Blogging Around The World

Cover Design: Cara Williams Photography: Cara Williams Copyright 2006 by Cara Williams All rights reserved

By Cara Williams

CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: 3 4 6

Chapter One
1st September 2010 I had no idea what to expect from Bulgaria, except wombles. And after going, I still dont know if I liked it or not. We decided to do a part all inclusive/part backpacking trip and our first stop was Veiko Taranovo. We stayed at the Hotel Concordia, which was overpriced, but did the job. The next morning we went for a walk to find Tsarevets Fortress, which is a castle on a hill bearing the same name in Veliko Tarnovo. The Tsarevets Hill was the main fortress of the medieval Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo. We wanted to go for the view and to see the Church on top of the hill. It was worth the trek. It was beautiful (as far as Churches go) and very different to any Church I have seen before. It costs 6LV (3) to get in. After a couple of hours walking up hill and back down, we headed to the bus station to move on to Varna (on the coast). We couldnt make any sense of the bus timetable or language. Nothing was written in English and no one spoke English. We managed to miss one bus while trying to decide if it was ours or not and then got on another bus, which we were told was heading back to the airport in Sofia and not to the coast where we were heading. Three and a half hours later we were on the 409 bus and somehow got off at the right stop. The journey cost 6LV/ 1.50. We were about to start the all inclusive part of the holiday and had booked the Magnolia Prima Sol & Spa for a few nights. 3

The all inclusive part was not that exciting, as we wanted to relax. We went for a long walk out of town to find the Acropolis Water Park, but after a two hour walk, (during which Jon got bitten by fire ants and I witnessed a car crash), we couldnt find it and headed back to the hotel. I have never done an all inclusive holiday before and I dont think I will again. I found it quite depressing. 2nd & 3rd September 2010 Lazy pool days... 4th September 2010 We decided to visit Golden Sands today (the most popular resort in Varna) and got a bus, (75p each) for the 20 minute journey to the town centre, which was a cluster of stalls which form an open air market alongside the beach. It felt very Bournemouth pier. There was a huge swimming pool in the middle of the town, which was linked to the Dolphin Bar. We thought it would be rude to miss out on happy hour cocktails so drank, and swan for a couple of hours. I really wanted to find the water park, so we headed off to look for it again. Amazingly, Jon and his internal compass led us to the water park...but it was closed. We got the bus back to Varna after stopping for a drink at Hurry Ramsdens, where, apparently they sell great fish and ships.

Chapter Two
5th September 2010 Nothing to report, other than my rant about all inclusive package holidays has come back to bite me. We ventured out of our Hotel to try a local restaurant this evening. It was on the beach front and looked quite primitive. There was no one else in there, and the menu was very 4

basic. We fancied some wine, but all they had was Muskat which we tried, but didnt like. I ordered a chicken fillet and thats exactly what I got. It sat on a single piece of lettuce. I didnt like it and started feeling sick almost immediately after eating it. I was having stomach cramps so we left for the hotel, where I got progressively worse during the night. 6th& 7th September 2010 I was ill but it rained all day both days, which took the edge off my pain. 8th September 2010 We got the bus to Varna again and wondered around the stalls. We wanted to visit some other places, (but they were too far away for a day trip). We got off the bus back at our hotel and I stopped to take a photo and as I turned back to put my camera back in my bag, there was a tiny tortoise shell kitten looking back at me. I fell in love with it. 9th September 2010 Lazy day. Again. 10th September 2010 We were very glad to be moving on from Varna today. After bartering for a taxi (they really rip you of in Bulgaria) - where we were quoted 30LV from one driver and10LV from another, to get to Varna Train Station (a couple of miles away). As we drove, I saw a much nicer party of Bulgaria. We passed the Aquarium and university, and reached the train station about 15 minutes later. The next challenge was to work out where the ticket office was. It turned out to be at the end of a corridor inside an area labelled waiting room. We finally found the ticket office but the staff did not understand or speak English, so we left the queue to find someone to translate for us. Luckily, we found someone, who helped us buy our tickets to Plovdiv (10 each). The station is really confusing and we cant find any of the Cyrillic phrases in our guide book. Once again, somehow we ended up on the right train and Jon rightly guessed where we got off at Plovdiv, 7 hours after leaving Varna this morning. Plovdiv is a lot more cosmopolitan than anywhere we have been so far and it had a nice vibe.

We got a taxi from the train station to Hotel Elite, which was based right in the heart of the city. There is a Roman Amphitheater at one end of the pedestrian zone, and a Roman stadium, which dates back to the late 1st century. At the other end of the pedestrianised zone is the entrance into the old town, which is run down and neglected. Cobbled streets lead up to St Marinas Church, which the guide book said was worth a visit. We ended up in a nice bar called Chocolate where we had some cocktails and tried the local beer, Zagorka.

Chapter Three
11th September 2010 The next day we headed back to the train station; this time to try and find a train to Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria). We fluked it and arrived at Sofia train station, and after being quoted a ridiculous amount by cab to Hotel Lion, we decided to take our chances with the tram. Our hotel was on Maria Luiza Blvd we asked the lady for a ticket to take us to that road and she charged us 1LV each and said, tram 1 and 7. A number 7 tram arrived and we jumped on, but a few minutes into our journey, a ticket inspector asked to see our tickets. We showed him and he started screaming at us in Bulgarian, you owe me 10LV. Jon was getting really angry, as the inspector was right in his face, screaming and making threats. Eventually, the inspector accompanies us off the tram, where he called his supervisor and the police. The police turned up, but they did not speak or understand English, which really annoyed me, as we couldnt explain our side o the story. The inspector told them that our tram tickets were invalid as we had not stamped them as we got on the tram (we didnt see a machine on board). After a heated discussion between Jon and the policeman, they made a compromise and only fined Jon for his mistake and let me off. 6

We were both a bit shaken by the journey so far and decided to walk the rest of the way to our hotel. After dropping our stuff in our room, we headed back out to look around. I was surprised to see so many familiar brand names on the High Street they had a Benetton, TK Maxx and Costa Coffee. We also noticed an Imax cinema and decided to book tickets to see Final Destination IV in 3D. A bit of cheesy horror and some girlie screams from Jon, on a Sunday night. After the film, we walked back to the hotel. It is strange but there are no bars in the city centre. It seems that you can only buy alcohol in a hotel here. 12th September 2010 We spent the day walking idly through the city. We saw the Presidents Palace and wandered through the Saturday market, which was packed with people, buying their fresh fruit and veg. We had seen a nice looking jazz bar which we attempted to get into. I felt like I was in a mafia film as Jon asked the bouncer if we could come in. He looked us up and down and grunted something, which I could tell from his face, meant no. 13th September 2010 After a two mile walk in search of a Dunkin Donuts for Jon, we discovered that there was actually one right round the corner from the hotel. Jon was happy. We then got our last cab of the holiday to Sofia airport and for once, the cab driver didnt try to rip us off. Bulgaria isnt top on my list of places to visit again, but Plovdiv is a nice place to visit. We could have seen so much more if we hadnt booked that all inclusive week, which is a lesson I have learnt from this holiday.