Blogs from Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria, Europe

After climbing Plovdiv's small hill culminating in the massive Alyosha monument (sort of a Tomb of the Unknown Soviet Soldier), I could only discern 4 hills: clock tower, TV tower, the higher Youth Hill behind me, and, of course, Alyosha on which I was standing. During the next day's Socialist Architecture Walking tour (not to be missed but only a couple days/week during high season), the guide told me that Old Town consists of three hills allegedly making the total number seven. Dubious topography aside, Plovdiv was fantastic. Hard to phathom that less than 3 weeks ago I was still in Plovdiv as I am now sweltering in Malacca, Malaysia. Mid-day have to chillax in the AC hostel so using the time to wrap up this blog entry. $US ≈ 1.80 Bulgarian lev (лв) PlovdivI really ... read more

I headed to the main bus station in Sofia to take the bus to Plovdiv. I had done a bit of research online and found that buses leave fairly regularly and there were a few different companies to choose from. I had hoped to make it to the bus station for the bus at nine, but I was too lazy to get out of bed, which was a blessing in this case as when I got to the bus station that bus had sold out earlier as had a few others. You can book tickets online for some buses in Bulgaria, but you have to print out your conformation and then exchange it at the station for a paper ticket for the driver. Seems like a total waste of time and doesn't exactly minimise human interaction. ... read more

It is Sunday morning and we had now been in Bulgaria for a week. Each day had been an education on Bulgaria: its ancient and recent historical treasures, its art & architecture, traditional culture, food and even modes of transportation. We had seen sites spanning many historical eras: the 20th-century remnants of the Communist era, Koprivshtitsa’s 19th-century Bulgarian National Revival architecture, the Ottomans’ 14th century mosque and 1st century Roman engineering in Plovdiv. Today’s scheduled jaunt would take us to sites from the early Medieval or Middle Ages period, roughly the 5th to 15th centuries. Our Euromeet host, John, had arranged a day trip to two significant sites built in this time frame: Asen’s Fortress and Bachkovo Monastery. We had a very light breakfast at the hotel before taking a taxi over to ou... read more

Often I have found myself visiting a place that is so interesting that my curiosity cannot be satisfied with a short visit only. There rarely is enough time to see and do everything much less take all the photos I hope to. This was certainly true for the village of Koprivshtitsa which we had just visited, and the same could be said for my thoughts on the city of Sofia. But it's also exciting to think about places you've yet to visit, so it was time to move on. We left Koprivshtitsa by way of the same bumpy, winding road we arrived on. Driving up the mountain had been much more fun than the coming down! I'm not sure that anyone else noticed, but the incredibly steep downgrade caused our minibus driver to have his foot ... read more

fabulous trip with my friends Dan & Zlate... read more