Although Sofia is not among the largest cities in the world, ‘big city life’ here can be quite stressful. That’s why I always try to hit the ‘pause’ button as often as possible. Fortunately, there are more than enough green areas (parks, gardens, etc.) all over the city where one can do that.

What used to be the backyard of the Royal Palace of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom nowadays is often neglected because of the bigger park in front of the palace – the City Garden. However, that’s exactly why I like it better – it’s much less popular and usually less crowded and more peaceful.

There are benches all over the place so I can just grab my e-book reader (the equivalent of tens of books) or my headphones and believe me, I can stay there all day. And when the sun sets it’s the perfect starting point to hit the bars and given the many great options around it might actually be hard to choose (check Tobacco Garden Bar article, for example).

There’s something else interesting in that place that I like. Just walking around you might stumble across all kinds of Communist-era art. A fallen statue of Lenin is just meters away from a sculpture of a Trabant with bust of a person on top of it reminding me of the Flintstones driving style.