Very good value. 28 Leva (about 14 euro) per night for double room with ensuite shower and toilet. Excellent central location with many rooms having balconies overlooking the valley. Owner Rossen very friendly and helpful. Will pick you up at the station. I would definitely stay there again. Slight negative: Shower room had no window and smelt quite dank.

My train arrived in Veliko Turnova

My dislike of city buses resulted in another LONG LONG walk to my hostel.  I mentioned my dislike of buses at least once before in my blogs, the Brasov entry I believe, and I guess now is as good as any time to explain why I dislike buses, especially city buses.  It's not that I'm a snob and can't stand riding in vehicle with other people.  I rather like riding trains and meeting people, trollies are fine and long distance buses are...well not exactly pleasurable, but tollerable.  The thing with city buses is that they pick you up wind about and then drop you off somewhere random.  You have to figure out where the stop is and if you make a mistake it's very difficult to trace your steps back because the bus was winding about town.  It's the lack of control and my perception that there is a lack of an escape route.  With a train or a trolley there are tracks...you get off at the wrong stop...follow the tracks a bit further or if you went to far, follow the tracks back.  With a long distance bus it is usually on a big road and it drops you off somewhere specific so you don't have to worry about getting off at the wrong spot, but if you do miss your spot you're usually on a big road so you can just hop off and walk.  Metro's I love too, miss your stop or get turned around all you have to do is look at the map figure things out and hop back on the metro.

When given the choice of walking or taking a bus I'll almost always walk, especially when traveling alone.  Walking may not actually be safer but I navigate well on foot.  I can remember where I went and more importantly how to get back.  I can judge areas before I walk into them, where as a bus just takes you where it's headed and you have little choice of the route.  Anyways, that's the background story on my dislike of buses. 

Our second and third fascinating meeting with local people.

With Rosa, an old woman owning two rooms to rent (in her apartment almost fully dedicated to the guests !). She came directly to us to propose us a room while we were only visiting, then led us to Preobajenski monastery where she gave us many indications about the visit and the place, then led us to the cheapest restaurant in Veliko Tarnovo, told us lots of stories of hers, about life in Bulgaria now and before, insisted to give us a bottle of wine from her collection, ... After that, it's impossible to tell that Bulgarians lack hospitality ! Above all, when you leave her to go and visit the town, ask someone your way but can't understand the answer, so the guy takes you in his car to lead you exactly where you want (even if it was opposite from his way...), you're forced to definitely fall in love with the country and its inhabitants.

And do I need to precise that Veliko Tarnovo, the former medieval capital of the country, with its old medieval fortress, is really a great place to visit ?

A last minute addition to the trip - my stay in Veliko Tarnovo was quite good.  The old capital of the Bulgaria, the city had plenty of history, and really captured that "middle-of-nowhere" Eastern European feel.  I met several travellers from all over:  Spain, Australia, Poland, America.  And the hostel I stayed at was run buy an Englishman.  I stayed 3 days/2 nights and each day was better than the one before it.

I had planned on going to the modern capital of Sophia - but after discussing the situation with everyone - it became obvious I should just take the overnight train directly to Istanbul.

The calm of a relaxing evening at Hostel Mostel was suddenly broken by the sound of large church bells ringing through the darkness.  The clang of bells announced the start of the much vaunted light show of Veliko Tarnovo's Tsarevets Fortress.  As the first bell cut across the night our dinner conversation immediately halted.  My fellow hostel patrons and I hopped up from our seats at amateur firefighter speed and began digging through packs in search of cameras and shoes.  We looked like the Keystone cops as we gathered our gear and rushed out the door towards the fortress leaving Zheni's freshly made omelets and beer (well not all of us left our beer) behind . 

After a couple of minutes of walk/shuffle/run we found ourselves standing amongst a large group of tourists and locals listening to the bells of Tsarevets' church as dazzling blue, green, red and yellow lights began illuminated the fortress' walls and towers in ever changing displays.  It was a fantastic sight and well worth the cost of FREE. 

The light show is apparently held every Saturday, or when a large bus load of aged tourists kick in money to pay for the cost of the show.  In our case we had the aged tourists to thank for the impromptu show.  Standing by the main entrance to the fortress is a good place to watch the show and a good place to set up your tripod (or mini tripod in my case) in order to capture the brilliant but eerie images of the illuminated fortress. 

Following the show, which sort of ends anti-climactically with the cessation of the show (the really need some fireworks or something) I decided to head back to Hostel Mostel. Exhausted from a long day of touring Veliko, a night of sleeping on trains and in train stations and a morning of lugging my pack along an expressway I fell into a deep and immediate sleep.

Under Construction

At the Istanbul train station:

Could I please get a ticket to Veliko Tarnovo?

