Our first stop after Sofia was Kazanluk, a small city in a valley between two mountain ranges that divide the country North and South. We timed the visit for the Rose Festival there. Roses are harvested and distilled to rose oil (at a very small ratio of input to output) which is used in the perfume industry. It is a lucrative specialty product that has been produced in the region for a few centuries. Roses are a big theme there:
The pictures above are from a Rose tourist centre in the area. Left is an amphitheatre at the centre which was set up for big events. On the right is a old car from the Soviet era, a Moskvich. It was a blast from the past for Veronica.
Veronica had a medical school friend, Darina, in the city, who took on an active role in our festival participation. We had VIP seats at a show in the city courtesy of her. Good show, and it included a drone light show at the end, my first time seeing that. She and her son, Georgi, were lovely people who were generous including me in the conversation (with Veronica translating as needed).
Then it was on to Tarnovo, which had been the capital of the second Bulgarian empire (12th-14 century BC). In this transition, I was suffering from food poisoning. Enjoyment in the trip dropped a bit, but luckily I always travel with Imodium. Worst night I had quite vivid delirium dreams. You know, the kind that make no sense but seem so real you keep trying to work out what they mean. Bad day or two and a few more during which my stomach looked suspiciously at every thing I put in it. I did recover enough to get some sightseeing in Tarnovo (officially it is Veliko Tarnivo, "Great Tarnovo") which is pretty impressive. As you can see, if you live in Tarnovo you have to work pretty hard not to have a view.
The shot above shows the mix of well maintained buildings and ruins that is typical of everywhere in Bulgaria I have been. The country is not doing well economically and its population has decreased steadily since the end of Communism. Of course, it might just be that Bulgaria has been settled for so long they have reached a steady state of construction that Vancouver has not had time to get to yet.
After Tarnovo, we went on to Varna, a city on the Black Sea. On the first day, we drove North to see the edge of the Northern plains (similar transition from mountains to foothills to prairie East of the Rockies into Alberta) and Cape Kaliaka, which had been settled for millennia due to its geography that allowed for easy defense: narrow land access and steep cliffs to the sea. It was my first view of the Black Sea:
On the way back to Varna we had lunch a famous fish restaurant which was at the end of a dubiously steep one lane road (we parked at the top and walked down).
Veronica had organized us some really excellent accommodation on the trip, but the fanciest place was the one in Varna. It was a big studio, which I would describe as a bachelor pad. Look, it even included a sexy woman:
A day on the beach in Varna and then on to Nesebar:
Nesebar is another defensible sea-side town that has been settled since ancient times. It is a peninsula (island with a causeway?) town with original buildings. It is a pleasant tourist area now. I would go back there to stay longer at this time of year, which is warm (for a Canadian with Finnish heritage) but not yet high tourist season. We were rained out on our last day and decided to come back to Perushtitsa and end the road trip a day early.
End of the trip (part III) is a week in Perushtitsa. I am giving a talk tomorrow at the University of Plovdiv to see if there is any possibilities of collaboration.
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