Bulgaria Nov 08

So we walk our way into Bulgaria at 11am with high hopes for an easy lift to the town of Varna. We find a currency exchange office just over the border and swap our remaining Romanian money and find out the bus to Varna leaves in 3 hours! We decide to make a sign and try to hitch, although the road is almost deserted. A couple of cars drive past us in the process - one seems to be laughing at us, the others have no space for 2 people and 2 packs...

Just as we were finishing the sign, a dodgy mini van arrives and offers to drive us to Varna for 40 Euro... A lot of money for about 80 kms. We negotiate him down, settling on a town about half way there, and voom, we are off.

Arriving at Karnava, we find the bus station and ask if they speak English, they nod their head. Mands asks a series of questions about how to get to Varna. Answering only in Bulgarian, we managed to purchase tickets and work out where the bus departs. Only after leaving we remember that Bulgarians nod their head for NO and shake for YES. So no, they did not speak English... our fault!

After a short time checking out the town, we board our bus to the very popular Black Sea party town of Varna. We are pleased to find they do not charge you extra for bags in this country. Everywhere else in Eastern Europe the drivers take a couple of dollars per bag... This sure adds up.

Varna

First stop was the Tourist office at the bus station, that is showing a sign for accommodation. The lady appears annoyed that we have interrupted her ¨doing nothing¨ when we enquire about sleeping options. After a brief phone call she tells us there is only one room available in the whole city and the price is 55 dollars (they convert about 1:1 so we just talk in Aussie terms). Wanting to see the room before we commit to anything, and thinking there are probably cheaper options about, we ask for the name of the hotel, in case we can´t find anything ourselves. The lady rudely responds ¨No! We do not provide that kind of information, only book rooms¨. Mands is pretty put off by this and mockingly thanks her and leaves... I guess these ´only one room´ lines work in the busy season. Once again we are glad to travel outside of the busiest times.

Our 'looking lost' whilst walking through town attracts a local who offers to find us accommodation in a homestay. Once again our little bit of German helps us communicate. We pass up the first option, insisting on a lower price. Eventually we find our way to a little unit with a tiny bedroom with two singles (couches?). The lady owner (who slept in the kitchen) was surprised to see us, but she seemed very nice and we agreed to stay.

Now late in the afternoon, we head out to see the town. We finally get our feet wet in the Black Sea and stroll through some very impressive parks and beach fronts. We bar hop a couple of times in search of a restaurant. Unfortunately the options appear quite unappealing, so we settle for pizza and salad.

Returning home around 8pm, our land lady is happy to see we are safe, seemingly worried about where we were! Her granddaughter is now home from school and speaks English well. We join them for tea and swap a few stories while they watch Bulgarian Dancing With the Stars (TV is pretty much the same format all around the world). We find out the girls mother was killed in a car accident and she is now living with her grandmother. Quite sad, but we are not surprised after driving in Romania.

We visit the Archaeological Museum the next morning, with their impressive collection dating back to pre-Thracian times. Apparently these molded gold jewelery finds have proven that the first civilization in the world first commenced in these parts, before Mesopotamia. Interesting, but I will leave that debate to the historians.

We then set off for our bus to Veliko Tarnavo, looking for something to eat along the way. Craving salad, we end up tempted by the BBQ chickens roasting in the street. We ask to see a menu and decide to sit down to lunch afterall. Turns out it is a great decision as we enjoyed one of the nicest meals we´ve had. Eggplant salad, bean salad, Bulgarian Hotch Potch (hot pot), yummy bread and a beer.....mmmmm.

By chance we book onto a first class bus to Veliko Tarnovo as it was the next departing time. Our Cyrillic alphabet skills are put to the test in these trips, as no destinations are in roman letters, let alone English.  For example, Velico Tarnovo is written 'Велико Търново' and Sofia is 'София', include every other possible destination and you get a tricky puzzle. Thankfully we chose correctly as we sit back and enjoy the onboard complimentary espresso coffee service in our oversize seats.

