The guard knocked to tell us we had 10 minutes until we reached Sofia. He indicated he needed to come in -- we thought he was going to pull the bed up, but instead he opened a hidden compartment and out came about 15 cases of cigarettes. He went up and down the carriage, eventually handing three big bags of stash off to some friends in a waiting car. The Australian guy in the carriage was in hysterical laughter at the 'antics'. We arrived into the city with no customs bust and spent a pleasant morning walking around. It is not a massively touristy city and the streets were extremely relaxed.
We saw the impressive Aleksander Nevski church and a few monuments and a funny changing of the guards before lunching at a salad bar and getting on a train to the old capital of Veliko Tarnovo. The first hour was through a stunning gorge, and we arrived in time to check into the dogdy from the outside (but beautifully renovated inside) communist hotel, shower and have an hour or so of daylight to wander around. The town is built around the various bends of two rivers and sports a huge fortress. We ate the best meal of our trip (the menu had 71 salad choices and 51 specialties in addition to the regular offer) for less than $20. After a drink we crashed. The next morning we explored the citidel before catching a bus to the Black Sea resort of Varna (a cheaper version of Ayia Napa). We took a bus down to historic Nesebar, which looked like a horrible resort destination initially but became a beautiful little town with all sorts of ruined churches and a gorgeous view over the sea. The next day we spent some time in the costal town of Burgas before catching a train to Plovdiv. After a night in a B and B eating kebabs on flaming plates we explored the Roman ruins that the town is famous for and then spent the afternoon at the Excalibar bar-cum-bowling-alley-cum-karting-centre. We returned to Sofia, spent some time trying to find reasonable accommodation and left early the next morning for Skopje. E
1 comment:
The pictures continue to be so wonderful to see. The ruined church appears to show the wonder of the masonry work. Totally amazing how at every turn you find such beauty and good food.
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