Last days!

8th July
Three hour bus trip through the mountains to our next destination. We travelled through narrow roads and on one bend came across a head on collision (the drivers here seem to feel that a blind bend is a good place to overtake!). Luckily one the cars seem to have suffered. We also passed many fields of sunflowers.

The city we are in is Plovdiv - one of the oldest cities in the world. There are numerous Roman ruins here. It’s so much hotter, in the 30‘s, and walking on really rough cobblestones is tiring. They are renovating many of the old houses and there is a law which states that they have look the same as the originally would have looked. You can really see the Ottoman influence here.

Did a lot of people watching. A large group protesting about the government went by but it was all very peaceful apart from the noise they were making with drums and whistles.

Am now trying to pass the day until we catch the night bus into Istanbul. I should have enough time to rush around the grand bazaar before catching the plane home. I arrived very late Thursday night! 

In Bulgaria

4th July
Walked through the cobbled streets - hard with a suitcase - to the bus station where we caught a bus to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. It took three hours and went through some lovely mountainous countryside.

We have a good hotel but not in the best part of the city. It is definitely more run down here. Pavements are treacherous with holes and missing stones so you walk with your eyes down. Motorists are fast & crazy. They don’t slow down even when you are on a crossing.
Walked around the city venturing into a couple of churches. One of them had a museum of icon and it was quite amazing to see icon which were produce in the 12th - 18th  Century. Later we went on a proper guided tour and had to detour in a couple of places because the people of Sofia were demonstrating - peacefully - against their government. They were not happy with recent elections and have demonstrated every evening for the past three weeks. There were lots of police, whistles, flags and banners but absolutely no trouble.

Dinner in a quaint restaurant but once again massive meals - each one could serve 2/3 people.

5th July
Left Sofia by mini bus for the three hour journey to our next destination. Around lunchtime we stopped at the oldest Monastery in Bulgaria. Amazing place! There was a museum which was interesting. We were up in the mountains and suddenly the heavens opened as we were having lunch but there was no problem as we quickly moved inside.

We drove for another couple of hours and the driver was certainly a bit manic belting down the mountain roads passing other cars on bends. Didn’t even slow down when we had another very heavy downpour but luckily we arrived safely in our mountain destination. It’s a quaint village, much like an alpine village, with gardens full of vegies & fruit trees growing along the paths. There were numerous horses and carts passing with people and hay - they are harvesting already.

After a walk in the hills we went for dinner - it was put on by the homestay people. We had soup followed by potatoes, other veg & meat and then fresh yogurt & honey. Two elderly members of the family came in dressed in national costume and started singing. I’d left my camera upstairs but as I went to get it they grabbed me & I had to join in with their singing! They then bundled me into the next room and made me put on national costume, luckily they decided all the group should be dressed up! We all had to try the dances but everyone got involved so it was fun.

6th July
Big surprise this morning! After breakfast we jumped onto an empty hay wagon & were taken around two villages. It was a lovely morning but the aromas the horse gave off were certainly not the best. We eventually came across the local washing machine which was used to wash the rugs. It was a huge wooden ‘tub’ with holes in which was fed by fast flowing water which actually swirled the rugs around therefore giving a washing machine action.

A short drive led us further into the mountains to our next stop, Banksa. This is a skiing village & the skiing World Cup 2012 was held here. Lots of mountains with remnants of snow at the top which is very picturesque. Had a walk around the village before a group of us took a trip to see the Bear Sanctuary. This is where some of the ‘Dancing Bears of Bulgaria’ & also some from zoos are being rehabilitated and looked after.  Obviously everywhere is fenced off but there was plenty of room for the bears and lots of natural forest for them to wander in. They were divided into different zones and groups of bears were placed together. It was a long & often step walk around the areas but we saw lots of bears. It is terrible to think of how the gypsies made them dance but you could see the effects in some of them as they moved around - it was almost as if they were following a routine, lifting their feet as if dancing. Most of their noses had been torn from the time that the ring had been put through them. They are unable to go back into the wild because they have spent all their lives with humans so don’t know how a bear should behave. A few of them had actually built dens before hibernating, which was a good sign. It’s hard to see animals enclosed but I can honestly say they seemed happy in their environment.

7th July
Today we ventured into the mountains. We went up a couple of chairlifts - so much harder to get off without skis even with beefy guys literally lifting/flinging you off. It took 30 minutes to get from bottom to top & we travel up to 2900m. We travelled over pine forests and saw horses pulling felled trees down the mountainside. The top revealed a lake & higher up snow. There were lots of alpine wild flowers. Some venture to the higher slopes but I walked around the lake.
Coming down the chairlift our leader was knocked over as we alighted from one chair to get onto the other. Luckily she was alright apart from being shocked and she is now covered in bruises! It was great being up in a beautiful spot with plenty of fresh air.

Survived Dracula!

30th June
Up early for a tour to a castle. Caught a couple of local buses to get to Bran Castle which is commonly known as Dracula's castle - this was more like a castle! It was quite interesting and related to the Romanian Royal Family. Vlad the Impailer - who many people connected to Dracular - had stayed there on a number of occasions and there was quite a lot of information about him and about the author who wrote the ‘Dracula” novel. It was quite eerie with low cloud moving like whisps of smoke through the trees.

Caught the local bus to a fortified town at Rasnov. It was Saxon and inside the walls really reminded me of old English cottages.

1st July
6:30am start to the railway station to get the train to Bucharest. We arrived three hours later and then caught the Metro to the area we are staying in. The trains here put ours to shame - they are prompt, clean and with plenty of room.

We are staying near a park and ventured into to it’s open air restaurant. It was very pleasant and cool - such a change in the weather as yesterday we were really cold. After lunch took a ‘Hop on, hop off bus which at $8 we thought was good value. It was interesting to see the city - it is so run down but the parks are very nice! 

Palace of Parliament is second to the Pentagon in size and 90 000 homes were destroyed to build it. It now only uses a few of the 6000 rooms and Parliament sit there. It was one of Ceausescu's 'little' projects!

In the evening we went to a Beer restaurant which was in a very interesting building and had actually been a restaurant since 1889 - it looked as if it had been a church but it never had. It was a very popular place and there were queues of people. Food and beer was good. Wandered through the old town and saw an outdoor acting performance before going to buy gelato and people watching.

2nd July
Early start with a walking tour of the old part of Bucharest. We had a really good guide who gave us lots of interesting information about Romania’s past. We then got on the train for a 6 hour trip to Bulgaria. Had the usual two stops for passport control on the way

It is hot and sunny and the fields are full of sunflowers and wheat and we’re back in the mountains. A 20 minute taxi ride bought us to the fortified town of Veliko Tarnova - often referred to as the ‘City of the Tsars’. This is one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria.

All went to a local restaurant where the meals were huge and very reasonably priced.

3rd July
Had a look around the town which reminds me of alpine Switzerland but also the Italy with its houses set into the mountain side. The wall of the fort are clearly seen and like ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’ we were out in the midday sun visiting the fort. Then spent time walking back uphill via souvenir shops to the hotel.

Interesting bathrooms here with showers but no curtain so everything gets wet. I put a towel down as a mat but only succeeded in building myself a dam!