Day 570: World Heritage Meet Day 1

Met up with everyone early in the morning and headed out of Varna. Stop number 1 was Pobiti, a group of small pinnacle rocks about 20 minutes outside the city. It's interesting enough I guess, and somehow made it onto the Tentative world heritage list. I doubt it'll ever be inscribed! Several people from the community enthusiastically collect tentative sites too, though it's not something we've particularly focused on unless it's scheduled for the next couple of years and we're nearby.

Next up was 90 minutes in the car to our next stop, the Madara Rider. This is an 8th century rock carving about 25 metres up a cliff. It's of the first Bulgarian king, Khan Terval, and depicts him triumphantly spearing a lion from atop a horse, and being accompanied by his pet dog. It's impressive, but it's really just a large rock carving and you can't get that close to it, so it's definitely going to be a short video! There's a couple of other things to see in the area so we did a little wandering.

Grabbed some lunch here as well and got to know everyone a little better.

Pressed onwards to Sveshtari, our third stop for the day. This is where a Thracian tomb from about 500 BC had been found, ornately decorated as well. Thracians were the original occupants of this land before Roman colonisation and settlement. The tomb itself had several beautiful carvings inside, though sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures. I'll have to get in touch with the museum for that one.

Another couple of hours driving and we arrived in Ruse late evening, a small city on the banks of the Danube. Here we'd stay overnight as there's a couple more sites nearby. Had dinner at a local restaurant with excellent food - I had a traditional Bulgarian dish of pork, onions, mushrooms and some sort of sour cheese. It was rather like a creamy stroganoff! The cuisine here is actually quite interesting; quite hearty eastern bloc style food but with strong Turkish and Greek influences. Lots of meat skewers, white cheese and the like.Read more