“Bulgaria, We Find Ourselves Today, Chasing After Unattainable Destinations”

• September 8, 2020
• By Daryl
• 3 Comments

Before leaving the Black Sea area we explored an island that was the ancient city and fort. A walk around reveals the remains of churches and fort walls. 

The streets are cobblestone and walkways are flat stones. The buildings had a middle-age look but most looked new. Trinket are shops full of things nobody needs, but just has to have. After coffee and purchasing things we needed like a purse and sunglasses, we were off for adventures. 

We had a short list for destinations, one was a pink lake. A road took us to an encampment that looked somewhere between a homeless person and a pot farmer. The road was blocked by a tent erected in the middle of the road. I saw we could have gone around it over uncharted grounds, but upon further inspection, it was revealed a fence of sorts went down the center of the road. Discouraged, we went down another fork only to find another lake and the road ending in a strange way. Bamboo was growing all around the access. We turned around, only to have the Lady of the Maps send us on a back and forth journey on the same highway. Feeling like we were playing a part of Thriller, or Twilight Zone, we turned off maps and headed towards a seaside village. We turned Maps back on and she led us to a ghetto-looking city. Disgusted, we set out for a grand church, out of the way, in the middle of the country.

We pulled in to the town, and cobblestone streets greeted us. We drove towards a golden beacon as the domed-roof glistening in the sun, in the distance. The cobblestone streets rocked our truck like an earthquake. As we drove, it felt like we were in a horse drawn carriage of old. We were tossed side to side and back and forth in a rhythmic fashion. Dips and bulges in the road, made it difficult to find a smooth path. The closer we got to the church, the more proud we were to have set our destination for this jewel. We walked up the ancient stone stairs to reveal a magnificent church. It is difficult to decide if the insides were more inspiring than the majestic outsides. 

A priest was cleaning up the ashes from the candle offerings. He had long brown  and grey hair hanging down his back and wore a robe that almost touched the ground. I tried to photograph him, but my sensitivity setting was too low so they all came out blurry. He said something to us in his language and I can only assume he was telling me not to photograph him. Downstairs was a museum and a mausoleum. There was many stone caps for the graves and we could not even make out the years as they were in another language. There was also many photographs and no English titles.

We head out looking for a place to eat and a hotel. One would think this would be an easy chore. It is not so easy as few people have the means to eat out, so we travel for hours. After passing through several villages and cities, as twilight approaches, we finally find a big enough city and a restaurant.  I had eaten most all of the fruit in the car, for it was late. We found a great pork BBQ place and parked half on the curb. Bunny orders a great salad and a pork hock and mash potatoes. I ordered breast meat and mashed potatoes. Bunny eats her great salad and the main dish comes. I get about twenty small pieces of meat and nothing else. I complain three times that I never got potatoes and the waiter says it did not come with any. I show him what I thought I ordered and he showed me what he said I ordered. I never got any potatoes and I am so much thinner for it. Bunny shared her potatoes with me.

We ended our night in Plovdiv, and found an old but remolded hotel that was very nice but over priced for such small of a room. We slept well, but finding breakfasts in the morning was hard, I ended up with a corn and bacon pizza. Tasty, but not an English Breakfast.