Advantages: Germany's capital and most interesting city Disadvantages: a bit too large, distances too long
the clothes are worn is something I can't answer, I don't know anyone belonging to the High Society of Berlin, the Berliners as such are not elegant (in contrast to the inhabitants of Munich, for example), on the contrary, a certain Proll (from the word 'proletarian') charm is typical for the capital.
There's a lot more to see near the Friedrichstraße, but I think we should hop on Bus 100 again and go to the Alexanderplatz now and look closely at Berlin's highest building (368m, Europe's third highest structure), the TV tower, nickname: 'tele-asparagus', if you want to go up, you may have to wait for some time in front of the lifts but you'll be rewarded with the best view of the city. There is a visitor platform at the height of 204m and a restaurant rotating every 20 minutes in the middle of the sphere.
"Enough! We're tired of sightseeing ...
Advantages: Not too busy, good value for money, green Disadvantages: Not many "attractions", not much for children
capital city, Sofia has the usual wide range of eateries covering all price brackets and styles of food. Bulgarian food is very good and quite varied so visitors should aim to go native at least once. My recommendation is "Tsentrale" - a traditional style "inn" serving hearty local dishes; the service is good, the prices reasonable and in summer you can dine outisde in the pleasant beer garden. A rather different but very Bulgarian experience is to eat at the Happy Bar and Grill - a Bulgarian chain which offers an enormous menu of grills, salads, vegetarian dishes and desserts. They have menus in English and fantastic colour photographs of the dishes. There are several Chinese restaurants, two sushi restaurants and there are pizza and pasta places everywhere.
Dedicated bars are less easy to find and there are more of the "cafe-bar" variety ...
Advantages: Great large town, that's compact and safe to explore Disadvantages: Probably only enough for a weekend; the Cyrillic language
For the first time theediscerning is hereby dabbling in foreign climes - no, not a first trip abroad, but a debut excursion into the esteemed realm of Ciao travel writers. That's what these competition thingies are for, of course.
To start with, a smallish city both tucked away in the middle of Eastern Europe's old Soviet / Warsaw Pact areas, yet far enough away from us in the UK to have some of the mystery and oddity the near east brings - Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
You will increasingly see this as a location for a long weekend holiday, for it is yet another fine eastern European city falling under the tourism industry's eye. With Bulgaria possibly entering the Eurozone in 2007, the urge is to go before it all gets changed.
The history of the country is far too complex to summarise here, but just one corner of Sofia ...
theediscerning 27.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Sofia (Bulgaria)
