Dear Readers, how are you! In case you were wondering why I didn’t update the blog last weekend (maybe you didn’t), it’s because I was celebrating my 28th birthday! Thanks to my friends, I was able to celebrate the whole week and got blessings from over 20 people 🫶🫶. My first 2 birthday wishes, as always, are about health and wealth (who doesn’t like 💰💰💰 after all 🤣). The third one is often about a life stage that I am in, a change that includes uncertainty but I decided to embrace it and wish it goes to the right way. I believe the power of serendipity, do you 😃?

Anyway, let’s continue the journey! After 3 days in Cappadocia, we took an evening flight, transferring in Istanbul and flying to Sofia, Bulgaria.

There isn’t really an itinerary for Bulgaria since the plan is to just check it out and uncover the mysterious vail. I am always interested in former Soviet Union countries, especially those that became a member of European Union afterwards. Bulgaria joined Schengen Area in 2025 and Eurozone in 2026, which makes it more approachable for tourists so we have a chance to see its uniqueness.

Before visiting Bulgaria, for some reasons I had the impression that people there didn’t speak English and that the city isn’t a high tech one. (obviously I had stereotype…), but I was so wrong. Bulgarian speak good enough English! At least when I tried to talk to people in English while buying stuff, the conversation flowed well. They seems pretty used to it. Maybe its further integration with EU means adopting more English to the society? I saw a big ads promoting learning English at a metro station. I was surprised to see a EU country advocating English that much like we do here in Taiwan.

As for the technology, in Sofia, you can use your credit card to peep in a metro station. I know many countries (UK, US, Australia etc) had implemented this a while ago, but not my home country Taiwan. So it’s still pretty surprising for me to see Bulgaria, such low-key and not economically centered EU countries already implement it.

The busy area of Sofia is small and quiet. My ears probably get so used to the day-to-day motorcycle noises here in Taiwan that the neuro in my brain was suddenly shocked - it didn’t know that a city can be that quiet, and you can only hear human’s whisper sound.

After staying in Sofia for 3 days,I arbitrarily identified two signature characteristics of Sofia: 1. Statues 2. Church. I think religion still plays an important role in the society. I saw 3 teenagers go into a church and start praying, which surprised me a bit. Because I thought the importance of religion is declining among young people, but I guess it’s not universally applied.

You’ll see stores selling rose product everywhere when you are in downtown. After all, Bulgarian Rose Oil accounts for 42% of the global rose oil market, followed by Turkey and Iran in a report in 2024.

I bought this day-used face cream and other foot and hand cream products. I can only comment on the face cream because I gave the others to friends. The face cream has pleasant rose smell and isn’t oily, sticky and heavy. It’s just purely light and smooth. I’d buy more if I have a chance. I found the official website selling the face cream, but it only ships within Bulgaria 🥲 Anyway, if you have a chance to visit, I’d recommend to try!

Stay tuned! Next week, we are going to Athen, Greece!