Blogs from Veliko Tarnovo, Veliko Tarnovo Province, Bulgaria, Europe - page 4

I have had some trouble starting this entry. As I write, I watch the goat herders with their flock pass outside my window. I hear my neighbors’ roosters crowing. The sun is shining, yet there is snow on the not so distant Stara Planina ranges. The air is cool, and is mixed with the unmistakable smell of livestock and the sweet smoke of wood burning stoves. The bees are pollinating the beautiful cherry blossoms; I can hear their collective buzz outside my window. We arrived in the small village of Dzhulyunitsa outside Veliko Tarnovo about two weeks ago. This was our temporary destination after leaving Scotland and travelling 2000 miles across Europe with the dogs. Our plan was rigorously thought out and studied - Anne read many blogs to come up with the best solution. Our ... read more

I kind of hopped in and out of Bulgaria on my way to and from Romania. I spent 3 days in Sophia just playing tourist then I headed up to Romania for a week. On my way to Istanbul I made a stop in Vielko Tarnovo. Vielko Tarnovo is one of those places you hear through the grape vine and when you get there you end up falling in love. It's such a beautifull city and there was so much to see. Every night there was a sound and light show at the fortress which was amazing and lasted for 30 min, I just wish I could have been able to get better pictures of it. I stayed at a great little hostel and could have stayed there for weeks but after a few days I ... read more

Well, this was an interesting few days... We left Plovdiv intending to head to Macedonia, via Sofia as there is no direct bus. Which meant getting up at 4.30 to get to the bus station to make the early bus so we could connect early in Sofia, which we did. And we quietly congratulated ourselves on making the connections with no issues and having things go so smoothly. Just before the Macedonian border however, reading the ever referred to Lonely Planet, we discovered that while Tania and I, as Kiwis, didn't need visas to get into Macedonia (which we'd carefully checked beforehand) Emma J, who is Australian, actually did require one. In advance. Unfortunately she had not checked, and therefore had no required visa to obtain entry into Macedonia. At the Macedonian border the border police ... read more

With bags packed we headed down to breakfast. It again consisted of dry bread and stopping Darko from hitting food from our hands. After forcing as much down as possible, free is free after all, macs adhorned we went to try the bus station yet again. We encountered much the same problem as the day before; no one in the ticket office for the Istanbul buses. Fortunately our luck changed and someone was in the information booth and from her we managed to get two tickets to Turkey. Although we were slightly worried when we heard "problem" repeatedly when she was on the phone organising the tickets. With two freshly written tickets in our pockets we headed for the castle but felt that if we were going to take castle seeing seriously we'd need to line ... read more

After a late night we were looking forward to a late breakfast and an easy departure from Bucharest. Instead we were woken up at 8:30 by the worst thing one can get woken up by; young American girls. They didn't extend the courtesy of creeping around as we had the night before. Quite happily they dressed, spoke and giggled without a care given to the two of us sleeping (or not sleeping). This was not the start we had planned. Once all sign of them had disappeared we got up, dressed and packed and went for the best meal of the day; breakfast. Again we had egg, breads and spreads; I particularly enjoy the fresh white bread and strawberry jam and only ate a mere 6 slices! We had given ourselves plenty of time and so ... read more