From one extreme to the other

I’m so sorry that it’s taken me so long to write this one up. You’ll see as we go along that I just haven’t had it in me to do anything and I need to be on the ball to be the best writer I can be. I don’t want to turn out subpar articles.

So, three weeks ago I finally did my first official extreme day trip to Sofia which is the capital of Bulgaria. I’ve never been to Bulgaria before and I was very much looking forward to it. I had planned to fly from Liverpool at 06:30 landing in Sofia at 11:50 and departing at 23:25. So, plenty of time. The flights cost me £52 with Ryanair. No frills needed. I booked parking on a local driveway eight mins walk away from the airport for £6 through the Your Parking Space App.

Now before I go on I feel I should explain the concept. Extreme day trips have become quite the thing recently. They are basically trips where you go abroad, flying out in the morning and back in the evening or anything less than 24 hours or if you can bend the rules to fit. There are numerous Facebook groups to discuss and they even do group trips. Most people find their trips through budget airlines such as Ryanair or EasyJet through search engines such as SkyScanner or Google Flights. Recently I have been using a dedicated search engine on extremedaytrips.com. As the name suggests it is tailored to searching purely for day trips and you can even get notifications to your inbox. It definitely fine tunes your searching and takes so much less time. I do pay for the premium membership which is absolutely worth it. They also cover overnighters. There are some itineraries on there too. The link is below. I’d definitely recommend a look!

ExtremeDayTrips.com

Ok back to the trip. The drive from Manchester to Liverpool at that time in the morning was glorious. It was empty. I cruised down the motorway listening to my music with the window down slightly and the cool air keeping me awake. I found the parking space and set off for the airport. Eight minutes. Can’t be that bad. Wrong. The drive was the last of the nice feelings. It was supposed to be eight minutes but recently my back/legs have been playing up and I’ve been struggling to walk far and today apparently eight minutes was too far. In fact, two minutes as too far. That eight minutes took me more like twenty due to the multiple stops on the way and the frantic panicked phone call to Adam to say I’m not sure I can do it. It was like my legs just wouldn’t move. He convinced me I’d be annoyed at myself for cancelling and so I pressed on. Even dreading the next walk through the airport.

I managed it. Just about. There was no free time in the airport and I had arrived at the parking space more than two hours before my flight and I hadn’t queued for anything. The flight was fine. I just put my hood up, sleep sounds on and fell asleep for three hours.

Yet another walk on the other side to the metro which gets you to the city. However, I was amazed at it costing €0.80 and it was a 40 min journey. I couldn’t believe it. Where else can you get a train for 70p? Nuts. I wasn’t entirely sure where to get off the train though. I had spotted someone with an ‘EDT’ bag tag and so I very nearly followed them off the train at their stop. Luckily I didn’t because it was the wrong one. I have a habit of doing that. When I was in uni my car broke down and I had to get the train but didn’t know where I was going and I recognised someone my boyfriend at the time knew but I didn’t know him and I was too shy to ask him for directions so I just followed him thinking he would be going to the university as well. Turns out he was going to the other university in the city. To make matters worse he had a broken leg and was on crutches so I was following very slowly and just looked like a stalker. And then even worse, the boyfriend told him anyway and when I got to know him he took the piss out of me so I learned that lesson.

I got to the city centre and decided I would just hobble around the main cluster of sights and that would be an achievement. Everything was as in relatively close proximity but of course it took me hours to walk between things. What I found absolutely fascinating was the ancient ruins just in the middle of the street among the relatively (<100 year old) big city buildings. It made for very interesting viewing. There were also lots of different looking religious buildings which was nice to see.

At one point I got a cab because I just couldn’t walk any further. I think English may have been his second language. And I could tell he was pissed off and he kept huffing and puffing and hitting the dashboard. I think it was because it was such a short drive.

In the evening I walked up the boulevard for pizza and cake. There were definitely some interesting characters. I did feel a little intimidated at times. Lots of gangs of youths. God, writing that made me feel ancient.

I decided to taxi back to the airport just because the walk back to the metro was about 15 mins and I was managing 17 steps at a time. Yes, I counted.

The airport was like a sauna but otherwise everything was smooth again. On landing again realised I wouldn’t be able to walk back to the car and had to get a taxi to somewhere that was an eight min walk. £12 that cost me. £12. Well spent though I’d say.

I decided enough was enough. I didn’t go home. I drove straight to A&E. There was no way I was just leaving this now. I was examined and had an MRI which was normal and referred to a specialist. And until the last two days I’ve basically been in bed. Unable to do anything. Still uncertain of what’s going on. It’s probably just muscular but it needs sorting. The pain had gone after resting but the first day back to work it immediately came back again. I’m actually on a plane writing this. Again the struggle was real today and I’ll write up this trip later. Let’s hope it’s not another tale of two extremes.

🧳 UNPACKED

• Sofia is easy and cheap to get to and perfect for an extreme day trip.
• Liverpool airport is also easy and cheap to travel from. Your Parking Space is a great parking alternative to the main parking options or getting cabs.
• The main attractions in Sofia are walkable. If you can actually walk.
• Do not ignore lower back pain with pain in the legs. Go to the hospital. Do not be like me and plod on.

📦 PACK HERE Your Parking Space

📦 PACK HERE Ryanair

📦 PACK HERE Extreme Day Trips