Sofia, Bulgaria

Cheap beer; gorgeous nature; hard rock bars

In the fall of 2020, COVID was steadily declining all through Europe. We'd been locked down for three months in Spain, and I just HAD to get my travel on. And Bulgaria just so happened to have some of Europe's lowest COVID ratings. So off I went.

As it turns out, Sofia's a cool city. It's big, but not so big that you can't get around on foot between the most important places downtown. Also, it's got a lot of big green areas – something several other major cities could learn from.

I obviously wanted to find some metal bars. One such is Adam's Bar. It doesn't sound like it up front, but it IS a metal bar.

The problem is, the place is a veritable foosball cult. Everyone in there are solemnly gathered around the foosball table, and while there are breaks in between matches, there's no music or talking when the game is on. Most of the time, nobody says a word, including the bartenders.

I mean, it's not that I have anything against foosball, but... Come on!

By the way, the following week I passed another metal bar further down south that's also called Adam's Bar – also using the Iron Maiden font for its name. Not sure if it's some kind of franchise or just the weirdest coincidence. Either way, that other place was closed until after I'd left. Boo.

Anyway, on to Rock'n'Rolla, which seems to have somewhat taken its name from the first Priest album, but still not really. Whatever the case, some local hard rock jam band was playing there, and I was perfectly starved for gigs.

The place itself is in downtown Sofia, and it has the interior of a regular nightclub, but without the shitty, annoying music. This is saying a lot in the country's favor.

That jam band kinda butchered some otherwise great songs by Alice In Chains, Guns n' Roses and the likes. Wasn't expecting much, but still. And to make matters worse, that was the only live music I saw that year.

One place I visited more than once is Строежа (Stroeja = "Construction"). Also located close to the heart of the city center, it's an industrial style bar where they play a lot of hard rock, grunge, punk, and otherwise all-round alternative stuff from Depeche Mode to Radiohead.

Under normal circumstances, apparently live shows are frequent there. One night, my party and I got hammered and formed our own little moshpit on and off the stage area as the DJ played '90s classics like "Come Out and Play" by Offspring and "Song 2" by Blur. Good times.

Any fan of hard and/or alternative modern rock – or simply cheap beer – should pay Stroeja a visit when in Sofia.

More cool bars: Апартамента (A:part:mental) is, as the name suggests if you can interpret it right, an old house-turned-bar. So you hang out in different living rooms with regular furniture, but there are different, individual bars and DJ's who, respectively, serve beer and play cool music – Johnny Cash; The Police; Blondie; The Clash; Nirvana... you name it.

As you could imagine from the description, it's kinduva hipster place, but cool nonetheless. Lots of different Scotch whiskies in the outside bar as well. And I gotta mention all the graffiti in the bathroom area.

Also: If, like me, you're into board games and pirates, you should definitely pay a visit to the Abordage board game bar. Surprise, surprise: It's a pirate-themed board game bar. Lots of games; lots of good local beers. The owner's a metalhead as well; played Alestorm and a lot of folk metal.

Speaking of which, Club BarBarossa is a goddamn pirate-themed hard rock and metal bar in the city center. I remember them playing Dropkick Murphys and System of a Down. And apparently, they give you a free tequila shot when it's the owner's birthday. Only went there once; this will definitely be the first place I visit whenever I get back to Sofia.

Next to Club BarBarossa, in some basement, is a big place, which, it seems, is normally meant for swingers and kinky S&M kinda deals. The bartender is nice; eager to play Zeppelin and Floyd, and serve moderately priced wine and whisky. Also, there's a hot tub that you can use for 25 Bulgarian leva, which is the equivalent of around €12,75. Comes with a free beer.

I forgot the name of that place, and I can't find it on a map next to BarBarossa, so it's either too undercover, or it doesn't exist anymore. In any case, you should totally go to BarBarossa and snoop around if and when you're in the area. The first one who manages to find that other place gets a free Global Metal Blog t-shirt whenever those come out.

Apart from all this, there's Mount Vitosha down south, which, apart from providing a pretty backdrop, you can spend a coupla hours climbing if you're into mountain-hiking. Also, the Museum of Illusions is well worth the 21 leva entrance, and the staff are way cool and eager to explain exactly how and why you're getting your mind blown.