Blogs from Bulgaria, Europe - page 4

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

My Mother and I always delighted in hearing the whistling of trains as they passed through our town and even more so when once the train brought the circus to town. My first train journey of any length was as a child when my Mother and I traveled by train from the southeastern United States to Canada. The overnight journey included meals in the dining car and sleeping in a Pullman car sleeping bunk that had been made up by a Pullman porter. The train whistles, and the clackity-clack sound of cars on the rails is still a sound I love, and traveling by train in Bulgaria recently brought back all of those warm memories. The state operated rail system in Bulgaria is the Balgarski darzhavni zheleznitsi Holding and is known as the BDZ (БДЖ) for ... read more

RETURN TO BULGARIA When I got off the bus in Thessaloniki I needed an internet connection to contact the host of my Airbnb. I wandered around trying to discover a way to do this. I saw an ad for a computer café on the wall in the terminal, but it turned out to be defunct. Then I met Abdul. He was from Tunisia and spoke English, Turkish and French. He was trying to get to France. He had obtained temporary papers from the Greek police, and had thirty days to find a place to live and a job, and fill out a form for a work visa. Abdul asked what I needed and I explained. He told me where there was open Wi-Fi. We chatted awhile. Then Abdul helped me carry my luggage to a taxi ... read more

Der erste Teil der Fahrt war noch ganz nett. Bergig, kurvig. Dann kam die Stadt Bello Tarnovo und damit der Zivilisationsschock. Was seit Tagen vergessen war nämlich McDonald, Praktiker, Bauhaus und Co erhob plötzlich seine schrecklichen Fratzen und alles war, wie daheim. Immerhin die alten Straßen und die an den Fels geklebten Häuser waren sehr pittoresk. Und die Touristen, die pflichtgemäß diese Schönheiten abwanderten, staunten über ein deutsches Motorrad das diese Gässlein entlang schlich. Am Praktiker Parkplatz, ich brauchte Kleber, sprach mich ein Mann an. Zuerst das Übliche, woher, wohin, allein, Frau, Alter... und das alles ohne gemeinsame Sprache. Aber dann kam er schnell zur Sache und wollte mir unbedingt eine brandneue Stihl Kettensäge verkaufen, die er dezent in einem schwarzen Plastikbeutel herumschleppte. Er wollte einfach nicht verstehen, dass ich keinen Bedarf... read more