I arrived in Sofia at nightfall, not sure what to expect. It was noticeably quieter than Bucharest, which I’d left 10 hours ago that morning, and the calm was nice — though in an unfamiliar city, quieter can also mean sketchier. A fact I was reminded of when I realized the way out of the station was down an escalator into an underpass with just one shop open, and a mini casino. Well, I only had to get a few blocks to my hostel, and then I could reassess in the morning.

I could have skipped the city altogether. You can roll right through Bulgaria on your way from Bucharest to Istanbul, but I’d decided to make a detour and spend some time in the capital, Sofia. There wasn’t any particular reason for this — I don’t know anyone from Bulgaria, I don’t know anyone who has been to Bulgaria, I hadn’t been prompted by a compelling travel article about the place… honestly my only connection is that I once went to a Bulgarian restaurant in Grenoble, France, and it was a nice time. (Hit the subscribe button for more great travel planning tips.)

Anyway, I can only conclude that you should get all your travel ideas by going to restaurants, because my initial misgivings were totally off-base. Sofia was the perfect balance between “real city” energy (unlike old-town Brasov) and laid-back (unlike Bucharest). It’s not exactly full of sights, apart from approximately 5 million billion churches. But it’s got quiet tree lined streets, fun cafes and local shops, it’s near mountains that you can see as you look down the street, there’s working public transport (that you can pay for using contactless, do you know where you can’t do that? Frigging Paris), the drivers obey road rules… Oh and it’s super cheap by European standards. Basically, if you want somewhere to chill out for a couple of days in your crazy cross-Europe train trip, Sofia is a solid option.