Relaxing in Veliko Tarnovo

Monday, Aug. 10, 2009--Veliko Tarnovo (Cont.)

My plans have been to go from here to Varna, a seaside resort on the Black Sea for a couple of days. That part of the trip has worried me, however, because it is the height of the tourist season and I know finding a room will be difficult. I was lucky in Saranda in Albania when I finally found a room, and I knew it. My plan was to go to Varna early so that I could search for a room and have time to leave it for Ruse, my next city, if I could find nothing. I had been told by my landlady that buses for Varna leave from a central hotel and that I could buy my ticket from there. I went there this afternoon to check on times and to buy a ticket. To my surprise, although there are many buses each day, there is a wide gap in departures in the morning hours--4:00 for one departure with the next one at 11:15. Well, going at 4:00 is earlier than I want to get up. And the 11:15 bus will not arrive in Varna until the middle of the afternoon when I am afraid I would be more difficult to find a room and also more difficult to get out of town if nothing can be found.

I returned to the tourist office to ask information about buses leaving from the bus station. They said they had no information about the times of buses. Eventually, one of them said she thought the first bus for Varna would leave the station around 10:00. That would be a bit better, but my arrival in Varna would not be until early afternoon. (It's at least a 3 hour trip by bus.) Therefore, I had to start considering whether to skip Varna and head into Bulgaria where I could try visiting a Black Sea resort there as an alternative. While there, I asked about cyber cafes, and they told me that the only one available here in town is across the street. When I asked about there not being local ones where kids play online games, etc., the woman working there told me that Internet connections are cheap here in Bulgaria, that most people have their own computers, and that it is only the tourists who use the cyber cafes. I have always told people that the richer the country, the fewer cyber cafes available, but I am surprised from what I have observed that most people in Bulgaria would be able to afford computers and Internet connections.

I went to the cyber cafe, then I explored the city while thinking about whether to try to go to Varna or not. Veliko Tarnovo is a pretty city. It has a dramatic setting on a curve around a valley. It is a university town, although the students are gone at present due to it being the summer. Tourists seem to come here for the setting, to see the museums and the local fortress, and to make day-trip excursions to smaller scenic/historical towns. The younger tourists (read: backpackers) seem to like it here, as they do to many places, because it is a party town with lots of activity in the many bars and clubs. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for people like Rosa, my landlady who rents rooms to all types. She has the older types and some professionals who probably return to the room by 21:00-22:00 for a good night of sleep. Then she has to be up to let in the younger crowd which returns from the clubs between 3:00 and 4:00. In addition to all of that, she has to be available all day long to show rooms to anyone who is arriving in town. When does she get a good sleep?

While wandering, I saw three young men with backpacks on the edge of town looking at their guidebook. I figured they were just arriving and asked if I could help them, knowing that I had already developed at least an orientation for the main streets and the locations of the main sites in town. They were Frenchmen and said they were going to a specific hotel and showed me it's location on the map. I told them to follow the street they were on and that it would curve around and take them directly to there. Then I told them about the place I had seen in the morning and gave them the card for it, since it probably would be a good bargain for 3 people and the room had 3 beds. I was walking the same way, and as we walked, I remembered that Rosa had a room with 3 beds, so I told them that my place also had a room if they wanted to see it. We were only half a block away, so they went with me. I went into my room and left them with Rosa. Later, she told me that they took the room.

Rosa served me my dinner at 19:30, and she and her husband came to sit with me. They opened a bottle of Bulgarian red sparkling wine. We toasted and then they drank while I ate and drank. She had made me a pork steak dish smothered with cooked onions. She served sliced tomatoes (REALLY tasty) and toast on the side. She also put out some Bulgarian dried beef which the two of them ate with their wine and then insisted that I eat with the rest of my wine after I finished my plate of food. It was way too much food, but it was good. I had some small cakes in my bag left from yesterday, so I ate them before bedtime as a dessert.

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009--Veliko Tarnovo

Breakfast was huge, too. Rosa cooked more of the pork steak, scrambling it with eggs and serving it with more sliced tomatoes. She made her special herbal tea to go with it. It was delicious, although the pork was a bit salty.

Rosa knew I planned to go to Varna, and without my having told her of my possible change in plans and concern about finding a room, she told me she would call a place in Varna and get me a room starting tomorrow. She telephoned the place and made the arrangements. Therefore, I have a room reserved there. It's in a lower-cost hotel that is along the lines of where I would usually stay. It's a bit more than what I have paid elsewhere lately, but it is in the major seaside resort at the height of the season. Her doing that solved my problem related to the timing of the buses. Therefore, I returned to the center of town and bought a ticket for the bus at 11:15 tomorrow.

While in the area of the cyber cafe, I got online to read my mail. I had an e-mail from a Bulgarian woman who lives in the U.S. and is upset with what I have written about her country. As those of you reading this know, I write this blog for friends and family to know where I am and what I am doing during the 5-6 months I am traveling each year. Most people do not know it exists, and I do not write it for a broad audience or for people to "learn" about the countries more than they can learn from my experiences and reactions. In otherwords, I don't write it to be a travel guide. Anyway, she felt I should not be traveling in the country if I didn't want to spend $100-150 per day and paying for guides, rental cars, etc.--a complete lack of understanding of my style of travel and purposes for traveling--and she rebutted in detail many points that I had addressed in the blog. What I found especially interesting was that there was also an e-mail from my friend Jack saying that my entries about Bulgaria had convinced him that he and Drew should plan a trip to Bulgaria. Now that is two people who are guaranteed to spend MORE than $100-150 per day if they come here!!!

While at the cyber cafe, I began investigating places to stay in Bucharest, my first stop in Romania where I will be either Friday or Saturday. It is obvious that it will be a more expensive place to visit than where I have been since leaving Thessaloniki. Tonight, I will read my guidebook from there for its recommendations for places to stay to see if anything is there that would be better than what I have found with my online searches.

Although, as I have written here, there are many things to do in this city, I have actually enjoyed just relaxing here. I am a bit burned out on seeing Old Towns, fortresses, museums, etc. I have done lots of reading and relaxing in my room. Today, after being out about 3 hours in the morning, I returned to the room for 3 hours. Now I am back out for about 3 hours. Then I will head back, have dinner, and call it a night.

I'm glad I have specific travel plans for tomorrow. And I am especially glad that they don't involve having to find a place to stay once I arrive in Varna or having to get up for that 4:00 bus!