Velico Tarnovo

Arriving in the dark at what we guess is our destination (drivers shout something in Bulgarian that is not understood by our foreign ears). We confirm this is Velico Tarnavo by asking a couple of bystanders... They must think we are pretty stupid not knowing what city we are in... It would get worse if we admitted we couldn´t say with confidence the date of the week or month.

We walk towards town and the hope of a hostel for the night. We read many positive reviews for hostels on hostelwold.com, but did not book or save any of these details. So we fire up lappy (Yes, our lame name for our trusty little laptop) and linger around cafes, bars and hotels seeking an open Wifi network. We finally hook into one and find a hostel that is said to have good tours. As we are staying 2 nights, we aim for the highly recommended Nomads Hostel. Not too far from us.

Not sure if we have mentioned this before, but almost all Balkan countries have almost zero street signs. You can spend 2 days in a city before you see one. So backpacking around at night with an average map can turn into a very frustrating exercise... One of the only ways to confirm streets is to find businesses that print their address on their own doors... And then translate this Cyrillic text to Roman alphabet... All while you are tired, cold, hungry and often in disagreement about where to go next... Often one of the most trying parts of travel.

On this occasion, we find our way straight there. As the door opens, with hopeful expressions we ask if they have and beds available... Yes, no problem. Excellent! Even though few people travel at this time and dorms are often empty, we are still relieved to find a nice hostel for a couple of nights sanctuary.

Our hostel owners are a couple of chilled Bulgarians who live in the building. A bit like staying at the friend of a friend of a friends... You don´t know them, but you expect to get along because of the likelihood of similarities. Fedio, our welcoming owner, provides a map and few details about the town and pours us a round of Rakija, Bulgarian style – told to sip it not skull it – ohhhhhhh! Could explain a few of the funny looks we have been getting when we previously knock back our shots... Fedio also feeds us a bowl of home-made lentil soup for dinner. Nice...how could we not like the place.

We spend the next day hiking through and around the town. The town was the old capital during a brief period of Bulgarian independence. It now holds a place of significant cultural pride and, as it was largely left undeveloped in later years, it has maintained much of it´s middle ages structure and appeal, capped with a very impressive hilltop fortress. We found a stubborn fog shrouded the valley for most of the day and our views (photos) were a little obscured by this effect until 2pm...

We did visit the Monastery area in the surrounding hills. Nice area, but very quiet at this time of year. Apparently much of this area is run by Bulgarian mafia... Not sure what to make of that allegation, we ask our Hostel owner later in the week. He shares a couple of local stories on the topics. Firstly, it is assumed about 70% of exclusive cars are financed by mafia activities (Bentleys, Rolls Royce, Merc...). Secondly, there are 7.2 million Bulgarians, and the country has 3 million registered tourist beds. Apparently accommodation is a good way to wash dirty money... Might explain why some huge hotels are being erected in some fairly plain areas.

That night we attempted to cook a meal we had tasted in Varna, Eggplant, tomato, etc. Mark starts preparations in the kitchen and Fedio comes in to offer assistance. After pointing out a few of the better cooking appliances, he can´t help but provide a range of tips about cooking... Apparently Fedio used to be a chef. Always keen to learn local new tricks, Mark keeps asking questions about how they cook the recipe we tried. Within a short time, Fedio has somewhat assumed the role of chef and taken over the hotplate duties, throwing in a few of his home grown spices, herbs, peppers and secret ingredients. The end result was a delicious meal presented in a restaurant quality manner.

On the second morning we accepted the offer of a one-way day tour with the other hostel owner, Jorge. The tour involved driving us to Plovdiv, our next destination, with lots of stop-overs along the way.

First stop was an ancient monastery in a valley surrounded by limestone cliffs. Here we visited one of the many caves, where, in the late 18th century they discovered the largest bear skeleton in the world. The cave was once inhabited by man AND bears, and wandering through the maze-like cavities, you could actually see how habitable the dwelling was.  If only we'd known about that, we may have stayed a few nights!

