Category: Bulgaria/Romania

Sibiu is a cute town with lots of charm and a well preserved medieval center.  The town was founded by German settlers in the 12th century.

Many of the buildings have “eyes” on the roof tops – there is a legend that says that the “eyes” were meant to frighten people into believing that they were being watched.  The real reason for the “eyes” – the openings provide for a ventilation system for the buildings.

Parking spots in this city are hard to find so we parked the car on Sunday and it hasn’t moved.  There’s a sophisticated parking app that lets us pay the fee for parking from our phone each day. The cost for a day of parking is about $2.20.

We spent some time at the History of Pharmacy Museum. There was a nice display of tools for making early plant-based medicines.

Larry got a chance to work behind the counter!

A landmark in Sibiu is “The Bridge of Lies” – the first cast iron bridge in Romania.

There is a small market along the river.  Strawberries are in season and so ripe that the sweet fragrance is pervasive.

…and if I could, I’d take these Dalia plants home for my garden.

The Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church is on the Main Square.  It’s described as having an “exuberantly decorated interior.”

We’re staying at Casa Luxemburg. It’s a comfortable place to stay as the room is large and nicely furnished. The downside is…no elevator here.  We’re stronger for having to carry luggage two floors up a winding staircase.

The temps are chilly but we’ve only had one rainy day here. Tomorrow we’ll retrieve the rental car and head for our next stop – Cluj Napoca!

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!

The weather is changeable – sunny, rainy, and then sunny again!  In spite of that, people are out today enjoying lunch and drinks at the outdoor cafes.

We left Sofia by bus yesterday, arrived after about 2.5 hours and checked into the centrally-located Villa Flavia.  It’s very nice.  Our room is large, the breakfast very good and it’s reasonably-priced.

Today we walked to the Ancient Roman Theater.  We were very careful not to tumble down the marble steps as there are very few hand rails.  The theater was constructed in the 1st Century AD.  It can hold between 5000 and 7000 spectators and during the summer they host plays and musical performances there.

Larry brought along his drone to get a birds-eye view but unfortunately, a nice security guard told him that he couldn’t launch from inside the theater.  He told Larry that he could fly from outside the theater grounds but Larry decided not to do so.  Below the yellow circle shows the drone during its brief flight.

There are many street food options around town – gelato, shawarma, and pizza-by-the-slice, but the most unique snack is a cup of sweet corn with butter on top!  It’s very popular!

We can see the minaret on the mosque at the end of our street!  It’s a good landmark in a city of twisty, turning streets.

We have a couple more days to explore Plovdiv before we move on to our next stop – Veliko Tarnovo.

 

We spent our last full day in Sofia wandering around town catching up on  things we might have missed.  We returned to the impressive         Athena-esque Sofia Monument.  It was erected in 2000 and stands in a spot where there was once a statue of Lenin.

Sofia’s crown is a symbol of power, the laurel wreath she is holding symbolizes fame, and the owl symbolizes wisdom.  The statue has been  controversial as some think that it’s too risqué, but it’s quite an impressive image!

Last night we went to the Sofia Opera House to see a performance of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

The set was colorful and the theater nearly full.   Sofia has a long history of opera performance, though the National Opera House is a fairly modern addition, built in 1947. For this performance, the role of Madame Butterfly was performed by Italian Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi and most of the rest of the cast members were Bulgarian.  We enjoyed the experience!

We’ve had a good stay in Sofia – it’s an up and coming city!  There is quite a bit of construction around town and we think in another year or two, it will be even better.  There is a great outdoor cafe scene but its still early spring here so it was too chilly for us to enjoy it.  We had some difficulty with the language and noticed that there are many smokers.  In fact, Bulgaria has the highest smoking rate among European countries.  All in all, we’re glad we came!

We’ve packed up and will soon take a taxi to the bus station for our next stop – Plovdiv.  The trip by bus takes about 2 hours.  We’re looking forward to exploring a new destination in Bulgaria!

 

Today we visited a unique museum called The Red Flat.   The museum is designed to allow visitors to go back in time to Communist Bulgaria of the 1980’s. By visiting the apartment home of an average family we learned what everyday life was like for ordinary Bulgarians during the Cold War. We listened to a series of 46 short stories on a headset while we wandered from room to room, looked at family photos, opened closets and drawers, and imagined what life must have been like for this family of husband, wife, and son.

We spent about 2 hours here learning about the Petrovi family.

The National Art Gallery was less interesting but we enjoyed a quick look at the Icon Painting at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Dinner at the Crazy Diamond Restaurant was a treat.  The flavors were unique and delicious; and the setting in an old house was fun and funky.

Our walk back to the hotel took us past the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the highest  point in Sofia.  In the daytime, we can see snow covered mountains in the distance.  There is a major construction project in front of the Cathedral so it be more photogenic once the project is completed.

So, we’re finding Sofia to be an interesting city to visit.  It’s still cold and chilly but spring flowers are in bloom so warmer weather is surely on the way!

 

Today we did something that we rarely do when we travel…we took a two-hour long city walking tour!

Typically we start our day in a new-to-us city with a good map and a hope that we’ll discover the highlights on our own.  We found that reading a map and following street signs in Bulgarian makes getting around  a daunting task.  We stopped in an English-language bookstore and a kind store manager Rado, pointed out “must see” stops, answered our questions, and suggested the Free Walking Tour as the way to go.  We’re grateful for the excellent suggestion.  Kris was a good guide, stopping at important points through this city with a long and complicated history.  The tour was an excellent way to become acquainted with Sofia.  We met people from Australia, Canada, Germany, England, Hong Kong, and a young woman from the Ukraine who is living in Istanbul.

The weather is breezy and chilly – spring is just getting underway here!

We have a lot more to learn, museums to visit, and places to discover in this city.  It’s a bit gritty around the edges but fascinating and we hope that two more days here will give us a better understanding.