Oh no, the Bosfori Express line is being fixed, it is not going to Veliko Tarnovo for a month or so.

It gets as far as Dimitrovgrad or Stara Zagora.

Can I get to Veliko Tarnovo from there?

*shrugs* Who knows? It is Bulgaria.

So I hop on the Bosfori Express with Andy and Katho (Ruth decides that it is pushing it too much for her return to Istanbul), into a beautiful three-bedroom sleeper room. Fake wood lining, sheets and blankets, a small cabinet with a mirror, the train is deluxe. I sleep on the top bunk, and strap myself in to not fall out (remembering people with bunk-bed confidence due to a bunk full of toys). About three in the morning we are woken up to hop off the train, emigrate from Turkey, then keep on going. The Bulgarians are kind enough to do their passport control on the train.

This morning I wake up to knocking at the door - "Stara Zagora". We pack our bags and hop off in a city (the third largest in Bulgaria) that none of us had ever heard of. At the train station they sell us tickets to Veliko Tarnovo with no issues, and we wander off for breakfast (pizza and fruit salad). We all have a favourable impression of Bulgaria at this stage, enjoy a slow breakfast and wander back down to the train.

A three hour train to Veliko Tarnovo is charming, with a kind Bulgarian lady showing us to the train, then sharing a compartment with us. She talks to us in English, and looks like us when we don't understand. When Katho looks up "thank you" in Bulgarian she beams at us. A young guy hops on, she talks rapidly to him, and he turns to us and says "I can speak English no problems". He is studying to be a tour guide (speaking Bulgarian, Russian, German, Italian, English and a little Polish and Slovakian), and has lived for a while in the US. He tells us about the great parties at the Black Sea coast, how he loves all the European girls (but not Bulgarian girls), and about his weighlifting (he has enormous arms). When I reply to his questions that I am a scientist, he asks if I know anything about Finnish genetics, and we have a conversation. We share chips and the old lady shares pretzels, then he hops off and another young guy hops on. He also chats to us, but with very poor English.

To define very poor English: he was able to communicate to us that he was a final year Philosophy major, he favourite philosopher is Plato (he doesn't like Democritis because he is materialistic rather than idealistic), he has worked in Greece (being half Greek), and doesn't like Bulgarian because the people don't study philosophy or science enough, and the skinheads are racist against the Turks, Muslims, Russians and Macadonians. The most charming thing about our conversation is that Bulgarians nod their head for no and shake their head for yes, which is very confusing even if you know it is happening. The one thing you assume is universal...

He told us that it is ironic that with Bulgaria joining the EU, they have a far longer history than most of Europe, being an empire when most of Europe was only tribes, yet they have a much lower standard of living. The first Bulgarian empire was actually formed in 681, after the collapse of the Roman empire, and was independent until 1014, when it was conquered by the Byzantines. It became independent again in 1185 (the second Bulgarian empire, of which Veliko Tarnovo was the capital), until 1396, when the Ottoman Empire absorbed Bulgaria until 1878 (after the French revolution swept across Europe). It allied with the Nazis in WWII, but Tsar Boris III refused to send the 50 000 Bulgarian Jews to concentration camps, and swapped sides to the USSR before the end of the War. Bulgaria became an independent communist state after the war, and a democracy in 1989.

Now we are in Veliko Tarnovo. He made it to the Hostel with the lightning beginning (first rain of the trip), with a charming hostess and empty rooms. We walked through the city with beautiful cobblestone roads and well-dressed people (a European city in an ancient capital), then settled down to dinner.

By the start of dinner, with the amazing view out the window over the Yantra River Gorge, with old houses clinging to the side of the cliffs and a river meandering below (interestingly, Meander was a river by Ephesus, the word meander comes from the description of the flow of the Meander River), I was in love with Bulgaria. By the end of dinner, with a wonderful vegetarian lasagne and many beers with Andy and Katho for $7, I was avidly reading the Veliko Tarnovo real estate classifieds. Maybe at the least I could have a summer house here?

In small town just outside the ancient capital of Veliko, I spot a actually family of gypsies living out of an old wooden trailer near the train tracks.  To my disblief, they also have an honest-to-goodness pet bear chained to a tree.  Life imitating art?  A dirty kid stares at me so rather than photo them, I hastly leave.  Their reputations are somewhat deserved in these parts. 

