Blogs from Bulgaria, Europe - page 57

the day started out a bit earlier than normal since we had to be ready @ 9:30 for our excursion to Rila, a bit to the south and in a more mountainy area. we decided that we needed to pick out something "monasterical" to wear there, and so started the day's joke. there were 5 of us, but we split into 2 and 3 since we were taking taxis there, even though it was like a 2 hour ride each way. kasia and i ended up with steve, this guy from melbourne. he just finished working on a cruise ship in turkey for a few months and is just traveling. that's pretty frickin' cool. the car ride was "warm" to say the least, and we certainly got a taste of the best of bulgarian driving. my ... read more

So I'm in Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria now. It's about 10.45. And we just had dinner a little while ago. Before that we walked around the massive fort/citadel structure here. That was really beautiful. There was a strange church/cathedral at the very top, which had no crucifix, nor an altar, nor any seats at all. It was just paintings--and not regular church paintings. They were almost communistic in style, if that makes any sense. Very large and daunting, with bold colors, covering the walls entirely. Before that we chilled at the hostel (which is gross by the way, more on that later) for about a half hour because we were tired and hot and gross from walking around. Before that we walked around Veliko, seeing a few monuments, climbing up to another citadel-ish area, and my favorite, ... read more

My last day in Sofia was very lazy, I don't think I got up until midday, and so I eventually left Sofia rather later than I should have done. Sofia train station was a vast grey labryinth of Cyrillic signs and communist architecture. I had a quick flap as I couldn't find anywhere selling tickets to Plovdiv. Fortunately, I had my trusty Rough guide to hand which informed me that they could be purchased in the basement. I arrived into Plovdiv as darkness was approaching, which is never the ideal situation when trying to find some obscure address in a strange town. Most provincial cities in ex communist countries seem to have very constrastıng sectıons, but in Plovdiv the difference was more pronounced between the lovely old town which was perched on a hill and the ... read more

Riding in from the airport past scores of decaying, grey, communist-era tower blocks wasn't the best way to lift my spirits after a sleepless overnight flight, so Sofia seemed a bit miserable at first. But then what doesn't at 6:30 in the morning. My mood wasn't helped when the hungover ticket inspector declined to show any leniancy towards my unvalidated bus ticket. I was clearly a new arrival in the country who was unaware if the idyosyncrascies of the Bulgarian bus system and I didn't speak any Bulgarian. The Inspector pocketed the fine. I got off the bus by a city centre park containing an enourmous overblown communist monolith, depicting the workers struggle or something like that. The surrounding buildings were graffitied and peeling and the only signs of life were a few stray dogs and ... read more

We had a concert scheduled for the 4th of July but we found out it was cancelled on the way to the concert city so we turned back around and went back to the city we came from. I was dissappointed to hear we had a cancellation but also happy to have the day off for the 4th in the really cute city of Varna. It's on the Black Sea. We had gone to the Golden Sands beach the day before but it was too windy and the waves were too big to swim safely. We still tried though and got yelled at. We all walked out of the water with tons of sand in our swimming suits. For the 4th I went into the city with some of my teammates, walked along the beach, and ... read more