Exploring Plovdiv

Friday, Aug. 7, 2009--Plovdiv (Continued)

Plovdiv is an interesting town. The guidebook says that Bulgarians love it. I can see why. It is a city, but it is small enough to get around easily. It seems much more progressive (economically advantaged) than Sofia. It has more of a feel of the Mediterranean nations maybe because it is closer to them by being in the southern part of Bulgaria. It has a combination of modern city, old ruins from Roman times, and a nice old town from the 1800s. There are many parks. And there is a good tourist office with free maps and reliable information. I'm enjoying it better than I did Sofia.

Another advantage of this city is that the cyber cafe (the only one I have found so far) does not try to rob users the way the two in Sofia did. Here, I am paying only 73 cents U.S. for an hour. That's about 1/3 of the cost in Sofia.

When I returned to the apartment after my outing, there was a woman present. She introduced herself. Her name is the name on the buzzer downstairs and is the name I was given by the rental agency. She speaks little English, so I am not certain of her response when I asked if Donny, the man from the morning, is her husband. She mentioned the word "husband," but she also said, "another apartment" while pointing downward. I am not sure if they are married and kept both apartments so they could rent out rooms in the one where I am or if they are lovers and she rents out both her bedrooms and stays down in his apartment. Anyway, both of them are nice, and I feel welcome in the apartment.

The tourist office let me know that there is a large supermarket near where I am staying. In fact, it is only 1 1/2 blocks away. I stopped by there to get some supplies after my touring for the day was finished. I still had half of my salami from the night before, so I bought a bottle of wine, some more baked bagels, and a bag of small chocolate cakes dipped in chocolate and chunks of sugared orange peel. That served as my dinner at the room. I just stayed inside and ate and read. The wine, by the way, is from Melnik, a town I wanted to visit. Unforunately, Melnik is in a poor location and has very few transporation links; therefore, it is not an easy town to visit. I wanted to go there because the town is known for its local wine growers. They sell their wine directly from the casks by filling their customer's plastic bottles. It's not fine wine, but it is known to be good and has the reputation for not causing hangovers. The bottle I bought did not name a grape; it just said, "Melnik 2006." It was less than $3 U.S. for the bottle, but it tasted fine, especially with salami and bagel chips. I only drank half of the bottle, so I barely got a buzz; however, I can truly say that I did not get a hangover from it either!

Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009--Plovdiv

It rained again last night. It was accompanied by lightning and thunder. But I was comfortably inside and didn't worry about it. This morning, there were clouds and until about 10:30 a little bit of mist. But there has been no rain today and the sun has found its way through the clouds off and on.

I had saved Old Town for visiting today. It's on top of a hill, and I was too tired from getting up so early yesterday to try to attempt it. But I also knew I would be here all day today and would need some special things to see and do. It's a nice part of town. It is the urban version of what I saw in Koprivshtitsa. In Koprivshtitsa, they are rural farm houses of the wealthy of the mid-1800s. Here, they are townhouses of the wealthy of the mid-1800s. The look and the decor are similar, although the houses here tend to be bigger in general. Also, the houses here are more likely to face the street rather than being behind walls with gates.

I met two nice men from Greece while wandering through Old Town. They were taking photos of each other in front of one of the houses, so I offered to take a photo of the two of them together. We stood and visited for a while afterwards. They are from northern Greece and have just come here for a weekend trip. They plan to drive up to Koprivshtitsa also. I encouraged them to go as soon as possible, since the festival with music and dance is taking place there this weekend. I'm sorry that I had already seen the town and needed to move on, because it would have been nice and interesting to have been there for the events.

The local art museum is in one of the big building in Old Town. I visited it. (I was the ONLY visitor while I was there.) It had very nice work on display--esentially only paintings and sculptures. I enjoyed it and was especially happy that a number of the painters are local residents, but I didn't see anything that made me think it was different and unique.

I bought a delicious sandwich for my lunch. The lady made it to order starting with a nice long heavy bun covered in various seeds (8 inches or 20 cm long). She put cheese and pork inside, then she grilled it. Afterwards, she added tomatoes, lettuce, and mayonnaise. I walked across the street to a park to eat it.

I have wandered the rest of today trying to see places that sounded interesting in my guide or looked interesting on the map. I went by the local market and walked through. The town has several hills, so I walked to the top of the tallest one called Jendem Tepe where there is the large Liberation Statue that can be seen from most of the city. From there, I headed to the university as marked on the map. Actually, there are several buildings scattered around the nearby blocks in addition to the one block the map identified as the university. Since school is out for the summer, it was a quiet area.

I was so thirsty by then that I returned to my room to finish the second half of a 2 liter bottle of diet cola that I had bought yesterday. My landlady was cooking something with eggplant, meat, and peppers. It smelled so good! How I would love to have a plate of it for my dinner! Her "husband" arrived and said hello to me. It was obvious that he would have liked to have visited, but there is the language problem. He was apologetic about it, but I reminded him that I do not speak Bulgarian!

I've brought my book with me on my current outing. I plan to sit in a park and read until time to buy something for dinner. I may buy two slices of pizza to take to the room to have with the rest of my wine. Or I may go back to the supermarket and buy some things there to take to the room. None of it will be as nice as the smell of what the landlady was cooking!!

Tomorrow, I will be up early to take a bus. Because it is Sunday and the tourist office that rents local rooms in apartments will not be open, I've decided to go to a small town outside of Velika Tarnovo where my next stop should be. I can see the small town tomorrow afternoon and then go into VT on Monday when there should be no problem getting a local room. I only have a few more days here in Bulgaria, then I will be moving into Romania and later into Moldova.