The grand monument of Communism

Our last day in Bulgaria and we got off to an early start in case we got delayed at the Romanian border.

First stop was the Madera Rider, an 8th century rock carving 23 metres up the cliff face. There are also numerous caves and plentiful walking tracks, which were mostly deserted when we visited.

The highlight of the day was the Founders of the Bulgarian State Monument, an enormous concrete monument overlooking the town of Shumen. It was opened in 1981 to commemorate the 1300th anniversary of the First Bulgarian Empire, and contains an estimated 50,000 civic metres of concrete. The granite lion on top weighs 1000 tons, but disappointingly you can't see it from the top, as it's only visible from the town below. The statues on the inside of the monument are fine examples of the Communist style.

We continued on to Ruse, also known as Little Venice for its architecture, and had lunch in a local restaurant. The second part of our Vegemite payback was for us to try tripe soup, but disappointingly for Nadya, we didn't mind it (especially served traditionally with garlic and chilli flakes).

We waited at the border for 40 minutes before crossing the Danube into Romania, just in time for peak hour traffic.Read more