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Published: July 28th 2006
mmk well i'm in sofia now, and seeing that this computer is Windows 98 i'm getting a bad feeling....consequently i'm just going to update w/o pictures and hope i can find a computer from this century in the near future...also, i'm pretending i'm in veliko turnovo still...
so our last day in istanbul consisted of us basically sitting and eating for 75% of the time we had . we sat on the water again because our skin wasn't already charred and i ended up getting my name in cool ottoman arabic caligraphy as well. one of the cafes we sat at was mad chill, with us taking our shoes off and sprawling out on this big couch thing with a table in the middle. after calling home since the phone card i bought did end up working, we enjoyed some turkish apple tea and then it was time to go....
we had a cab called to take us to the otogar, about half an hour away in some light traffic. luckily we remembered what the office that went to veliko turnovo looked like because we definitely never wrote down the name or anything. they were expecting us and after buying some peanut flavored cheetos we got on the bus where there was a nasty fat bulgarian lady sleeping in our seats. i told her in bulgarian she was in our seats, but she showed us her ticket and it seemed like she had the same seat number. after getting help from some turkish ladies it turned out fatty was wrong, and so she got up and left.
this was probably one of the more annoying bus trips, because it took over two hours to cross the border into bulgaria. the bulgarians and turks, like the romanians on the way here, all like STAMPEDE into the duty free shops to buy giant cartons of booze and cigarettes. we ended up being cigarette mules and carrying some boxes for one of the guys that workedthe bus since i'm guessing he bought over the limit for one person. customs harassed that nasty lady from before, so that was rewarding. i made a friend, virgil, and we exchanged email addresses so he can help me with bulgarian and so i could help him with english. he said my bulgarian was good. sweet. i also had one of the hottest ten minutes of my life earlier on, when i spoke 4 languages in a 10 minute period - english and polish with kasia, bulgarian with the turkish ladies and the nasty fatso, and then french with this lady who presumably didn't think i spoke any bulgarian and asked what our deal was and where we were from. yea it was pretty heavenly...
i ended up sleeping for almost half of the ride there which was good, and we arrived in veliko turnovo sometime after 6am. after going into a store and asking where the nearest bankomat, i realized that my keeping up with bulgarian since school has ended is totally paying off. i'm seriously having legit conversations with people and i get the biggest self-confidence and mood boost each time. i have trouble with understanding clusters of numbers, but it was the same with spanish for quite some time. oh well. so i hailed a taxi and we got to our hostel no problem. this little old lady answered the door and said to wait a minute while she rang for the owner. mind you, this is all in bulgarian :-)
i explained to the guy about how we couldn't get anything but an overnight bus or train, and that we had tried to call and email him. he said the number listed was wrong and that he didn't get the email, but that it was fine and that we would just have to sleep in a double with a shared bathroom instead of a private one. he's also only charge us for the one night, which was $10 each. nice and cheap. we ended up basically sleeping for the next four hours until getting up and facing yet another wonderful shower, except this time we were joined by insects and a more industrial feel to the bathroom.
ready to eat, we headed out in search of a restaurant and sat at this outdoor place after getting cash and a map from the information place. the waitress came to the table and just like stared at us. i was like "um, the menu?" she responded in english, "its all in bulgarian." clearly she didn't know who she was dealing with, so i had to tell her that it was fine. once again i was pretty amazing at ordering. the menu was daunting but i secretly loved it. we ended up getting shopska salads (tomato, cucumber, peppers, and feta) and then i got this grilled chicken with mushrooms and cheese and whatnot. finished that off with some nescafe frappes.
next we decided to wander around in search of this bridge that would take us to this big monument thing and presumably across to tsaravets, the big ancient citadel. i asked this man if he knew what street we were on, and it turned into a little bulgarian conversation about where we were from, why i speak bulgarian, etc. etc. i was pretty much glowing. so we got to the bridge, where there's this awesome monument of presumably the Assen brothers who revolted against Constantinople and established the 2nd Bulgarian kingdom, with Veliko Turnovo as its capital. then we explored this art museum right there, which had some pretty cool stuff inside, and mind you i don't like art museums very much.
across the way we saw this hill thing, so we climbed up thinking we'd get to tsaravets but yea, all we got was damp with sweat. its pretty hot here and there was no breeze to be found. once back down from there we decided to take a little break and dry off (disgusting, yes) back at the hostel, which is kind of like dungeon. then it was off to tsaravets since we know where to go, then.
the citadel complex was pretty awesome, and i'd think it beats all of the other various citadels we've seen across eastern europe. the lady at the little ticket desk was kind of a bitch, thinking i didn't understand bulgarian. please, woman. all she kept saying what that is closed at 7. RAZBIRAM. at the top of the citadel was this church thing, the interior of which was painted in this communist-esque modern style depicting the whole Veliko Turnovo in all its glory deal. fun. the woman at the top thought we were russian. um ew, no (no offense, mo)
once out of there we bought some cool postcards and then stopping in front of a shop this man starting rapid-fire talking to us. i was like 'woah- that is NOT bulgarian' though i could understand some of it. he, too, thought we were russian, so apparently we look russian. i was like 'ne, govorime polski'. after all of that and once again chilling for a little bit, we went out in search of a place to eat, eventually picking this 'Pizza Royal' outdoor place since we couldn't find the place recommended in the book. the waitress was chill, though when i asked her to recommend a beer, she went off on some tangent about headaches and being slender, so i don't know what that was about. anyway, we got a salad and pizza. in eastern europe it seems that everyone puts ketchup on their pizza, but here in bulgaria we were presented with ketchup, mustard, mayo, and even seasoning. seriously, its so good with all that crap on it.
once that was done with we hit an internet cafe. i think i spend a a total of about $15 US dollars today between entrace fees to the museum and tsaravets, two big meals, random drinks throughout the day, and chocolate. its pretty awesome and i think i need to look at the information about spring semester in bulgaria. eeek.
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Thanks for journeling your trip so well; I especially enjoy your descriptions of the food. Just where are you putting all your purchases? I can just imagine the size of your backpack! Did you buy some Turkish apple tea?