The last couple of days have been very lazy for me in anticipation of a busy next few months.  I walked about town, looking at the various shops and getting a little souvenir shopping done.  Yesterday all I did was buy my train ticket for tonight and then found a pretty park to read a book in.  This place just allows you to chill.  I did manage to catch the light show at the fortress the last couple of nights.  It is mesmerizing.  If enough older tourists pay the 400 Lev for it, they'll put on a magnificent light display on fortress hill set to music.  I wish I could have captured it on film, but trust me, it is not to be missed if you make it here.  Last night we had a great group in the hostel, so we all hung out together, playing various drinking games.  We asked the hostel if they had any dice, which they didn't, so they made us some!  Now that's great hostel staff for you.  We stayed up late playing with those and just laughing, having a good time.  Today we are planning a day trip out to some monasteries and a cave before I head off to Turkey on the 8 p.m. train.  I will arrive there tomorrow morning around 8 a.m.  I'm pretty excited about the weeks ahead there. I haven't quite figured out a plan, but will hang in Istanbul for a few days and come up with one.  I have about three weeks to tour around there before I meet a friend from home in Cairo!

I made it to Bulgaria last night.  Bucharest was OK.  One day was enough for me.  It's a strange city - a mixture of old and new.  If you like architecture, you'd probably dig it. I ran into a German couple my first night and he was an architecture student and was loving the place.  I, however, was overwhelmed by all the building going on and advertising signs.  I did check out the Palace, which is the second largest building following the Pentagon.  I then hit up a village museum that had homes from rural Romanian life.  It was peaceful out there by the lake.  However, I wasn't that enthused about Bucharest overall, so I left yesterday for a stop in Bulgaria on the way to Turkey.  I originally was going to blow through here, but I'm sure glad I decided to stop!

The train ride here was quite funny.  The guy in charge of the carriage was very concerned about where we were getting off, constantly checking in on us and confirming our stop.  He grouped all of us together that were exiting in Veliko Tarnovo.  He was nice enough not to charge me the five Euro for a reservation, however.  There was a German fella on my train that hadn't reserved a hostel, so I told him I was being picked up at the station by my hostel, so he decided to join me.  A great older fellow greeted us at the station and drove us to the hostel.  It was dark out but the town looked so picturesque already, nestled into a hill between a river.  We got to the hostel, which is brand new as far as renovations, and I was in heaven.  It's more like a resort here.  I walked into the reception and immediately recognized two gals from Brasov whom I met on the street while hanging out with my Belgian lumberjack friend.  Everyone at the hostel was getting ready to leave for dinner, so the hostel folks called the restaurant to see if enough seating was available for myself and the German guy.  We dropped our stuff and headed out to meet everyone.  There was a table of about 17 of us last night and the food was to die for and so cheap!  I sat down next to a couple from Colorado that I also ran into in Brasov at the hostel.  There was another Irish fella who had been there as well. I enjoyed conversation with a Kiwi and a gal from South Korea.  It was so much fun!  The older fellow who picked us up at the station joined us and it turned out he is the owner of this hostel and has been doing all the renovating himself over the last three years. I will get pics of this place.  They preserved in the design natural elements of this almost 200 year old house.  I jokinging told him this place is almost as old as my country :) 

I haven't even seen this town yet but I love it already.  There is a fortress to check out, caves to explore and horseback riding to enjoy as well.  I plan to stay here til Saturday for sure, but that's subject to change! 

VT was fantastic too. We stayed in a hostel owned by an Englsih guy, and there was noone else staying those nights, so we had the place to ourselves! He lived there though with his Bulgarian girlfriend, who clearly didn't approve of us going out and getting very pissed with him and his British ex-pat friends! And then coming back tot he hostel with them all and making loads of noise, before passing out on the floor of the kitchen! (Not jsut me, his friends as well!)

There was a sound and light show there as well which we didn't quite make which was a shame. We got the last five minutes - can't quite remember why we missed it three ngihts running, but there was some reason! The old buildings there were beautiful, with all the paintings on the sides. I did a bit of shopping too:)  (no idea how as I'm sure we were pretty penniless byt his point!)

We went to the fort thing as well which was very nice!

Svistov (artist quarter), Veliko Turnovo (ancient capital), and Arbanassi (16^th cen. Village) Bulgaria

Today we’re still in Bulgaria, in Svistov which is just downriver from Ruse. . .  .not exactly a suburb but definitely a smaller town.  We’ll be traveling to the interior of Bulgaria, a fortress town called Veliko Turnovo and also visiting a small village called Arbanassi.  There are still little donkey carts on the roads and I finally managed to get a photo of one.  The roads are a little rough but it’s worth a little roughness to see Bulgaria’s interior.  Also this is the first day of school and the village roads are full of kids carrying flowers and dressed in their best school clothes.  It reminded me that many things are the same for all children. 

Veliko Turnovo is an ancient capital of Bulgaria and a fortress town overlooking the Yantra River valley.  The fortress itself dates from the 12^th century.  Bulgaria was dominated by the Turks for 500 years and the Communists for 45 but remained very much an Eastern Orthodox nation.  The writing is Cyrillic and indecipherable to me.  Also confusing is the fact that Bulgarians nod their heads to say “no” and use our head shake of “no” to say “yes”.  None of this deters me from shopping in town and finding a bookstore.  Well, actually I found 2 bookstores and bought 4 books • 3 of them printed by a Russian publisher with photos in muddy colors. 

