A quick an quiet sojourn in the land of ...
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2002
1
14
20
Trip End
Aug 22, 2002
Veliko Tarnovo,
Bulgaria
Monday, July 8, 2002
At four a.m. I was unceremoniously deposited at a rural railway station, thanks to the interpretive skills of my companions. My Cyrillic alphabet is a bit hazy as I only recognise three or four letters. Bleary-eyed I made my way to the train for Veliko Tarnovo. Here I met the funniest guard yet.
He inspected my passport with great interest, asking "Sydney?"
"Yes, Sydney," I replied
1. Veliko Tarnovo
."Sydney, yes," he agreed.
A moment later he stated, "Newcastle."
Where that came from I don't know, but he continued listing the names of major Australian cities and I agreed with him. The geography listing could have continued for a ridiculous while, but the journey to Veliko only takes twelve minutes.
One great thing about summer time is having daylight at 5 a.m. when arriving at rural Bulgarian railway stations. Veliko is cited in the LP guide as a highlight of Bulgaria and rightly so. The town is built alongside a great gorge and the town itslef appears a mish-mash of buildings extended upwards.
Cyrillic alphabet presents a little bit of a problem. Not only learning Bulgarian language basics, but a totally new alphabet. Not good after a night train ride. Luckily, I found a Bulgarian family visiting from Florida and they pointed me in the right direction for the hostel. Needless to say, their English was far superior to my Bulgarian.
Veliko Tarnovo doesn't have a lot to do except wander the cobbled streets, inspect the town monuments and sights, and generally chill out
2. The Citadel
. The highlight for me was the citadel across the gorge from the town. An impressive bridge links it to the other side of the gorge and immense bells are strategically places along the citadel walls. It is easy to imagine defenders of the citadel watching the vertiginous valley from here for would-be invaders.How's the serenity? Great if you're not staying in the hostel which is adjacent to the local bar/disco that thuds London club music literally non-stop. Still, it serves interesting Bulgarian beer and the view from the balcony at the back of the place is fantastic, overlooking the valley.
Northern Bulgaria is fantastic, but public transport is something of a mission of changing here and there. Always Cyrillic fun. In my mission to get to Sofia, I met some really lovely Bulgarian people. There was the charming middle-agedTransport Policeman with white hair, sparkiling blue eyes who ensured I caught the fastest train and just happened to be travelling that way himself! There was George, a ping-pong champion who was eagerly awaiting his sons results from the european championships in Moscow. He gave me his address and telephone number "for if you have problems in Bulgaria" despite living in the middle of nowhere. There were the gaggle of local ladies at the post office who crowded around the doorway for no apparent reason other than a desire to queue and crowd. They insisted that I have priority service from the post mistress and, feeling like Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, I complied as did she. I guess one doesn't argue with a crowd of little ladies sporting home-permed, crimson hair.
So it was all fun in Bulgaria, albeit brief. Onward to Istanbul.
