Camping Dragijevo

We are at Camping Dragijevo near the old Bulgarian capital of Veliko Tarnovo. The frogs here are really loud this evening which Sara is loving! There are also plenty of fireflies about (we just had one inside the van which was weird) and also, apparently, jackals (which the owners told us sound like children).

We drove here via Stara Zagora, where we went to a Decathlon to buy new air mattresses because our old ones are starting to leak. Then we drove up into the Balkan Mountains to see the Buzludzha Monument, a massive architectural relic of the country’s communist past. Officially known as the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, it was completed in 1981 to commemorate socialist efforts and the founding of the party.

It looks like a UFO but in its now decaying state could easily be used as the set for a post-apocalyptic zombie horror movie.

The views from the top were glorious but it was quite cold so we had to eat lunch inside the van.

The drive down thru the heavily wooded slopes of the mountains was also really good. We went past another big monument, the Monument of Freedom, Saint Nicholas peak but we were too lazy to climb up to it.

Btw, we got stopped by the police today for driving without a "vignette" pass - which is the Bulgarian (and Romainian) way of collecting road tolls. We do now have a valid pass but we didn't until today and there are cameras everywhere so we probably triggered one at some point yesterday. Luckily, the language barrier led to enough confusion that we were let off. We have been told that the fine is about 40 Euros so fingers crossed that we don't get stopped again.Läs mer