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Published: November 14th 2007
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We were woken suddenly by the lights being turned on inside the bus. It was five thirty so an hour earlier than we were supposed to arrive in Plovdiv. We asked the steward if this was our stop and she nodded so we jumped off. We just got our bags and the coach drove off leaving us at a station without a name.
My instructions from Hikers hostel said to get bus no. 7,20 from the right of the station which we did. We paid the driver and settled down to look out for our stop. It didn't come. After consulting our guidebook we realised we had got the bus in the wrong direction so we decided to stay on and go back to the station. A woman approached us and seemed to ask for money. We showed her our tickets and she shook her head and started ranting. Envisioning the Crimea Rob got his wallet out to pay again, however she wanted 1.40 and we only had a 20. She shook her head and continued to rant, this time to the guy sitting next to me. He turned to me and asked if I spoke German, so we resolved
the matter with pigeon German. Everything was sorted but we didn't want to push our luck by staying on past the station so we had to jump off.
Our second attempt at getting to the hostel was more successful despite taking longer. As we walked up the highstreet we saw people leaving a night-club. When we arrived at Hikers hostel we chose a bedroom that was in a different location. The room was cold and we were tired so we hopped into bed.
When we woke, the weather outside was terrible. The rain was cascading down the window and it looked so cold and windy. We sat for a while and planned our route for the rest of the journey and looked at the map of Plovdiv in the hope that we could memorise it.
Plovdiv is a beautiful place but it took a lot of effort to appreciate it in the weather. We walked around old town and nearly got blown off the viewing point. We sheltered inside a church for a while but felt seriously misplaced and left pretty quickly. Once we had finished old town we walked into the new part and bought Fornetti.
We then tried to find the famous amphitheater but we couldn't. I'm sure it was right in front of our noses but it was too cold to look at the map for long.
At the main hostel there were two men sitting chatting so we joined them. They had both been to the Ukraine so we all enjoyed a good old moan about the terrible guides we all used. One of the men had been traveling for the last ten years all by bike and he was well into his sixties. His stories and tales could have kept us there all night, but we needed to get ready to go out.
We first tried a restaurant that had been recommended to us by people at Hikers Hostel but it was full, so we tried a few others that were all full. Eventually we found one that had space and we had starters, mains, pudding and a bottle of Rose for less than £10.
After our decent meal we headed to a bar recommended by the guy at the hostel called Red Eye. We (Steph) managed to forget to bring the map which had the bar marked on
it and so after a while of stumbling round and asking random strangers we eventually found a small house like building. If we hadn't been shown to the door we would have had no idea that the bar existed; no real noise came from the place and no people were going in and out the building. Inside the door with no sign we ascended a set of stairs with few lights and arrived in a small living room sized place packed with people.
Vodka. Like Ukraine, vodka is a constituent of the blood running through most Bulgarians. Inside the club we thought what we could order with limited Bulgarian phrases and so thought "vodka - coca cola" is pretty universal so we both got large vodkas and coke. This was 100ml of vodka and a bottle of 125ml Coke! The price for both drinks; 200ml of vodka and 250ml of coke came to about 2GBP. Too strong for myself (and reminiscing Lviv) that was where the vodka ended and I moved to the very palatable Bulgarian beer.
The music in the club was torn between some sort of rock and old classics like rock and roll and "Surfin'
USA". People actually looked at us strangely for surfing during "Surfin' USA" absurdly. After a bit of dancing our friend who ran the hostel appeared and so we talked with him and had a few drinks. When people started leaving we moved on to another club which
had live music on. After paying a pitifully amount to get in we got to listen to a band playing more great English songs like "Country Roads" and Hendrix songs. Steph nipped to the toilet and after ages came back saying how she had met the most amazing girl. From what I gathered of the conversation; Steph looked at the hole-in-the-floor toilet and the girl had advised her on how to use it - with squatting action! Later I was introduced to this 'Girl' and her boyfriend who was the singer and guitar player in the band.
After the band stopped playing our friend from the hostel bidded us farewell as he was at work in 5 hours (8 in the morning). We went with the couple to a club underneath a bar. This place was not the greatest; bad music, lasers and weird jazz type dance stuff. After putting up with
Birds
St. Marys Cathederal conversations like "err...erm...my English is no good, I'm...err...very drunk, sorry" over and over I was a bit bored with the boyfriend. Suddenly Steph felt ill and this was my break for freedom; leaving the guy I went outside to where Steph was sitting and so I put her coat around her. We went back in and said goodbye, swapping email addresses and what not and set off for the hostel.
At the hostel Steph was feeling worse for wear and laid down with a bucket. We had little bottled water so I nipped off to the local Kebab joint and bought a couple of bottles. Back at the hostel Steph was asleep, so I switched off the light and slipped into bed. Sweet dreams.
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Brian
non-member comment
Stephs Turn
Hi Stob Did you laugh at Steph when it was her turn to be laid low by the dreaded Vodka,I'm Sure you wouldnt ROB Cheers Brian