"(Sofia) is an interesting (city). The people are lovely." Exploring Sofia

While touring around Sofia, I decided to try something new. I heard about this platform, GuruWalks, which allows you to do tours for free. Sofia was the first city I tried this in. When booking the tour, I really enjoyed being able to see every single spot the tour would be going to so I could make the best decision possible. As you can see, I travel a lot so finding affordable ways to explore a city is incredibly enticing to me. My tour guide was Kris, and he was excellent!

From the perspective of having celiac, it was also amazing to have book a tour where I didn't need to worry about the costs or stress about getting a refund. I booked going on this tour twice. The first time I made it to the tour, but what I had for breakfast started to hit me. I wasn't "glutened", but I had too much to eat and my stomach could not process it fast enough. So the reaction to that is pretty similar to being "glutened". Within the first half hour of the tour, I had to run to find a restroom close by and then realized I wouldn't be able to meet them to finish out the tour. At other touring agencies, they wouldn't be able to provide you a refund once the tour time started. On top of feeling sick, the financial implications would have been an additional stressor. I have booked more tours through GuruWalks in the future and hopefully it's a similar, positive experience.

During the version of the tour where I was able to stay the entire time, I learned a lot about Sofia and Bulgaria's history. When I first arrived at the city, I could only see what made it ugly to me. Now as I leave Sofia, I am able to find the beauty in it and see what makes it so special. Unsure if I would recommend Sofia as a place to travel, but make sure if you do you take a tour that teaches you the very lengthy history of one of the oldest countries in Europe.