Dafi Hotel Plovdiv

I am going to start with the gawry bits first as a warning to anyone who reads this.<br><br>1. Be wary of hotels.com as they told us we had paid for our room when we booked and we subsequently got chased by the Guesthouse after we had left - for nonpayment! Thankfully they had our email address so did not have to call the Police to track us down! Everything seemed to be resolved but took several days, lots of emails and many hours until we found it wasn't and ...

... in Plovdiv and Vienna, and M. Jackson, because his death was the biggest news and she is a musician.<br><br>When I went back to the station to catch the train at 2130, I was happily surprised: I expected to spend the next 12 hours sitting up, but I found out that got a sleeper! And besides that, the whole car was filled with jolly and friendly international travelers. It was not a boring night.

... The hostel was really a converted flat, decorated in IKEA style furniture with a young couple running it from one of the rooms. We showered and retired after a big trip.<br> May 29th - Plovdiv to Istanbul<br> Unfortunately, today it rained. This was a bit of a pain as we had to wait all day to catch a night train to Istanbul. Thankfully, the young couple in the hostel were really nice and said we could come back and hang out with them for as long as we wanted. We had some Bulgarian ...

... pottered on till dark and being without decent maps of the capital city Sofia were unable to find a campsite so at 8pm after treacherous roads and dodgy drivers all around us in the city of Sofia we headed out of town toward Plovdiv, pulled into a service station and had pizza and watched part of the Eurovision song contest on the café telly. Then we slept in our van ( along with another parked car and motorhome ) and called it a night. Actually we slept ok considering.

... to reason ("there simply isn't any other way off the mountain, Katie") we did finally manage to get down - just before a very concerned Vesi called out the mountain rescue to come and find us. By the time we were very nearly at the bottom of the mountain, our encouragements had devolved to a repetitive litany that hadn't really changed from the top. Katie: I can't do this! I just can't! I really really can't! Me: (soothingly / encouragingly) Yes you can Katie! You're doing ...

... booked out. Again, wireless internet was available, just not in our room as we were the furthurest from the reception area. TV signal was good so we had a good choice of satelitte channels to watch from. The only bad point that we could mention was that our room was directly above the bowling alley so for awhile we had to endure the noise of 16lb bowling balls smashing into bowling pins. The other usual story, smoking is allowed ...

... has been really nice to just chill for a bit. So I'm off on that train tomorrow to Veliko.... I tried to book a reservation for the train to VT but the woman just frantically pointed in the direction of the platforms so I had to assume either one wasn't needed (although bahn.de said it was) or pay on the train. I did go to the information window and ask the woman (in Bulgarian) if she spoke English to which I got a most definite 'NE!' accompanied by the sort of look that ...

... gray hair flowing down her back, carrying a bouquet of flowers home. Two men, wearing faded trousers and woolen vests were engaged in some sort of an argument, and a boy fed stray cats crumbs of leftover bread on a street corner. Eventually, it became time to return to the hostel and, growing tired of dodging the film at every turn (the old town's not that large) I adopt an air of important confidence, made sure actual shooting wasn't occurring, and walked ...

... woman on the back of a bull, looking back over her shoulder at you. Bulgarian adverts are pretty forward. The local Maxim, which Bro had to peruse, is pretty much soft-core porn. Plovdiv still has some Roman features, of course. At the end of an affluent and very European street is a Roman theatre (hello EU! - the 11 star flag can be seen not infrequently). The theatre is sunken below ground, everything is built around it, more or less. A mosque is built to one side. The ...

... has been the year of the Roman theatre 1)Tarragona 2)Sant Martì D'Emp&#7915;ries - Coloseum 3)Bulla Regia 4)Dougga - Little 5)Dougga - Big 6)Sbeitla - Amphitheatre 7)Sbeitla - Coloseum 8)El Djem - Big Coloseum 9)El Djem - Little Coloseum 10)Carthage - Coloseum 11)Carthage - Amphitheatre 12)Rome - Coloseum 13)Plovdiv - Little Amphitheatre 14 ...