With our friends (Simon, Linda, Chris, Gail John and Rita) all flying out earlier in the day we were booked on the 19.05 Wizzair flight from Birmingham to Sofia on the Thursday evening so we would catch them up in the Bulgarian capital city.

With a three hour flight and a two hour time difference this meant an arrival into Sofia airport at around 00.30 local (or 22.30 UK), but we were soon in a fast taxi to our hotel and in our room just after 01.00 at the Best Western City Hotel.

Breakfast was included in our room rate so there was chance to meet up with our friends whilst enjoying the extensive buffet selection and plan the day ahead. This started with a walking tour of Sofia (with Free Sofia Tour) and despite this not normally being our sort of thing it really was informative and the guide, Nikola, was a great ambassador for the city.

The tour took us to the major sights including the Svetla Nedelya church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the old city baths (now a museum), the mosque, the Hagia Sofia church, the Roman ruins, and many of the important governmental buildings too. There was also a lot of information provided about city history and its people over the previous 6,000 years which makes it the second oldest city in Europe. If you are ever in Sofia then I would recommend this free tour leaving every day (whatever the weather) at 11.00 from outside the Court of Justice.

After two hours of walking it was time to take on a bit of fluid and food at lunchtime at the Grand Hotel Sofia overlooking the Alexander I Square gardens. The savoury pancakes filled with chicken and vegetables was nicely filling the beer was thirst quenching. After the leisurely lunch it was time to hit the streets again and do a bit more sightseeing around the city centre area and there was enough to enjoy pre-dinner drinks at the Sense Hotel rooftop bar overlooking the massive Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The drinks were little pricey, but still good value compared to the UK considering the location.

Our evening meal at Moma, just off the main shopping street of Vitosha Boulevard, was a fairly plush restaurant serving up traditional Bulgarian food and was excellent. The food was tasty (which included a fabulous rainbow salad and a meat stew in a bread basket for me), very filling and great value too. Two courses, with beer/wine came in at around £15.50 each from memory. Fantastic!

On the Saturday morning we were off on a train, as it would be rude not to, heading to Pernik a fifty minute journey from the new Sofia Central station. Prior to boarding the train there was a chance to purchase some foreign crisps - they were a little bit greasy, but gorgeous and I really should have had a couple of packets!

Pernik was, historically, a mining town and known for its black gold (or coal) and our visit included a trip to the Underground Mining Museum in the town. Once the lady running the museum understood that were English there was no stopping her as she had some contacts in Birmingham so she seemed the best of friends. It was good to see somewhere other than the capital city and clearly the closure of the mines and associated industry has been fairly ******* the town with quite a lot of derelict factory complexes on the outskirts.

The central area of town was however quite pleasant and after the visit to the mining museum our lunch at the High Street cafe was a bargain, with my beer sausage (x 6)/french fries and a large draft beer coming in at less than £3.50. It was a shame the service didn't quit live up to expectations as it took nearly 45 minutes for them to realise that they didn't have any vegetable risotto (well, any risotto) only then to magic up a chicken risotto from nowhere after an alternative dish was chosen . . . . although at £1.50 it was still a bargain even if they did, or maybe didn't, have what was asked for!

Once back in Sofia the was time to visit the Sofia History Museum housed in the old city baths complex before seeing the Russian Church which provided a good overview of the history of the city - it did what it said on the tin I guess?

The evening meal at Hajidraganovite Kashti was again a traditionally Bulgarian affair although far more rustic than Moma. The portions were massive, gut filling, tasty and were enjoyed with a couple of bottles of fantastic local wine and followed by some cheeky snifters.

With our flight back to the UK on Sunday at lunchtime the was enough time to have one last sightseeing morning to view the university buildings and Soviet War Memorial before checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport for our Wizzair flight back to Luton.The trip out to the airport on the metro took a bit of fathoming and trying to understand whether you wanted the red line or blue line was a bit of a challenge - in the end we needed a blue line train, running on the red metro line!

This was our second visit to Sofia and whilst it is not going onto our 'return to' list we really enjoyed the city and recommend it as a weekend break destination as long as you can avoid tripping up on the rather shoddy pavements - you have been warned.

The long weekend was pretty good value, with three nights (including ​breakfast) at the 4* City Hotel costing £190, we spent around £120 on food, drinks, local transport and entrance fees and the return flights with Wizzair were £180 in total for both us. We even got cracking weather into the deal too!