After a short hike up to the top for foggy views over the valley, nature began calling. Eying off the cubicle beside the shop, we enquired whether this was the toilet and asked Jorge to wait. Stepping inside, we saw what must be the most disgusting toilet we have ever seen. It was a squatter toilet but there was so much garbage piled on top, including dirty nappies, plastic bottles and bags, etc, that you would not even be able to find the hole. Further to that, there was dark smears all over them, in what we only hoped was dirt(???). Needless to say, the need had gone. Instead we gladly paid for toilets in the nearby restaurant. Never been more happy to pay for a toilet!!

Next stop was an ancient village that built houses in a unique way, in particular their roofs were made of flattened stones piled on top of one another like tiles. It was here that we saw the hotch potch dishes for sale. - beautiful clay pots, decorated in a uniquely Bulgarian way - for the bargain price of $4.  Keen to attempt to replicate this meal ourselves, we bought this most impractical backpacker souvenir, before heading back on our way.

Then we visited an outdoor museum, where Jorge talked them into getting us in as students at a quarter of the price! The museum was a series of huts showing traditional methods of production. There were cobblers, herbalists, copper workers, makers of musical instruments, rope makers, sweets producers and many more, each demonstrating their craft. This museum was set up by the Communists, one of only a few cultural projects they undertook. They literally went through villages, picked up whole workshops and placed them in this outdoor museum to celebrate people as workers. Often they would do this before building a factory of some sort in their place....but at least they protected these historical methods.  The use of the water and gravity is very impressive.  The whole village is geared to produce various goods and is powered by water wheels cascading through the various aparatus as it runs down hill.  All the shops maintain working order and demonstrate the old techniques.  Those with engineering minds can't help but be impressed.

We then travelled along the Shipka Pass, where we witnessed the breathtaking scenery as well as the dangers and annoyances of this winding road. It is the only road connecting the adjoining valleys and all vehicles, including trucks and buses, need to access the road. The corners are extremely sharp and trucks have much difficulty getting round, having to wait until there is no oncoming traffic in order to take the sharp corners. On numerous occasions, two trucks have become stuck, causing extensive traffic delays...especially when the rescue vehicles can only gain access via the same road! In winter, there are several crashes a day, as roads become dangerous in the ice.

The shipka pass is also the scene of a decisive battle when Russian Empire forces liberated Bulgaria from Turkish rule.  So impressive monuments crown the hills.

Along the way, we stopped for one of many delicious Bulgarian soups, at a traditional 'truckies' stop roadhouse.  Thankfully Jorge could order for us, as the bearded lady serving didn't look interested in a game of 'what's in that' charades. 

We then experienced the highlight of the tour by ¨breaking in¨ to an historic old Communist monument, resembling a UFO landed on a hilltop. This thing is in the middle of nowhere but is so big, it can be seen for miles. The building is erected on the site of the first Bulgarian Communist party meeting in the final stages of WWII.  Every year the Communist Party returns to meet and agree on the country's plans for the next year.  The outside view of the building is rather weird and strangely artistic, in contrast to most communist creations.  The place was looted by angry mobs in the crash of Communism in the 1990's, at which time anything of value was stolen.  But the concrete structure remains on the hill with it's dark window frames gazing out on the world below. 

Aparently the Reds would black out all surrounding villages when the meetings were held, and incredible red stars were beamed into the sky with search lights...  Sounds a bit like Batman for my generation, but it was meant to be very impressive and intimidating.  Possibly holding on to the memories of better days, the Communists still meet every year on the forecourt of this site to continue the planning tradition (they now hold Government in Bulgaria). 

