I’ve got to be honest, Bulgaria was never high on my list of places to see. It was more of a stopping point between Romania and Turkey, and I never really took the time to properly research it. I looked at Sofia, and thought I could spend a day there, and also read good things about Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv, and I never really looked further than that.
It turns out Veliko Tarnovo doesn’t have great transport options coming from Romania, so that was the first place to be cut from my itinerary. And if you’re reading this, you likely also read about my Bucharest bus-panic that resulted in missing out on Sofia and going straight through to Plovdiv. And so, as it turns out, Plovdiv is the only place in Bulgaria that I ended up visiting.
After the train ride from the other day’s post, I got straight on the bus to Plovdiv, arriving just after 1am. I tried to take a taxi from the bus station to my hostel, but was refused by every taxi. I have no idea why, and I couldn’t communicate with them enough to find out, but it was happening to a Spanish guy who had been on the same bus as me too, so we decided to walk together into town instead. It was less than a half-hour walk, but still a bit of a pain in the middle of the night with a whole lot of luggage! When I arrived at the hostel, one person was still up, and looked horrified at the fact that I was arriving at 2am, but we soon established that I had been messaged with all my check-in details and so knew where my room was and whatnot.
In the morning, I wandered down to the middle of town to join a walking tour of the city and get my bearings a bit. It turns out it’s an interesting wee place! It’s considered the oldest continuously settled place in Europe, having had people there for over 8000 years now. Throughout the town, they have uncovered ruins that have now become part of the public places of the city – no fees to enter, no restrictions about not climbing on them, just… places! The tour took us to several of those, as well as through the old town, with its Bulgarian Renaissance houses, the arts neighbourhood that is also known as “The Trap” due to how easy it is to get lost in it, and, of course, the town centre.
In my own time over the next few days, I also visited Nebet Tepe, one of the seven hills in the city, which is topped with the ruins of an old acropolis from when the area was occupied by the Thracians. I also hung out in the Tsar Simeon Park, which is filled with fountains and statues and a great place to hide from the heat. One evening I had a couple of drinks with other people at the hostel, and made friends with a woman from Colombia who now lives and works in Venezuela. She introduced me to another Chilean guest, and so we all hung out as a wee Spanish-speaking group for the next couple of days.
Apart from seeing the town, a good part of my time in Plovdiv was spent fretting about not having my Letter of Invitation for Turkmenistan yet. Finally, FINALLY, it came through on my third evening there, and I immediately headed out to find somewhere to print it. Once I had done so, I sat down to read it, and then I realised… my passport number was wrong. Holy moly, the stress. I got in touch with the tour company to let them know, and they said “Give us 72 hours to get it fixed.” I said, “In 72 hours I’ll be about to board my flight…” but there wasn’t much they could do about that! It was not a happy time.
Anyways, the next day was my last in Bulgaria, and it was a slow one. I slept in, went out for lunch with my Spanish-speaking friends, and headed to the bus station for my overnight bus to Istanbul, where I’m spending a couple of days before my flight to Turkmenistan. It was about 2am on the bus, we had just crossed the border into Turkey, and despite often being an instant bus-sleeper, I couldn’t sleep. I logged into the tour company page to check for any updates, and there it was: “Letter of Invitation – Updated”.
emilyonearth 
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