Month: May 2023

We had a really nice time in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria and felt well taken care of at the Gurko Hotel. The owner made these small spring bouquets for each table in the dining room.  Our last evening there it was cool enough for a fire in the fireplace.

We left the coziness of the hotel feeling a bit anxious about making transportation connections for our journey to Romania.  The first step was to catch a bus to Ruse, Bulgaria.  We waited at the bus station (shown below) for a minivan/bus to Ruse, Bulgaria.

We arrived safely in Ruse and walked a short distance to catch a train to Bucharest, Romania.  It was a slow train and we had to give up our passports twice – once as we left Bulgaria and again when we crossed the border into Romania. We were nervous giving up our passports but there was no other option and both times, they were returned to us after about 30 minutes. The train was slow, hot, and sometimes stinky but we arrived in Bucharest after about three hours.  Larry called a Bolt (ride share) and it arrived a minute later and we hopped in.  Several miles into the ride, the driver discovered that we were not the passengers that he was supposed to pick up.  He pulled over and let us out of the car – he was very nice about it.  We got another ride-share car and made our way to our hotel  in Bucharest. Old Town Bucharest has many grand buildings and a mix of architectural styles.  There is a lively cafe scene and many families out for dinner and a stroll on a Saturday evening.  Later in the night, boisterous party goers took over the streets and we were kept awake by wild Romanian dance music!

We only spent one night in Bucharest but we’re looking forward to spending a few more days here at the end of this trip.  Sunday morning, we took another ride share to the Bucharest Airport to pick up a rental car.  Our kind driver Vasile pointed out Bucharest highlights along the way and gave us a mini Romanian language lesson.  He dropped us off and we walked down a gravel road to the WLC (We Love Cars) office.

A couple of wrong turns and we were on our way to our next stop…Sibiu, Romania.  Larry is a fearless driver, the car is comfortable, the highways are well maintained and with GPS, easy to navigate.  The drive was beautiful with snow capped mountains, rivers, greenery, and gorges.  We arrived in Sibiu five hours later.  It’s a cute town and we will spend the next four nights here.

Larry suspects that this Banca Transylvania is probably a “blood bank”!

So we’re finally settled in Sibiu for a few days.  We hope to do some day trips from here and we might even make a trip to Dracula’s Castle!

Veliko Tarnovo is a lovely town with panoramic views and gorgeous scenery. We are fortunate to be here in the spring when the weather is good and the crowds are light. We are enjoying spring blossoms…iris, columbine, and redbud trees and blooming now.  The location and comfort of Gurko Hotel has worked well for us.

The hotel breakfast is delicious with a variety of choices. We like the Bulgarian yogurt with fruit, the muesli, the muffins, the flaky cheese pastry, and the good coffee.

This morning we walked along the Arts and Crafts street and met a local ceramic artist. She has worked with the Archeological Museum to study the patterns on pottery pieces excavated nearby and adapted the designs to create her own images. She uses clay from the hills nearby to make her pottery. She has some lovely designs.

With some difficulty, we eventually found the Archeological Museum.  The collection is limited but we saw some interesting objects found locally.

We’ve covered many miles here and strengthened our calves walking the hilly streets of Veliko Tarnovo.

This is our last full day in Bulgaria and we feel that we have barely scratched the surface of all that there is to see. We’ve enjoyed  learning about the complicated history of this country, the delicious food, and the hospitality of the people.

We’ve had a wonderful stay but tomorrow, we’re heading for Romania!

We arrived by bus yesterday and took a cab ride into town from the dusty bus station on the outskirts. We are staying in the Hotel Gurko with a great view of the Yantra River and an unusual monument located on an island connected to the town by a bridge.

We have a small apartment with a balcony – it’s in a traditional timber and stone building and there is cozy tavern downstairs.

The tavern at the hotel serves hearty meals like roasted pork knuckle, Bulgarian meatloaf and grilled trout.  The food is tasty and red Bulgarian wines are very good.

It’s early spring here and flowers are in bloom.  We admired these!

Today the Free City Tour was canceled so we made our own tour following a map from the Tourist Office.  We walked around the grounds of the Tsarevets Fortress and toured the church at the top of the hill.

Rather than traditional icons the walls of the church were painted with contemporary murals.

We walked down the street selling local crafts.  This guy’s manner seemed a little “wooden” at first but he was nice once I got to know him. 😊

We finished our tour before the rain…now it’s sunny again.  We have one more day here before we make some complicated transportation connections on our way to Bucharest, Romania.

The Free City Tours have been excellent.  Today Ilya led around the city on a two-hour tour.  He did an great job of sprinkling in interesting historical facts at each stop along the way.

The tour began in front of one of the many city parks which you can see in the background in the photo above.  We learned that Plovdiv is considered to be one of the longest continually inhabited cities in the world.  It’s between 6000-8000 years old!

The historical timeline is complicated.  It was settled by the Thracians because the surrounding hills made it easy to defend, the river provided fertile soil for growing crops (like the Nile River in Egypt), and the climate is moderate.  It was captured by Philip II of Macedonia, taken over by the Romans, and destroyed by the Huns.  And that’s just the early history…

We made a stop in the Old Town where we saw a couple of guys enjoying  coffee and conversation.

There is a bit of graffiti around town,

but for the most part, Plovdiv is very clean and tidy.  Today in the parks, workers are removing the spring pansies and planting summer flowers.  We are impressed by all of the beautiful green spaces with monuments, flowers, and many trees.

The main streets are lined with shops selling clothing, souvenirs, jewelry and more.  The photo below is of the inside of the Orange Bookshop – a Bulgarian chain.

We expected the food in Bulgaria to be heavy with meats and potatoes but we have had some beautifully prepared and delicious meals at half the cost of a comparable meal at home.  We’ve had duck, pastas, lamb, seafood and very creative salads.  The salad below is from Hemingways in Plovdiv – it has fresh greens, tomatoes, strawberries and glazed-with-honey goat cheese.

The desserts are delicious too!  We had a funny misunderstanding when a waiter described a special Rosemary Cheesecake.  We thought that sounded really unique and ordered a slice.  When it arrived it was dark pink in color and we realized that the waiter confused the word rosemary with the word raspberry.  It was a slice of raspberry cheesecake with a chocolate crust.  Still tasty but a surprise.

As we expected, Bulgaria is full of surprises!

It’s a special day here in Bulgaria!  May 1 is a holiday and also LARRY’s birthday!  We’ve had a whacky sort of day but all is well and we’re looking forward to a nice dinner to celebrate!  🎂🎉💃🥂

We left the hotel this morning in search of laundry services.  We followed Google’s directions walking for 20 minutes to find that the laundromat had moved.  We retraced our steps, followed Google,again, and found the new location of Mr. Jeff’s Laundry Services.  If all goes well, we should have our clothes by noon tomorrow.🤞

Our next task was to go to the Bus Station to buy tickets to Veliko Tarnovo for our trip on Wednesday.   As it sometimes happens, we got on a bus going the wrong direction.  We rode to the end of the line, realized our mistake and got on the next bus going in the right direction.  An hour later, we arrived!

We we’re able to check out the schedule and learned that we can only buy tickets on the bus the day of travel.  We found the departure point (Cektop 2 – Veliko Tarnovo is first on the list) so we’ll know where to be at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

We caught the city bus back into town.  The guy on the right is the “Ticket Seller”.  Each bus has someone onboard to collect the fare.  It costs 1 Lev (fifty cents) for a ride.

There are Roman Ruins all over this city!  Kids use them as a playground and we used this one as a pathway to get to the gelato stand.

Some very kind people helped us out today and we’re grateful!