Our guide, knew of a broken window into the building, so after stepping through and down a shattered glass brick wall, we were in the dark belly of the foyer and carefully making our way upstairs.  It felt like the foyer to a theatre, with stylish marble walls that would fit modern bathrooms, with dual staircases heading to the upstairs area.  Looters had stolen almost everything they could carry, so the valuable granite stairs had largely being uplifted and we cautiously stepped our way up to see what else could be seen.  So it was that we entered the upstairs meeting room, not looking up until we had cleared the top steps and caste our eyes on the most important Communist executive chamber...  WOW, it was a shock to discover what we were surrounded by. 

The entire circular chamber was a tiered auditorium, backed with a 3 metre high tiled mosaic showing outstanding moments in Bulgaria's communist uprising...  As the individual tiles have little value, the walls are almost entirely intact, so the whole scene is boldly standing despite the fall of its sponsors.  As the roof was aluminium, it was stolen long ago.  So light is cascading on the mural to show off all the colours and shine...  We continue exploring the chamber, stepping on the destroyed and sodden carpets and debris.  The room is designed in the circle shape, surely to provide the sense of equality and comradarie (thoughts of knights of the round table?), so you can stroll about trying to imagine all the history of the room and the intensity of its past. 

The outside balconies are just as stunning.  The mosaic continues on the outer walls and the shattered window sockets provide views of the valleys stretching out below.  The building is truely an inspirational setting.  Many similarities to the castles we have visited and the destroyed ancient images we had seen.  It really does feel as though the communist era was just another in the sequence of time in this land, the one preceding our current modern state, only this time, more than fragments of foundations can be observed.  It is as though we have arrived the day after the fall of a ruling empire...  It is a shame more people don't get here. 

Some locals want to tear the place down, but I get the feeling it will be restored one day to something close to it's previous function.  Many Bulgarian people have been left behind by capitalism and hope for the restoration of some of the old ways.

It was begining to get very cold on the mountain top, so we headed back to our van to continue with the tour.

Our next destination was a newly discovered ancient Thracian King's tomb.  This structure was found in almost perfect condition after a professor boldly claimed it must be at that location.  So it was discovered, with many ancient adornments....except the body was missing.  It was what they call a false tomb, where only trasures re buried. 

Mandy does make the point that it is a little strange it took so long to find, as the valley is known as the Valley of the Thracian Kings and grassy mounds are known to be burial mounds, of which this one was the largest.  Still, the sense of cultural pride is rising as this and possible future discoveries are uncovered.  Unfortunately all the contents had been taken to a Museum.  The only clue of the previous contents were a couple of postcards... hmmm, just a little disappointing.

Our final stop was a Russian church, built as thanks to the Russians for helping them during the war.  We were blessed with visiting during some sort of hymn practice and their haunting voices filled the chambers.

Plovdiv

We finally get dropped in Plovdiv and were walked to a hostel.  A nice new place, only been open 3 months.....but we were the only guests staying.  The owners kept hiding in their room, only coming out to let us in the door or clean up after we'd retreated to our room.  So it felt a little odd, a bit like they were insects scurrying around when you are not about.  Not sure they will survive in such a competitive market.

By this time the cold weather had well and truely hit with daytime temperatures dropping to 7 degrees.  So we spent a day walking around town to see most of the old city.  Bulgarians love this town and much of the Roman structure is still present in the fortified streets and buildings.  We covered a lot of ground during the day and finished in the pub around 6.

That night we attempted to cook a hotch-potch with a clay pot bought during our road tour.  The fresh market ingredients where fun and cheap to buy and only a little confusion.  Dinner took a little longer than expected  to cook though, and with the weather the way it was, we gave up on our planned night out.  As we were planning a big night in Skopje, we were happy with this decision anyhow.

Bus ride to Skopje

Our bus driver to Sofia was able to demonstrate his mechanical skills when the bus broke down on the highway an hour from town. Not phased, he gets straight under the bus and had us going within 20 minutes. We couldn´t imagine Sydney drivers being so independent.

