Veliko Tarnovo

We caught another one of Bulgaria's heavily graffitied trains to the old capital of Veliko Tarnovo. This is definitely one of the less well-known places we've visited this year, but the trains around here are quite slow, so it was handy to break up our journey towards Romania.

Turns out, this was actually a great decision. We only spent a day and a half here, which was enough, but it's a cute old town built on a river bend, with an old historic fortress swathed in mist at this time of year. Very atmospheric, definitely worth the stop!

The local buses in VT (as we're now calling it) operate on a slightly opaque system, where they don't say where they're going and there's no obvious way to pay. You just get on board, and a woman with no visible bus company identification accost you for money and gives you what appears to be a raffle ticket. But it's a very cheap raffle ticket, at least.

We visited the ancient Tsarevets Fort, arriving in the morning to buy tickets. Dan asked the lady at the concession stand whether we were the first people to visit that day. She just laughed and laughed. Once we entered, utterly alone of course, we were followed around loyally by a fat black cat who despite his substantial girth apparently hadn't seen any humans for a while. Chelsea dubbed him 'Chunkle'.

It seems we've caught Bulgaria at a particularly quiet time—a bit too late for the end of the autumn tourism, and too early for the Christmas crowds. We were however in town at just the right time to see an Avatar-themed abseiling performance... it must be a Dec 2nd tradition around here. Otherwise, it is very quiet in these parts. The country is just about to transition to the Euro which should bring in more people in future. But the quiet suits us just fine! Bulgaria has loads to offer and we've really enjoyed our 9 days of cold exploration. This stop in VT has been a good rest, before we head north to the (presumably even colder) interior of Romania 🥶 the last three weeks of the trip start now!もっと詳しく