Next we went to a nearby village for a wonderful lunch with a Bulgarian family.  The food was prepared by our hostess and included tomatoes from our host’s garden.  He’s a retired engineer from the Bulgarian Air Force.  Then we visited a 17^th century merchants house in Arbanassi and a 17^th century church (Roshdestwo Christowo).  The church is plain and low when seen from the outside (it was built during Turkisah rule) but the inside the floor is dug out to increase the height of the vault and the interior is covered in frescos.   A local quartet sang for us in this church.

I’ve got a sore throat and am worried that I might be getting sick.

I don't know whether to be excited, or scared.  On a train from Sofia to Gorna Orjahovica I was speaking with a Bulgarian girl who spoke excellent English (her mom teaches it), she told me that I was only the second American tourist she had ever met in Bulgaria.  She was a bit surprised that I would choose to travel in Bulgaria instead of another country, such as the U.S.  I guess I need something a bit more exotic, and that's just what I got.

In Bulgaria the train station signs are almost hidden, if non-existent, and those that are visible are in Cyrillic.  It was a full minute before I realized that I was at my stop.  Then came the search for a minibus to take me to Veliko Turnovo.  No one spoke English at this stop, and my Berlitz phrase book is useless for anything more than "Hello, I would like some vegetables."  One guy, speaking entirely in Bulgarian, and understanding almost no English, motioned me to follow him down the road.  The first thing I thought, I had to admit, was that I was being led to some quiet spot to be mugged.  It turned out that he was bringing me to the bus stop, where I picked up a bus to my destination.  I felt pretty lousy for thinking that about him, when I realized that he was going out of his way to help, but I'd rather have those thoughts than be lying in a gutter somewhere.  The ride itself was pretty cool, in a old beat-up bus, and the countryside was covered with sunflowers, which I assume are farmed out here.

Once I arrived in town, and walked to the Hiker's Hostel, I grabbed a beer and joined in a card game with two Aussies and a Brit.  The Aussies, two blondes girls from Melbourne, showed me once again that Aussies bring the good times, and it's often accompanied by alcohol--lots of it.  We played a few rounds of Trumps, watched a nightly light show that highlights the Tsarevets, a fortress complex that is the town's main draw, and headed into town to Pepy's Bar.  A couple blue drinks, brown drinks, and "African Blowjob" shots later we were at the Barcardi Club for a little dancing.  These girls were wild, loud, and heavy drinkers, kind of like female versions of the typical Aussie male tourist.  Even so, they were really fun, and the night ended with us at our hostel, playing music at a table on the deck.

La ciudad real de Veliko Turnovo fue fundada en 1.185 y convertida en la capital del Segundo Reino Búlgaro (1187-1393). Geográficamente la ciudad esta situada sobre tres colinas rodeadas por el río Yantra.
La colina Tsarevets es una fortaleza natural inaccesible donde se sitúo el palacio real, el Patriarcado y algunas iglesias. Tzarevetz fue el centro administrativo y cultural del Estado. Su parte central esta ocupada por el Palacio real. El complejo del palacio presenta una arquitectura distinta y sofisticada con una área de 6.000 metros cuadrados. La entrada principal era la del norte. Las habitaciones estaban situadas alrededor de un pequeño patio. La parte Oeste del palacio era donde se situaban las grandes habitaciones, algunas de ellas decoradas con mármol multicolor y frescos en sus paredes. La sala mas impresionante es el Salón del Trono de 32 metros de largo y 18 metros de ancho, situado en la parte sur del patio. Los restos encontrados nos enseña que estaba ricamente decorado con mosaicos dorados y frescos. A este de la sala encontramos los cimientos de la cúpula de la iglesia de planta cruciforme de «St Paraskeva», iglesia del palacio solo para uso del rey y sus allegados. En su interior han sido encontradas muchas tumbas, entre ellas la piedra que cubre el sarcófago en el que se cree fue enterrado el Rey Ivan Alexander. En su interior solo se han encontrado algunos restos del bocado, ciertas joyas de oro y poco mas (todo es visible en la exposición arqueológica del Museo del la ciudad). Dentro de la fortaleza se han encontrado 180 alojamientos de gente del pueblo como artesanos, 2 casa muy sólida (posiblemente de boyars) y 22 iglesias de las que 3 eran monasterios. La torre de Baldwin que esta situada en la parte sudeste, conmemora la victoria del Zar Kaloyan sobre los caballeros de la cuarta Cruzada en el año 1.205, fue restaurada entre 1930 y 1932.