We passed through Sofia and found our dodgy bus on to Skopje.  This appears to be a fairly unpopular trip.  Despite the minimal help provided by the smoking counter staff, we found our bus and settled in for the next 5 hour leg to our night out.  Happily we crossed a timeline on the trip and we arrived an hour early.

Next stop Macedonia >

Sofia

We travelled to Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania before returning to Sofia for our outbound flight.

Arriving at a ridiculous hour of the morning, we skidded over the ice and snow that was covering the roads and footpaths of Sofia.  Making our way to the waiting lounge of the bus station, which was thankfully open, we sat amongst other weary travellers until it was a decent hour to arrive at our hostel.  We then walked the few kilometres to our recommended hostel - Hostel Mostel - which turned out to be the best darned hostel we have stayed in. 

This place had a great big common area with huge plasma TV with cushioned "no shoe" area, with a grat selection of DVDs to choose from. There was a pool table and plenty of comfy couches and tables with a full kitchen decked out with great cooking utensils. For €10 we got a bed in a shared room with separate bathroom, all set atop the common area, all of which was set back off the road so that it was nice and quiet.  Dinner was included, a simple but delicious pasta with tomato sauce and a big glass of pivo (beer).  An all-you-can-eat breakfast was also included - a selection of cheeses, olives, tomato, bread, spreads, coffee, tea and juice.  The whole place was new - they'd recently moved here from a previous location.  And being in the heart of the city, it really was excellent value!

We spent our final day of our Eastern European trip wandering around the city in the snow.  We took a self-guided walking tour to take in the few sights the city had to offer.  It was freezing cold and quite miserable, so we ended up purchasing a selection of Bulgarian dishes from a local market and returned to or hostel with a couple of bottles of wine, to relax the afternoon away.  Mands snuck away for a quick nana nap as the overnight bus ride took its toll.  Unsuccessful at falling asleep, she returned to find the place had begun to fill up.  The place gradually got busier as people returned from their day's adventures and dinnertime neared.  A group of us got talking - an Aussie, Kiwi, Portugese/Swiss and an English girl, and we ate and drank the rest of the night away.

The morning feast got us going again and we began the stress over our baggage weight.  Carefully packing, we ended up wearing half our clothes, making sure we only had one item of hand luggage. 

As we waited for our taxi to be called, the hostel experienced a disaster as the upstairs bathrooms suddenly flooded and began dripping through to the downstairs toilet.  Obviously a bigger issue for him than calling our taxi, we began to wonder whether we would make our flight, but he soon called it for us and even walked us out.  We thanked him and wished him luck as we set off for our UK-bound flight.  Soon we were stressing again though as we sat in the peak-hour traffic.  We hadn't accounted for this, although we had left plenty of time, so we watched the metre tick over and the minutes pass in relative silence, kicking ourselves for leaving it so late.

The traffic soon cleared however, and we had a clear run the rest of the trip, arriving with plenty of time to spare.  Spending the last of our money on postcards, stamps and a drink, we began to look forward to the next part of our adventure - meeting the Wooldridge family on both sides! 

We worked out we had travelled about 8,000km, through 16 countries, in just over 3 months.  We had seen and experienced so much, from former empire Hungary, with its rich history, to modern Poland that clung to its past while rapidly growing in the 21st century.  We travelled across the war-torn Balkans, still establishing themselves as independant countries and visited countries that are still emerging from their communist days.  Bosnia is yet to have a McDonalds, while Albania has a fake McDonalds!! 

Eastern Europe, where the coffee is awesome and available on every corner, where streets are narrow and pot-holed and road rules are merely advisory.  But all in all, the people were friendly, despite the lack of customer service in many of these countries and underlying everything was a sense that people are essentially the same everywhere, with family at the centre of their lives.  Sadly, capitalism and globalisation has made these countries similar in many ways, from the shops that you see and the brands that people desire.  So get there soon, before more customs are lost and the EU standardises the ways of their everyday lives.

Signing off, til the next adventure,

Mandy and Mark