Parking in the city centre has always been an experience bordering on anything from a sheer nuisance to an outright nightmare, especially in grid locked, congested urban centres, lacking the modern infrastructure which would allow for the city to accommodate the growing number of vehicles. Athens is notorious in the Balkan Peninsula for this trend, but then Sofia is also not lagging too far behind.

But whereas paid parking in Athens rivals that of Washington DC, Sofia still offers considerably lower charges. In fact, Bulgaria's capital is way behind most European cities – and this time – for a change, this is good news.

Whether to park for a day or to have access to parking anytime during the month, the world’s top cities remain among the most expensive places to park a car. According to a report from Colliers International, no one region dominated this year’s survey - with a good mix of North American, European, Asia Pacific and the Middle Eastern cities all represented in the top 10.

Perhaps predictably, the most expensive city to park a car for a month in the world is London. The City аnd West End sub-markets ranked number one and number two in the world. Monthly parking rates in the City topped the global list at $933.00 а month followed by the west end at $874.00, the Colliers report said on August 2 2010.

By comparison, Sofia costs 186.00 leva a month, the report said.

London is followed by Hong Kong in second place at $744.72 a month, Tokyo in third at $654, Rome in fourth at $615, and Zurich at 605.64, wrapping up the top five.

New York is in ninth place – with $538.00, while Washington DC is less than half the price of New York, at $245.00. Athens, on the other hand, is one dollar more expensive than the Unites States capital – at $246.06 a month.