May 28, 2012 - Last stop - Plovdiv, Bulgaria

From the tour brochure: "Set at the bottom of the majestic Pirin Mountains, Bansko is home to more than 150 cultural monuments and many of its stone houses have been transformed into charming 'mehanes' (taverns)." From here it's back to London, then Dublin on RyanAir.

Jun 23, 2011 - Extreme Activités en Bulgarie

Mon idée initiale en arrivant a Istanboul était d’ensuite remonter a travers l’europe de l’est jusqu’à Strasbourg... en deux semaines. Ça ne m’aurait laissé que quelques jours dans chaque pays. Mais avec un tel voyage, il faut toujours s’attendre à tout et à être prêt a répondre à n’importe quelle situation qui se présente. J’arrive donc en bus de nuit en Bulgarie, a la ville de Plovdiv, vers le centre du pays. La Bulgarie n’a pas encore l’euro mais est membre de l’Union. Inutile de préciser qu’en voyant le drapeau bleu a étoiles, je sens...

Sep 8, 2010 - Plovdiv

Today we left Rila monastery and drove east, through to the city of Plovdiv, a nice sized city with a big university and lot's of Roman ruins. On the way we stopped at a winery in the Bessa Valley for a wine tasting, which everyone enjoyed. The Bulgarian wine is not as good as what I had in Portugal, but still pretty good and very affordable. They have been producing wine here since the times of the ancient Greeks, but modern production is relatively small. It's growing, and some Bulgarian wine is exported to Britain and other parts of...

Jul 13, 2010 - Plovdiv

1 Juwel einer Stadt, Plovdiv, das ehemalige Philipopolis. Reich an Geschichte, mit einem roemischen Amphitheather, zahlreichen Ausgrabungen mitten im Stadtkern, welcher aus einer langen Fussgaengerzone an praechtigen Art-Nouveau-bauten besteht. Und die Bulgaren: wie ausgetauscht, die Busfahrer, am Kiosk, im Hotel, an der Touriinfo, auf der Post, in den Restaurants, alle wirkliche freundlich und ein Laecheln drauf. So macht's wieder Spass. Plovdiv hat auch noch ein paar schoen restaurierte Herrenhauser aus der tuerk./ russischen Zeit und ein...

Jan 14, 2009 - New country: Bulgaria

1/14/09 Our arrival in Bulgaria was fairly unpleasant. A wet drizzle cast a grey pallor over everything, and the sidewalks were slippery with mud and slush. After lugging our things for fifteen minutes from the bus station, we discovered that the guesthouse recommended most highly by the guidebook was closed, so we lugged all our things onward to another hostel that was cold, dreary, and overpriced. Luckily, Fran got up early to explore other possibilities and found the Plovdiv guesthouse, located right in the heart of the old town. The...

Sep 12, 2008 - Plovdiv, Bulgaria

September 11 Plovdiv This morning we had a private mini-bus take us to Plovdiv which took only about 2-1/2 hours and it was amazing we made it in one piece the way our driver was passing everyone on the narrow roads. Plovdiv is situated on the Maritsa River and was once the meeting point of two ancient transportation routes. A picturesque town with many parks, gardens, museums and archaeological monuments, its Old Town features many 18th and 19th century Baroque houses dating from the national revival period. These charming homes sit...

Mar 17, 2008 - Plovdiv and Krichim, Bulgaria

Tim & Andy did their Peace Corps service in Bugaria, so they were quite excited to be "home". They know Bulgarian, they understand the people, they know the transportation systems...and they know how to order the best food! We stayed with Andy's host mother Sunai in Krichim and had such a lovely visit with her. As soon as we arrived, she insisted on "reading our coffee grinds". I guess this is a gypsy skill, I'm not quite sure how she learned how to do it, but it was pretty amazing! She told me so much about my current life, but also gave...

Aug 15, 2007 - More bits of Bulgaria

There was no sign of Rupert on Friday morning, so we assumed he'd caught the early flight as planned. Ruth and I, having exhausted most of the delights of central Sofia, opted to venture further afield and, after a slight detour to see the Banya Bahi mosque, settled on Mt Vitosha, just south of the city. A tram and a bus took us to the foot of the mountain, then a cable car gave us a rather shaky ride some of the way up it. The route to the top wasn't particularly clearly marked, so we went with our best guess; meeting a Hungarian family on...

Nov 5, 2006 - Adventures in Contraband

So....traveling on the train from Nis to Sofija, the 1310 destined for a 1740 arrival. But stuff happens... From my little black notebook, recorded live in transit: "Well this is weird - stuck for two hours on the Serbian and then Bulgarian borders with a train full of Roma...they taped cigarettes to their legs, stuffed them in their underwear, hid them in the fire extinguisher compartment...asked me to hide them in my bag. The Serbs held us for a long time, then the Bulgarians basically took the train apart, unscrewing crates, poking steel...

Oct 20, 2006 - Towards the Bosphorus

Super Plovdiv! Or that is what the Lonely Planet says in its opening lines about the place. Bulgaria's second city is certainly nice, but super might be a small overstatement. The city of about 300,000 is a collection of history's conquerors, architecturally demonstrating the various periods of foreign rule. There are ruins from the ancient Thracians that go as far back as 5000 BC, ancient Roman theatres and bath houses, Turkish mosques and minarets, several Russian orthodox type churches, beautiful Bulgarian revivalist/medieval homes, and...

Sep 14, 2006 - Plovdiv

On the bus we met a couple of interesting people. An Aussie girl who was just travelling to the border so she could renew her visa. She had started her own nanny agency up in Istanbul and had been working for a year there. She was raking it in. Everything was registered in Australia for legal purposes so she didn't get killed. Some of her clients include the Saudi Royal family. Met another guy, George, on the bus who is actually Bulgarian and lives in Plovdiv. He works for an American financial banking corporation and he is their "man on...

Jul 22, 2006 - Shop Therapy

There is perhaps no greater evidence that I was raised in a female-centric household then that when I am stressed, I shop. This would be stereotypical and somewhat offensive to some if I was female, but, as many of you have deduced, I am in fact male. So, to paraphrase Descartes, I pee standing up, therefore I shop. Smolyan was a brilliant experience. I created a series of new exercises for my workshop, including one I really like, which I call Rob Zombie. Players walk around the floor like zombies (whatever that means to them). When I clap...