Last month, I went to Sofia for the very first time and even though it was kinda stressful, it was actually a super cool experience because I got to spend it with some of my closest friends!
Let’s start from the beginning- on 18.09. I took the night train from Varna. I had never traveled that far before! The farthest I’d been to was Plovdiv, and that was sooo many years ago with classmates for some school project, so I wasn’t alone then. This time, though, I was. I was ridiculously anxious and scared something bad might happen, plus I was dragging around a ton of luggage. To make things worse, there were two trains leaving ten minutes apart, and I was terrified I’d get on the wrong one (thankfully I didn’t). I also worried someone weird might end up in my cabin. I had a reserved seat, but I know drama about seats happens often. Thankfully, since I boarded from the first stop, I grabbed my spot with no issues — window seat, too, which was perfect. I was alone for a while until some guy got on a few stops later. Thank God he just went straight to sleep and didn’t bother me at all. It was just the two of us until Pleven, when around 4AM two super chatty women joined us and yeah, at that point, both me and the guy realized there would be no more sleeping. Not that I had managed to sleep anyway. I spent the whole night listening to music, drawing, and chatting with friends who were either awake or living in other time zones. Overall, the trip to Sofia went surprisingly smoothly.
When I arrived, though, panic immediately hit. I had to quickly figure out where to go to catch the bus to my friend’s place, where I’d be staying for the next few days. He had work that morning, so I didn’t have time to miss the bus. I HAD to catch the one that was coming. At the station, I just followed the crowd outside, pulled out Google Maps, found the stop, and thankfully managed to orient myself fast. At the bus stop, I started chatting with this really kind woman who turned out to be waiting for the same bus. She even told me when to get off. I made it to my friend’s place just fine, but then came the hard part… figuring out how I was gonna sleep.
For now, I had to crash in the living room for reasons I won’t get into, but the problem was he had two kittens. Two extremely hyper kittens. They would not stop zooming around while I was trying to sleep. They were running everywhere, climbing on me, goofing around… Somehow, I managed to pass out for two hours before my friend called me to feed them. I got up, did that, went back to bed — this time they climbed on my back and fell asleep on me. Two hours later, they started fighting right on top of me. Tiny little chaos gremlins. About an hour later, my friend came home from work, and we had a few errands to run.
At this point, I hadn't eaten and barely slept, so I was basically running on fumes. Oh, right, I forgot to mention why I even went to Sofia in the first place. It was for an event called GFest, which is all about video games and that kinda stuff. I was going to cosplay, and that’s why I mentioned earlier that I had a lot of luggage… because I was literally carrying a TV. Not a real one, obviously, one of the characters I was cosplaying has a TV for a head, so I had to carry that thing all the way from Varna to Sofia. The character was Mr. (Ant) Tenna from Deltarune. The other character I planned to cosplay was Kazuichi Souda from Danganronpa. The event lasted two days, so yeah. Anyway, it was still Friday, and my friend was competing in the cosplay contest on Saturday along with another friend, so they had to go to rehearsals. We waited around for about two hours until it was their turn. I was practically dying of hunger and sleep deprivation. After the rehearsals, we finally went home — my friend cooked some amazing tagliatelle, set up the room I’d be sleeping in, and that was the end of the day.
Saturday. Day one of the event. It was me, my friend, and another friend, all running around getting ready and stressed out because we had to be there early for the pre-judging session, since my friend was competing. We ended up being a little late, but it wasn’t a big deal. My other friend and I got in line with our tickets, and that’s when I noticed they were taking all the water bottles. Even the filtered ones like mine. Cue panic. I didn’t want them to throw it away or steal it. I shoved it deep into my backpack and covered it with everything I had, but nope security searched my bag and took it anyway. Before I forget I'm gonna say that thankfully I got my bottle back at the end of the day, so nobody stole it. Thankfully I had stickers on it so I could recognize it's mine.
Anyway, day one was pretty stressful. The event was a bit overwhelming, and the no water rule was rough. We had to walk to a nearby Fantastiko supermarket multiple times to buy water and chug it outside before going back in. One of my friends and I were cosplaying the same character, so we hung out a lot. I also ran into other friends and spent most of the day with them. We watched the cosplay competition in the afternoon, and it was incredible! So many talented people, amazing costumes, creative props, and funny performances! My friends were absolutely amazing too!!! Overall, the first day had a ton of fun moments, but it was definitely overwhelming at times. I really needed a quiet place to just sit and breathe, but I never found the time.
Sunday. Day two of the event. Once again, the three of us were getting ready, but this time it was way more chill no rushing. I decided to cosplay Kazuichi that day because I’d heard a bunch of people from the same game would be there, and they were planning to take group photos and stuff. So I pulled the costume out of the closet, even though I hadn’t worn it since 2023 and hadn’t really cared about the game in years. I used to be obsessed, but now I’m into other things. I barely remembered anything about the character- no quotes, no poses, nothing. In the end, we all gathered for the group photos, but it was kinda awkward because I was the only one cosplaying from the second game, and literally everyone else was from the third. Oh well. We still took some really nice photos! In the afternoon, my friend and I decided to stop by the mall to visit another friend at work. No idea why we thought that was a good idea, we looked ridiculous in our costumes and he worked in this super fancy, expensive store. So yeah, day two was calmer, but also a bit uneventful.
All in all, it’s not like I didn’t have fun. I’m really glad I went, especially since it was my first event like that in Sofia. I’d love to go again, not just for conventions, but in general. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to visit again before the end of 2025!! So yeah, that’s part one for now! In the next part, I’ll talk about how I turned into a full on tourist for the next three days of my trip, hahah!!
Alright, bye for now!!
