know? I'm actually really bad about getting to know. I have some Bulgarian friends, but mostly because my fiancé is also not Bulgarian either. Most of our extended friends are Americans and Africans who happen to be here. And I do. So the first two years.

I was here. I was traveling all the time. So when I got back, I just wanted to see him and I didn't want to worry about other things. And then my business partner and I started a business here, but she's American too. So I feel it's, I feel a little disconnected. You know, like I know a lot of people here, but I don't have like a best friend I could call if I needed translations or something. It sounds like you, I mean, you found your life partner. Yeah. It's just and he and he works in kitchens here. So he thinks it's funny. He's like, I live in Bulgaria and you live on the internet. And to a certain extent, I live in the guidebook version of Bulgaria.

And when I have to go do things that are more like in the society like banking and stuff, and I get reminded how little I've had to interact with that side of the country. And that is one of those are the things that make it hard for young Bulgarians to start businesses and it's a big reason why a lot of young Bulgarians move, not because it's not a pretty place. You know? Yeah. Yeah. What is the business that you set up with?

business partner. So we have Sophia Adventures is our Balkan tourism website, which was doing really well until all Balkan tourism was canceled. But we have about 450 articles right now. Maybe and the goal was by the end of the year to have a thousand. Right now I don't know what will happen, but articles about traveling in the Balkans and tour recommendations and itineraries to help people plan their trips. Well, I mean, people talk about travel as if it's never going to happen again sometimes or like it's a word that you can't speak. And I'm like, you know what? Travel's coming back. It's going to be the same eventually. So you've got you've got the fact that many of walking countries are not part of the Schingen zone. So you've got, you know, 12 different visa schemes to try to figure out only four of the countries here are in the Schengen. Then even Schingen zone countries have different rules about opening. My issue is mostly just. just that right now, even though tourism is open and people like us who love, I won't be traveling, but people who love traveling will probably go do some.

It's scary to purchase the plane ticket right now for a transatlanted trip where the plane ticket might get canceled. So just the safer thing right now is to kind of stay and explore where you are. So like the Scotland Tourism Board thinks Scotland is going to take one to two years to get back to pre-COVID levels and that if, that is if, a vaccine emerges. So my guess is places like Bulgaria, which are a little bit more offbeat anyway to begin with, are going to see, you know, see similar timelines. We'll see, I guess. Who knows? I feel like the people who go to Sophia, maybe they're the more adventurous

types who would go anyway. Well, part of my problem is like I want everyone to come here, but I don't want anybody in Sophia to get sick because somebody came here because I told them to come here. So I want people to come here to be the kinds of people who will follow all the instructions to make sure everybody stays safe. The nice thing is there's tons of hiking. There's a big mountain. There's got lots of national parks. Like if you want to come and do an outdoor trip during this weird time, it's a great place to come to do that as well. All right. Before I let you go, tell us about Rick Steve's over brunch. Where did this idea come from? So I love the podcast. How did this get made? It's Paul Shear, Jason Manzuchus,

in June, Diane Raphael. Okay. And they watched bad movies. And they've been doing this for like 10 years. Okay. Crazy. Like they've been doing it forever. But I started listening to it and I just got obsessed with it because they would watch

these bad movies. And I realized it was fun to listen to them talk about the movies, even the movies that I hadn't seen. So it would be fun to go do a show where we, so we watch episodes of Rick Steve's Europe, which it's great because it's a PBS show. He has every episode up for free on his. his YouTube channel. So we have easy access to the shows. And we can watch them and we kind of dissect them in detail. Like, you know, like, what did he mean? Who were the guests? And, you know,

does he do his own action shots? And like, what did he get wrong? And we dissect, it's actually at kind of a minute level. But even if you don't watch the episode of Rick Steves, it's still fun to talk about, you know, travel in Budapest or talk about travel in Denmark. So people can either go watch the show and then listen to us talk about it or they can just listen to us, chat about the episode and get kind of a taste of Denmark without having to be like, oh, I'm going to Denmark, let me download. And sometimes people find our show because they're planning a trip somewhere. And that's not really the purpose of the show at all in there. I'm going to give any tips. And it's like, we give general tips. But this is not a show where we're going to tell you

