If you want to have a glimpse into the life of a Bulgarian, hop on the subway trains to Obelya and head to Lyulin – the largest neighbourhood of the city, which by itself is populous enough to be the seventh largest city in Bulgaria with more than 130 thousand official inhabitants. Lyulin’s huge maze of identical panel blocks (“panelki” in Bulgarian) in the typical socialist style spread over ten micro-districts. The lack of imagination in communist residential architecture is compensated by the local residents’ desire to pimp their balconies, facades and windows by all sorts of (legal and illegal) items.

#soSofia tip: Lyulin can be a tough neighbourhood, keep that in mind.