Plovdiv

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The first true Eastern European stop on my trip, beautiful Plovdiv, home of the best street kebabs in the world. And I don't feel that comment is an exaggeration - wait until you try them! Tania, Emma and I have had a great time here.

The crossing to Bulgaria was smooth, which was nice, and we arrived in Plovdiv and and found our hostel with little drama. We were staying handily on the main pedestrian street in town. The mall is basically made up of clothes shops, it seems Bulgarians are keen on their fashion. Though their taste in clothing may not be quite the same as ours, with the big hair and 80's style. However everyone is nicely dressed and made up, so we made a wee bit of a contrast with our backpacker clothes and jandals. Oh well, tourists are expected to be a bit strange anyway!

The old town is a few minutes walk from the pedestrian mall, and is lovely steep, cobbled, peaceful streets with old 1800's style wooden buildings. Some old houses are set up as kind of museums so we ventured into one, the high decorated wooden ceilings being the standout feature for me, quite different to our interior decoration of the same period. And lovely galleries with icons and pictures, beautiful and so tempting to buy, but I have managed to resist thus far.

It's a great town to wander around, sit in the sun and people watch. And as I mentioned, the street food is great! Pizza, one of Bulgaria's favourite foods, with the obligatory tomato sauce and/or mayo squirted on top, for only 1.50 Bugarian lei, and Aladdin's kebabs, also only 1.50 and simply divine. If only they could be that good everywhere else in the world!

And where else would you find a statue to commemorate a local known for listening in to other peoples conversations and gossiping about them? Milyu, a town icon. Go figure!

While we passed communist style housing and areas on the way into Plovdiv, we didn't encounter in so much in the town, things are well looked after here and made to be attractive. And as per usual for this part of the world, there were Roman ruins everywhere. Even an internet cafe had a lovely view of the ampitheatre, rather a change from the usual basement wall...

If this is Bulgaria, roll on the rest!

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