what your Budapest it's itinerary should be. We're judging whether Rick Steves, Toplis in a bath in Budapest was a good idea or not. And it was always a good idea. But that's the kind of the purpose of the show is to have fun. And then we found out that he had actually heard the show. And so he came on and that was just incredible. Yeah, there's just something so comforting about Rick Steve's show, I think. I don't watch much TV. But when I go home and visit my parents, you know, if we're going to watch a show together just like as a hangout activity, Rick Steve is the one and only show that we all agree on. I used to DVR it. Like, before I knew that I was going to go be a travel. travel writer. I would like watch episodes of his show about places I'd never been just for fun. And that's,

and now it's weird to think like how many places I've been. I don't have many places I still have to go. Like he has 30 years of traveling just around Europe. And he obviously is more than just a traveler at this point. He has a travel empire. But, you know, just how many places he's been and he knows in depth. And it's just fun to think about what it'll be like. And also it's fun to watch the old episodes because he has so he recorded episodes in the 90s that he's replaced and they're hard to find and we haven't really covered any of those but some of the ones that are still so he'll keep an episode out unless he goes and records it again so some of the first episodes the earliest episodes he has out are like 2000 2002 that haven't been replaced yet and it's like belfast in

2002 is a very different place than belfast today yeah right like i don't i don't think of belfast is like a dangerous or transgressive place to go in any way. And so the issues they're dealing with in that episode are very interesting. And you think he was probably one of the first people to go in post like peace awards and stuff and really try to start promoting tourism there like at this level. You know, it's just interesting. Yeah. And who is your co-host? Chris Mitchell. So he is another travel writer. His website is Traveling Mitch. And he is Canadian, which is funny because Brooke Stevens isn't as popular in Canada as he is in America because they don't have, he's not on Canadian public television. So he didn't grow up with Rick Steves in the way that like I did, but he is a huge fan too.

Stephanie, thank you for spending some time with me today. What's next for you? And where can people find out more about you? So I have too many things at all times. My main website is history fangirl.com. And that's my main Instagram account. If you want to see pictures of my baby on my Instagram stories, that's the Instagram account to follow. And if you're coming to Bulgaria, sophiaadventures.com is where all of the Bulgarian travel information and Balkan travel information is. So you should go there. And then hopefully we will, we are trying to move back to the States. COVID has lengthened the timeframe for getting my fiance's WISA in order. And even just getting the passport for the baby is taking a really long time because of COVID. So hopefully by the end of the year,

my original goal was that would be there by Halloween, and I think hopefully we'll still fit that that we'll be moving back to the states to Oklahoma and I actually started a website called Oklahoma Wonders about travel in Oklahoma because I'm excited to take the kid to all the places that I went to growing up and some new places do now that I have a better idea of all the things I probably should have seen that I didn't see.

That's always the case in our own backyard, I think. Oh yeah, I fled. I fled. Oklahoma when I turned 18. I was like, and I'm shocked at how excited I am to move back. But family, I think, changes everything. I'm excited to take the baby to Greece when he's older and London, but I'm also excited to show him the places I grew up around. And I just never would have guessed that about myself before. Yes. Well, I'm very excited for you. So thank you again, Stephanie. Thank you so much. Bulgaria sounds pretty great to me. at least for a week or two. I feel like Stephanie has kind of warned me against trying to live there.

But vineyards, Roman ruins, the Baltic Sea, signed me up. I think it sounds fantastic. So have you been to Bulgaria? Do you want to go? I would love to hear about it. Write to me and let me know. You can find me at Sarah Mikital on Instagram or postcardacademy.com. That's all for now. Thanks so much for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarah micotel.com slash blank no more.