We’d thought crossing from Hungary into Serbia was tedious. Turns out that was a walk in the park compared to leaving Serbia and entering Bulgaria and the European Union without the benefit of having an EU passport! The border crossing is on the main route from Western Europe to Turkey and the occupants of most of the cars in the lengthy lines appeared to be Turkish workers returning home laden with gifts for family and friends. The majority of cars had Western European license plates - Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and even a few UK. For some reason leaving Serbia took the longest time.....

......but entering Bulgaria was relatively quick for cars whose occupants had EU passports. Not us of course! All five of us (our guide/driver has a Macedonian passport) had to be carefully scrutinized by two separate Bulgarian border agents. And we had it easy….apparently at the height of the summer holiday season, the lines waiting to cross the border can be as long as 20km! Then the first 20km of highway on the Bulgarian side of the border could barely be described as a road let alone highway. It’s still under construction (with the help of an EU grant) and still has a very long way to go. So it was nearly 10 PM by the time we finally crawled into our central Sofia hotel some 12 hours after we left Belgrade….so “A Passion for Sofia” was not quite how we felt!

Sofia is not one of Europe's more glamorous cities. It is slowly emerging from its recent Communist past and the city centre at least has a vibrant feel to it with some pretty decent restaurants and bars interspersed among grand old buildings and onion-domed churches dating from after the country's 1878 liberation by the Russians from five centuries under the "Ottoman Turkish yoke".

Bulgaria, a member since 2007 is the EU's poorest country with a democratically elected but not very stable government. (Simeon II who reigned briefly after his father Simeon I died under mysterious circumstances towards the end of WWII returned to the country several years ago, renounced his Spanish citizenship and was Bulgaria's prime minister from 2001-05. Apparently not a big success although he has remained in the country). Like Serbia, the average age of the population is increasing, due to a falling birthrate and many young educated people leaving for better opportunities in the richer Western European EU countries.

Back though in the 1st-4th centuries, Bulgaria was an important part of the Roman Empire. Recent excavations in central Sofia during the continued development of the city's metro system, revealed the remains of an extensive Roman city which has been carefully restored and is very much open to and accessible by the public.

After a few days in Sofia, we head to Plovdiv supposedly the oldest continually inhabited city in Europe. Bulgaria's Roman history is even more evident here than in Sofia.

Plovdiv, quite a bit smaller and quite a lot nicer than Sofia is a jewel of a city, particularly the quaint old town perched on the side of one of the city's hills. The city centre has a 5 km long pedestrian zone line with shops and restaurants, a reviving "bohemian" quarter with some great street art, beautiful parks and fountains all interspersed below today's street level with the remains of the old Roman city

We really did save the best 'til last!!