Four days in Bulgaria

From 02 December 2021 to 06 December 2021

We leave North Macedonia in direction of Bulgaria. The journey is rather nice, we meet Marc and Victorien, two young French just graduated with whom we are going to make a part of the road.

The border crossing is done without any difficulty (now that we are vaccinated, everything is fine) and we arrive at Sofia around 10:30 pm.

Sofia

As soon as we arrive in Sofia, the tone is quickly set. We try to get a taxi to go to our accommodation. The taxi in question, an old man, doesn't seem to know the address we give him. Another man, a little younger, looks at the address and talks back to the old man to tell him the address. The man indicates us the race will cost us 10 Levs (that is to say approximately 5 euros), when a young man, appears suddenly and interferes in the conversation, telling us that it will be 10 euros. We explain to him, then, that we have just been told that the race costs 10 Levs and that we do not understand why the price doubles without any reason. Very unkindly, he repeats "10 euros". The old man seems, anyway, to have fallen asleep in his cab. We decide to make the trip on foot.

This lack of benevolence, this cold and distant welcome, we will be confronted with it several times during the 4 days we will spend in Bulgaria. Fortunately, we still met some people ready to smile and help us, but it is far from being the majority.

When we arrive at our accommodation, we are annoyed to notice that the manager smokes in the common parts (dining room, corridors). We feel the smoke until our bed, what we find particularly unpleasant. It was however specified that it was a non-smoking place on Booking!

Since the beginning of our world tour, the smoke of cigarette in the accommodations and the restaurants is THE thing which annoys us the most. We are far from suspecting that we are more than lucky, in France, concerning the laws of prohibition of the cigarette in the public places.

The next morning, we have breakfast in a charming café (non-smoking!), then we join the city center of Sofia, for our guided tour of the city (it really starts to become a habit). Marc and Victorien (the two young graduates from Bordeaux that we met in the bus the day before) join us for this day.

During this visit, we learn the history of the city of Sofia and more widely, that of the Bulgarians. We see the cathedral Saint-Alexandre Nevski, the orthodox church of Sveti Sedmochislenitsi, the statue of Saint-Sofia, the church of Saint-Georges Rotunda, the Russian church Saint-Nicolas, the church Saint-Sofia, the former headquarters of the Communist Party, etc.

We also see the city museum, which was built on the old baths naturally fed by thermal waters. Not far from the museum, we see numerous fountains of natural hot water. We even fill our gourd there!

Once the tour is over, we go to a hostel to eat on the other side of the city. This afternoon, we take the time to observe in more detail some of the monuments seen during the guided tour. We then stroll to the Christmas market, where we enjoy a glass of blueberry mulled wine (which was way too sweet).

Then, we go to the bus station with the intention of buying a bus ticket to go to the town of Koprivchtitsa, where there is a small town with typical Bulgarian architecture. The ticket offices are very numerous, so we ask the operator of the information desk, who, without a glance, answers us "no". Apparently, there is no direct way to go to Koprivchtitsa from Sofia. We ask the operator to tell us in which city we have to go and then take a connection to reach our goal, Koprivchtitsa. Again, we get a "no". Not very nice this lady today!

After a few minutes of reflection, we take the decision to go to the next step, Plovdiv. And it is possible to book a bus ticket for this destination (yay!).

Tonight, we go out in a bar and then in a club where we dance with Marc, Victorien and one of the volunteers who works in the youth hostel where they stay.

Plovdiv

After a short night in our room (or rather our smoking room), we take our bus towards Plovdiv, the second biggest city of Bulgaria located at 150 kilometers east of the capital.

The temperature in Plovdiv is much more pleasant, which makes us happy to discover the richness that the city offers us. It has been named the EU Capital of Culture in 2019, a title that is well deserved!

We walk through the centuries-old houses of the old city center. We see the museum of ethnography, the old theater, the hill "Nebet" and its ruins with a panoramic view of the city and the Christmas ice rink, which is undoubtedly the largest natural ice rink we have seen so far.

The city is very lively, and the Christmas decorations are beautiful. The many street-arts too! It is very pleasant to walk there at night. Plovdiv is definitely our Bulgarian favorite!

Burgas

The next morning, we take a train to Burgas, a city located at the eastern end of the country, right next to the Black Sea. The journey, which lasts at least five hours, is interminable. The train is slow, makes frequent long stops and is not heated. At the end of one hour, we have the impression to be in a refrigerator. We take our pain in patience, I finish my night and Victor watches a series. We arrive at our destination in the beginning of afternoon.

We planned to stay two nights in Burgas and it is largely sufficient, because there is not much to make there. The tour of the city is done quickly in half a day.

The following day, we realize a PCR test, obligatory for our entry in Turkey (we received our second injection less than 14 days ago). We have lunch in a Chinese restaurant, whose service is deplorable, but the portions are so enormous that we will have enough to eat for this evening too. Victor is particularly depressed by the quality of the service and even more annoyed when, at the time of paying, the waitress refuses at first to give him his change. Obviously, she decided to pay herself her tip! Far from being satisfied, Victor waits for her to give him his change. It is sure, that a tip, she will not have any; finally, not more than the 1 euros that she will not return us.

To forget all that, we are going to walk along the Black Sea, to a lake famous for its sulfuric water, which gives it a pinkish color.

The summer, many people come here to make mud baths. And we understand well why when we see the state of the road (our shoes still remember it!). There is so much mud that it accumulates under our soles. Our shoes weigh a ton, but we decide to go until the end of the way anyway, Victor located a road on his telephone, that we could join to take a bus. We walk in this mud during approximately 45 minutes and when we arrive finally at the road, we discover that it is about a highway (that it was not specified on the telephone). The bus stop is situated on the other side of this road. And as it is not question that we cross this highway (I put my veto there), we walk some meters on the edge of road before joining a way, less muddy, and to turn back on foot.

Arrived again in the center of the city, we offer ourselves the pleasure to taste a waffle with the ice cream and the Kinders. Since Plovdiv, we regularly see people eating them in the street, we could not resist it any longer!

We spend our evening at the bus station, where we eat the rests of our lunch and where we wait patiently for our bus, which leaves at 23:59 for our next destination: Istanbul, in Turkey.

Dovijdanye Bulgaria, tomorrow, we shall wake up in Turkey!