Our SURPRISING Time In BULGARIA (Underrated Europe)

I'm Oskar and I'm Dan and today we're in our 88th country of Bulgaria. Previously on Oskar and Dan. We're going to Plovdiv, the second biggest city in Bulgaria. We haven't even had breakfast today. We had no idea this was going on and now we're at Sofia Pride. Good morning guys. Good morning from the start of the seven Rila lakes I think it's called. We're in the middle of the Bulgarian forest and mountains and we're going to be hiking for about five hours today. Yeah we're doing our usual thing which is to either be underdressed or wear the wrong shoes. That tends to be either of those two. Today it's too few clothes. It was like 20 degrees in Sofia and here it is 12. So we're hoping things heat up quickly. The worst part is we haven't even made it on to the lift yet. So we're going up in a ski lift to the actual top of the mountain. I don't even want to think about how cold it is up there. Let's see. Hopefully the views are worth it. If you're new here, we're Oskar and Dan. Two Swedish boys traveling the world together full time. This year we're pushing ourselves and we're crazy enough to try to visit a hundred countries by the end of it. And Bulgaria was country 88 on our journey. Hello. Two people round trip please. Okay yes please. Thank you. Do you have a toilet down here? Ah. Okay. Um. Okay. Well luckily it's 10 o'clock now. So this should be a bit higher but still scary. That was the temperature at the top of the lift. So here we go. So the ski lift is only two by two. So the guy down there, he was like, you're getting on it yourself. So here I am. This cable car ride is a lot longer than we were initially expecting. I'm just sitting here like meditating. I love this pine tree bar smell. And uh yeah it makes me very nostalgic actually. The overnight hikers are just sending down all their belongings like this. Like I don't understand. How do you dare to do that? I would be so terrified. We made it. The ride up was 25 minutes. Not what we expected. It was freezing on the lift. But up here it's not too bad. Is that what she does? We continued the hike along the seven lakes and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Lake number one and it's beautiful and super clean. What was that? I'm always tempted to go for a swim when we're at like mountain lakes. And it's actually not that cold when you feel it. Yeah it's a shame it's not allowed to swim here. It's not cold with your fingers and my fingers are like ice. So that doesn't say very much. This looks like a full-on like screensaver on Windows or Mac. Like look at this. How beautiful. It better work. This is really when we're the happiest. Out hiking in nature. Enjoying the views. Absorbing the tranquility of it all. Although there are quite a few other hikers here. It's not really a problem. It's just so nice. So peaceful. And yeah being out in nature really beats any other environment for us. But pretty much all the other hikers that are here are Bulgarian. So I wonder if Bulgaria might be one of the last undiscovered mountain destinations in Europe. Have a look at Bulgaria next time you're looking to go hiking or skiing for that matter. It's so funny with all these like little round like shrubs that are growing around the mountain. Because it really looks like we're in some kind of like Super Mario World or something like that. That's wrong. What are you doing? So we have been hiking for exactly four hours. It's time to head back down. Suddenly the sun came out and it became a beautiful day. But I would say 75% of this hike, especially for me as a perpetually cold person, has been complete torture. You know what? Yeah. I wasn't freezing. Yeah calling it torture is a bit too much I think. It gives me hot blooded fever. It was beautiful none of the less. Good morning. It is our third full day in Bulgaria and today it's time to explore the capital of Sofia. So our first night at this hotel we slept with the windows open. Which was fine besides that there was a lot of noise and mosquitoes came in. So they were buzzing around at night biting us. Which wasn't nice at all obviously. So last night we tried to do AC instead. Which we generally try to avoid when we can. Because the inevitable happened. Which somehow happens every time we go from no AC for you know more than a week. And then enter a place with AC. The second or third day with air conditioning we will always always always get sore throats. And feel really tired and drained. And it usually lasts about three to four days. Which is such a bummer because it always puts a damper on our travels. At least now we're kind of learning that that's a necessary transition period. So we know for the first few days that we're going to have air conditioning. To just rest up and take it easy. When we've just arrived. I feel like it's really important to talk about when Oscar and I are not feeling 100%. Because maybe in our vlogs or in travel vloggers videos in general. It always seems like everything is so fun and perfect. But I definitely think that our style of travel especially this year. Where we're moving so fast and we're not really like easing into things. It's not healthy and we have a lot of days where we're so exhausted. Where something is just up with our bodies. So next year once we visited 100 countries. We're really looking forward to doing some sort of middle speed. Where yes we don't stay in one place for a month or two. But just you know taking it a little easier for our health sake. Also the plane spotting in downtown Sofia is great. This almost feels a little like it's in the gulf to me. Because it's so grandiose but it's deserted. Yeah they're waiting to shoot a Wes Anderson movie here any second. Any second it's gonna happen. There are so many places that get like overhyped for whatever reason. But then there are so many that could have just as easily become candidates. To become like the tourist and hot spots. But for some reason they just haven't been discovered yet. And I think especially in Europe where you have access to low-cost airlines. Where even if these countries like Bulgaria for example. Aren't as like frequently visited. You still have very easy access to them through low-cost airlines. So it's not like you can't explore this place as well. So I think we could all learn a lot. By just trying to go to more like unseen places like this. One thing I'm trying to figure out right now is where is the center of town? I feel like we've walked around and there's like multiple different city centers. And we keep getting to a new place and that's like also very happening so. Well we randomly found the shopping street I assume. What a charming cute shopping street with a mountain view no less. Oh my god look at that. All right so right now we're here. And it's gonna be a long walk but I'm sort of tempted to go down to South Park. Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine. Oscar doesn't like South Park though. Just me. So since we started this trip in Plovdiv. I would like to compare Plovdiv and Sofia a little bit. I think Plovdiv was probably a bit cuter prettier. All the ancient ruins and stuff were a lot more integrated. Which was really really cool there. But I think Sofia is a lot grander. Like there's so many huge boulevards. Huge squares with all these grand buildings. They're pretty different cities I would say. Okay so now we're gonna try a traditional Bulgarian. I think it's a sweet. I'm not sure. I think it's kind of like a dessert. But it could also be eaten at any point during the day I think. It's called a Mekitsa. And we're here at Mekitsa Cafe. If the name has the food item in it. It should be good right? And they should have some vegan options. So we just got our two vegan Mekitsas. One more traditional with powdered sugar on it. And this with vegan cashew cheese. Which looks... I believe the word is interesting. I'm sure it's really good. Let's try. Which one should I go for first? It's basically this deep fried dough with toppings on it. That is actually really good. Very crispy. I guess this is the more savory option. Very cheesy actually. So that was really fun to try. Even though we haven't tried a lot of Bulgarian food this trip. In our defense Bulgarian food is very meat and like dairy heavy. So finding vegan options is not the easiest. I don't think I've ever seen a place that has so many EU flags. Which I love. Like it really seems like Bulgaria is proud of being part of the EU. Which is just awesome. And look we were there at Sofia Pride two days ago. That's the French embassy. Vive la France! Okay now we're gonna finish off our time in Sofia and in Bulgaria. With a little trip to three different religions. Within the span of like 30 minutes. We're going to one church. And we're going to a mosque. And then to a synagogue. So it's kind of like we're back in Jerusalem again I guess. Which is where we were about a month ago. Behind us is Saint George Rotunda. Which is the oldest building in Sofia. And was built in the 300s. It's just crazy when you think about that. Because the US was founded literally less than 300 years ago. Look at Dan talking about history. Look at me pretending that I'm... No let's not. It's so crazy when you're used to hearing about. Oh this building is from the 14th century, 13th century. And then it's like oh this is from the 4th. Like another thousand years before that. It's just insane. So this is the Banya Bashi Mosque. Which is here from the Ottoman times. And it's currently the only mosque still remaining in the city. And it's built on top of thermal baths that were built by the Ottomans. Last but not least the synagogue. Which is unfortunately closed. But very very beautiful. So obviously I'm not like an expert on religious history. Or anything like that. But I do feel like the fact that you can find so many different temples from different Abrahamic religions in the same city. In many different places around the world. It's kind of a testament to that. Members of the religion used to be a lot more tolerant of each other. What happened to that honestly? Like why did we start this animosity between us? Like can we just move on from that? Go back to just being tolerant of each other. Especially within the Abrahamic family of religions. We're all I guess you know part of the same family. Or the same religious family at least. Why are we fighting? You know? What's the point? So since there wasn't much with the synagogue besides seeing the outside. We're heading right across here to one of the biggest... What did you say it was called? The central market of Sofia. Oh the central market of Sofia. And markets are always fun. Markets are always fun. Markets are always... I'm so excited. Well this market wasn't fun. This market wasn't fun. Because everything is closed. Yeah everything is closed basically. But it's so beautiful. I love this. All the details and the design. Everything. So the last thing we're gonna do today before we head to the airport. Is do one of our favorite things in any new country. Check out a supermarket. Okay this is like the most pan-European grocery store. They have Nordic brands. They have French brands. German. And they have Via Life. Good vegan stuff. No big deal bro. Protein. I think this grocery store may be a bit more bougie. Like there's little all around. But so much nice stuff. Oh my god. We remember seeing all of this stuff in Skopje. Protein. Protein cream. Looks delish. So many plant-based milks. We love it. This is a brand I've never seen before. Mambo. Almond, hazelnut and pistachio drink. That looks so good. So I have to say that we love Bulgaria so far. But being in this grocery store makes me feel like okay that's a wrap. Bulgaria is amazing. And we haven't even been to the main tourist sites. Which are the Black Sea coast by the beach. So all I can say is that we're so positively surprised. Bye bye rental car. You've been good. Or you've been okay. You were pretty weak. But you got us where you were supposed to take us. So thank you. All right and just like that our time in Bulgaria has come to an end. And we're moving on to the next country on this two-week trip. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. We had so much fun here. We can't wait to take a little hop north to our 89th country. Which you'll see in our next video. And until then see you around the world. Next time on Oscar and Dan. Oh my god. Ghosts, the Grim Reaper. If it was like on Halloween. You're gorgeous. Oh my god.