3,631
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
[Update Recommended Way : as of September 2012, tram #19 is apparently not working anymore.] ) below Updated Nov 2014A very good way to get out of Sofia is taking tram no. 5( or Tram 19). It goes all the way on Bulevard Tsar Boris III to the city limits, and you can hitch on that road directly. Get out at the last stop and continue walking on this road until you find yourself a good spot. There is red light right where the Tram turns left for its last stop which is the moment it turns left. Here keep walking on the Tsar Boris III road off which the Tram turned and the second red light is a good place to show sign and get a car in case you are trying to go in direction of South West or North Macedonia Bulgaria border. People near the border are quite helpful and in case you are going to Pernik/Skopje have a sign ready someone may actually be going all the way to Skopje. In winter time try to start really early since it gets dark very quickly and people may be reluctant to pick up single guys.
==Sleep==
Sofia has lots of very nice parks where it's not really hard wild camp. Borisova gradina, near the stadium (metro stop kliment ohridski SU or Stadion vasil levski) is the most central one, and could be visited by people at night. Zapaden Park (western part of city, metro stop Vardar or Zapaden Park) is so much bigger and less transited, really perfect for camping, not so many dogs around either.
→Transport between north and south
=== East towards [[Plovdiv]], [[Edirne]] and [[Istanbul]] ===
===== First option =====
Take the metro to the last stop of (blue line 1 (red) called to Tsarigradsko mall/congress centreshose, that is already on the big bd tsarigradsko to PlovdivInter Expo Center. You have Metro (shop, mall) on your right, keep walking 1 km, you will reach a traffic light that is perfect to hitch, never waited you might not even wait more than 5 minutes. Perfect stop.Some experiences suggest that it is difficult to get a direct ride to Istanbul from here unless you start as early in the morning as possible when the relevant traffic for Istanbul leaves the city. Also, waiting times can be longer than five minutes. Shorter rides are easier to catch.
===== Second option =====
Take metro and get to stop called Младост 1 (Mladost 1). Walk north along Yerusalim street until you get to the main road Tsarigradsko Shose. You should see Carrefour shopping centre around. Then take bus number 5 direction Lozen and go with it until it leaves main road on a cloverleaf junction. Get off on the next stop and go back to the junction. You will stand on a motorway junction with directions north, east to [[Plovdiv]] and west to [[Sofia]]. Go down the ramp to direction [[Plovdiv]] and you will see some shops and bars where people stop next to the motorway. Try standing on the hard shoulder to get a lift or ask people there. Nearly all traffic there goes to [[Plovdiv]] or even further east
- [[User:Chillion|Chillion]] (2018) Didn't have any money so decided to walk it to location 1, though trolleybus 5 also goes there half way. Didn't like the location so walked on a further until I got to the Clover Junction (location 2). Did not like this one either so walked on further where the shops and restaurants started. Here you have a wide shoulder/parking space, a toilet and a tap to refill water bottles. With a "Plovdiv" sign got picked up and dropped off the fork road that splits between Plovdiv (left path) and Istanbul (right path). Since I was heading to Istanbul I made a sign and hitched on the curving shoulder. Got picked up in 10 mins, straight (extremely lucky) ride to Istanbul.
=== West towards [[Serbia]] {{E|80}} ===
This also works very good. Take metro to Slivnitsa and than bus 54. On third bus station go out and just near Lukoil petrol station is very good place to hitchhike(it is also bus station)
==== Personal experiences ====
Oct 2017 8 [[User:The.skinny.chick|The.skinny.chick]] tried the first option and was very lucky to get a Turkish truck driver in 10 min till 140 km from Belgrade.
May 2019: [[User:choush|choush]] took the bus 54 all the way to the last stop (direction Kalotina) and stood on the main road where there is a tiny spot for cars to stop but most traffic is very fast and its hard for cars to see and stop on time. Later switched to the intersection (where the bus stops) which leads to the highway. Stood around 1 hour and eventually accepted a ride back to the next Lukoil petrol station (5 min by car, 20-30 min walking). No idea if thats the Lukoil that the others are talking about.
=== Southwest towards [[Skopje]] ===
Take tram number 19 in the direction ''Knyazhevo'' all the way to the last stop. You will recognize the last stop because it turns off the road to make a tight loop and doubles back on its route. As you hop off the tram, to come back on the left main road and keep walking the direction of Tram and the water fountains in front of you first main road that turns left is where there is a short staircase that leads into a small park. 50 m from the stairs, directly through the park, you will find a bus station stand where you can catch bus number 59 that will take you all the way out of the city to nice spots to hitch from along the road that goes towards Pernik.
For the first nice spot along this direction heed the following: after about 8 minutes on the bus be on the look out for a gas station on the left side of the road. Get off as soon as you see this gas station as there is a nice place about 400 meters up the road where cars and lorries can safely pull off for you.
It is possible to ride on a bit farther if you miss this stop. The bus pulls off the main road about 3km later and goes into rural neighborhood where you must get off less you wish to be lost in the countryside. If you find yourself here walk in the same direction as you are destined on a small road that runs parallel with the highway until you cross under it. On the left just after the bridge is a small foot path that will lead you up onto the bridge, over the railway, and onto the highway where right here you can find another space for cars to pull off the road safely for you.
=== North towards [[Veliko Tarnovo]], [[Bucureşti|Bucharest]], [[Varna]] ===
If you just want to get through the city as hitching from the direction of the Serbian [[Niš|Nis]] to [[Greece]] to the south or opposite there's a quite useful bus to take. The number is 111 and goes around the ring on the west outskirts of the city. On the north, the end stop is just around some DIY shopping center, need to cross these to get to the ring. On the south the end is not the road to [[Greece]], so be aware to get off in time.
== Public transport Trashwiki & Nomadwiki ==* Inspectors on the busses may ask for a ticket for bigger baggages (your backpack will be considered like that). If you don't have ticket for baggage they most probably will fine you and expect for cash payment at the moment, threatening you with a fine of 200lev (100E) at the border. Of course it is not true and you can let them write down your name without paying any money.* Ticket costs 1 lev (0.50 EUR)* You can easily find tickets to use on the buses and trams if you look in the bins next to the bus stop. The tickets get validated by hole punching and it's really easy to find tickets with the same holes that the bus you will take. Just stamp a normal piece of paper and compare the holes on it with the ones on tickets which you find. Blackriding is also doable as controllers are not SO frequent. They do happen though.[[nomad:Sofia]] [[trash:Sofia]]
[[de:Sofia]]
[[fr:Sofia]]
[[nomad:Sofia]]
{{IsIn| Bulgaria}}
