Oblast Stara Zagora

i tried to leave the dorm as silently as possible and met lilia and margherita in the lobby. took a metro to the airport, said goodbye to lilia (who was going back to germany after 3 months of travel) and headed to the car rental. turns out margherita is a horrible driver but a great conversation partner, so the 4 hour drive was pretty chill.

on the way to kazanluk, we saw a huge monument from the highway on the outskirts of stara zagora and went to check it out. we were both into brutalism, so we were absolutely amazed by this find. finally made it to our airbnb, got a 2,50€ kebab and called it a day.

woke up at 5:45 to catch the sunset and drove another half hour to the monument site. it was foggy as hell, so we couldn't see more than 20 metres. not great for getting photos of the while thing, but perfect for setting the atmosphere. this monument had been on my bucket list for years and years now, so it was exciting to finally make it there. i'll let the pictures do the talking.

it was insanely cold, so we had to get back to the car after just an hour to defrost. got back on the road, this time on a route that took us even deeper into the bukgarian countryside. the people here look almost turkish in complexity and facial features and most are very poor, living either in run down houses in small villages or endless commie blocks in the bigger towns. i'd say here i had the second big culture shock after the one in the us, especially after the perceived normality of sofia.Read more