Official:
Day 6 – Plovdiv City Rest Day A day for rest and sightseeing as we transfer to Bulgaria’s second city – Plovdiv. “The City of the Seven Hills” is one of the world’s oldest cities and has a fascinating history incorporating Thracian, Greek, Roman and Ottoman rule. Plovdiv is among the few cities with two ancient theatres; remains of the medieval walls and towers; Ottoman baths and mosques; a well-preserved old quarter from the National Revival period with beautiful houses, churches and narrow paved streets. There are numerous museums, art galleries and cultural institutions. After our lunch we take a tour of the old town of Plovdiv visiting the Ethnographic Museum and the Ancient Roman Theatre: probably the best-known monument from antiquity in Bulgaria. Our accommodation is in a charming hotel in the old town. Hotel Alafrangite.

Me:
Transferring the roughly 90 minutes from Hyasar to Plovdiv, we drove through fields of Apples, Grapes, Hay, Roses, wheat. The outskirts of Plovdiv are marked by numerous industrial and manufacturing complexes and lots of car dealerships!

Once in town, we found our way to the older portion of the town, some of it built centuries ago, but most restored and rebuilt since the late 1800s.

On arrival, we immediately embarked on a multi-hour walking tour of the old town, then dropped down into a newer portion of town that had more contemporary shopping, lots of that overpriced purses and watches type of crap. It was interesting to see a nearly complete Roman amphitheater still in use, there was an impromptu choir that sang two songs while we were there, the unamplified acoustics for that size space were pretty incredible.

After an unremarkable lunch, the group split a bit, Paul and I walked to a large city park that had some very interesting water fountains in it; public park spaces are always interesting to me as the modern United States seems to have forgotten the value of large public park spaces that aren’t dominated by retail business.

After a needed doze at the hotel, I regrouped with the gang to head out for dinner to a beautiful restaurant that has indoor and outdoor seating, great food, and the main attraction is every weekend they have traditional dance performances. Watched a mummers dance and several others that were very interesting and beautiful.

Just as we were arriving, there was a wedding celebration occurring at the restaurant as well. It was very cool to watch the celebrants dance in a single line that wound around all the tables on the main floor of the restaurant.

The food was very good, I had a Shopska salad as always, and then ordered a combination meat and vegetable dish that turned out to be about 90% meat! Pork and chicken and veal, all grilled and marinated and very tasty. Orlin also ordered our favorite pickled hot peppers! Yummy! The table shared a bottle of local Bulgarian wine, a merlot. Paul and I had a tasty gin and tonic! It’s always served with the gin in the glass, comes with a can of tonic on the side and a bowl of ice. You basically organize your own drink. Very good!

Driving back in the van, it was hilarious watching Pano hold the bikes in the back of the van from banging against each other as we drove up the hill over very rough cobblestone street. Then, just as I get into my room, about seven minutes of fireworks shoot off just behind the hotel. So I went out into the street and they were pretty cool to see. While there is certainly no barking dog right here, there is the boom boom of music from a bar just uphill from the hotel that keeps getting louder as it gets later. Truth is I dislike any disruptive noise when it’s sleep time, I will take booming music over a barking dog any day! At least with music, you don’t have to worry about when the next bark, I mean next beat will occur!

Overall a good day in Plovdiv. There is much more to see than we did, thankful for a day off here. The weather was good all day, moving into a warm trend this week, should be pleasant!

Enough for today…