My city

My name is Alexandra and I’m an 11 grader at Artis Private School. My interests are closely related to arts and my intentions for the future are for me to study animation in university. Apart from drawing, I enjoy listening to music, reading and, like all people at my age, going out with my friends.

15 years ago my family moved from the town I was born in to Sofia, the city that has been my home for most of my life. Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria, and it is also the biggest city in the country with about 1,300,000 inhabitants, fairly small in comparison with the other European capitals. I think that the smaller size just adds to the general charm of the city.

 What I like the most about Sofia is how diverse it is – there is the urban life and culture, but there is also the closeness to nature. As Sofia is in a valley, surrounded by mountains and just at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, it is close to the Vitosha Nature Park, a popular place for rest, hiking, skiing. We sometimes take our favourable natural conditions for granted, rarely being grateful for the opportunity to enjoy clear air within less than half an hour’s drive.

Sofia also offers all forms of entertainment, besides walking into the forests in the nature park. Many museums, such as the National Historical Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, the Earth and Man National Museum, and galleries - the National Art Gallery and the National Gallery for Foreign Art being the most famous, can be interesting for both tourists and citizens. Cinemas, many cafes, clubs and bars can be visited for those who prefer the night life or just want to have fun. Sofia is by no means a boring place.

If I was supposed to pick a favourite place in the city, I’d have a really hard time deciding – there are so many places I like visiting regularly, for instance the Borisova gradina, a huge park in the centre, the Southern park that is near my school, the Vitosha Boulevard, the main commercial street, and many more. There are so many places I still haven’t seen in Sofia waiting to be discovered.

Although I am not originally from Sofia, and I do love my hometown too, Sofia will always be a place where I can go back to, it is where my friends and family are. It’s my home.

 Alex, Artis school, Sofia, Bulgaria