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Urban bar is a new place for meetings, dates and hanging out. It is actually more than a bar but rather a conceptual zone for new things to happen. I’m talking about art, music and film events as well as debates.

Attention – they already do run there – by visiting Urban’s fan page, one could track out the activities organized – future and past. This is what we call a promising start and another evidence I can provide is that the people behind the idea are thinking big, so big that it won’t be a surprise if their next step is setting up an institute for urban inhabitants to thrive. I had the chance to meet them and my impressions are quite positive the reason being that I got infected by their enthusiasm. I could see their energy and plans materialized in this place, which turns out to be the basis for more developments to come.

One thing is sure – the bar’s crew are by no means constrained by their own mind-set. On the contrary, the place is designed to be the link between various aspects of the city environment, thus revealing their assets and particularities and contributing to your point of view. This is how you learn to live and get the best from the city. Practice is the essence.

The address is: 3 Moskovska str.

Working hours: Monday to Fiday – 8:00 – 2:30

Saturday: 14:00 – 2:30

The Box Club is like a breath of fresh air for the alternative music lovers. It is also a place where the alternative music doers thrive – just check the club’s schedule and there’s no doubt – the events are planned for months in a row. Apart from foreign guests, their stage holds solid Bulgarian presence, not to mention the crowd – always dedicated and supportive.

The music style really matters, otherwise why would we go? To get drunk? No. To socialize? Of course not! To find a girlfriend? wtf?

See, the music really matters and some of the most general suggestions I can give you are hardcore, metal, Gothic, d’n'b, underground hip-hop and … many more because my fantasy cannot give definitions for everything. You just have to feel it even if you don’t understand it. If it happens so, you should be glad that you are participating at a music event you can’t really interpret properly. Lucky you.

The Box Club is on 41 Alexander Stamboliiski blvd.
Working time: 7 PM – 4 AM

This museum is not an independent one but part of the Ethnographic Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and it is the only one in Sofia of this kind. The entrance of the museum is at the back of the National Art Gallery, thus easily accessible.

Despite the central location of the museum, it is not really popular and known. I myself found it completely by chance – I had to visit the Institute to have classes there – only two students and a lecturer. On my first visit  I was struck by the beauty of the place – you know that the building is the former Royal palace of Knyaz Alexander Battemberg and all the walls, all the colours and furniture is the same. You move freely from one room into the other, notice every detail and dream of a masquerade with lots of dances and mysterious visitors. Even the servants’ rooms seem quite luxurious. Of course, now they are filled with desks for the employees but those people are lucky to work in such an aristocratic place.

On the other hand, however, the air smelled of ghosts. All the glamor of the place had seen better days and for visitors after closing hours, the loneliness of the place is oppressing, as if we were the first ones to come after so many years. The only thing that reminded us that we were not alone was presence of the porter downstairs. Classic.

On my second visit I managed to see the museum itself. We arranged the classes so that we squeeze within the work hours. I still kept the idyllic memories from the previous time and was not trying to get culturally shocked.

In reality, however, the collection was anything but rich. Practically there were two rooms and a corridor displaying items from the past. There was a third hall which was completely empty – only a huge marvel fireplace at its end. I instantly thought that this was going to be my room one day. It had a beautiful balcony facing the boulevard and one could secretly observe the passers-by.

This picture is from the back of the palace, revealing how Toba&Co Bar glows warmly in the winter.

The little exhibition prevented us from staying there longer, otherwise we risked getting frozen because the temperature was the same as outside – minus degrees. I could see the air that I was exhaling and at the end of the second hall, I could barely feel my feet but I believe that all was a consequence of the two hours we spend listening to the lecturer. The whole building was scarcely heated.

I cannot explain my fascination by the whole setting and maybe it’s a kind of magic in which the building reveals its story to every visitor in private and in person.

Address: 6A Moskovska str.

Work Hours: Tuesday to Sunday – 10:30 – 17:00