Erotic Supermarkets, 'Night Gyms' and the Butcher of Prague

Having both been to Prague before we were excited to re-discover the beautifully preserved Staré Město, spared by the uprising in May 1945 that avoided Prague becoming a battle site like so many other European cities .  The old town offers a beautiful stroll through its eclectic architectural styles, winding streets and numerous bridges that span the Vltava River.  As strange gargoyles hang from the roof tops and beautiful frescos adorn the renaissance style buildings it is impossible not to become captivated with the city.    Rather than entering the castle and museums we therefore spent our few days in Prague on a couple of walking tours, making the most of the autumn sunshine and learning about the often gloomy history of the city.

 

In need of breakfast having arrived late into the city Hannah set off for the supermarket opposite to get some butter and eggs. She returned slightly flushed having visited (the not so subtle) ‘Erotic City’ Supermarket which only stocked a different kind of lubricant and eggs .  We headed off into Prague on our standard free walking tour, learning about general Czech history and getting our bearings in an often confusing city.  Our guide was very charismatic and talked us through the major sites in Prague; from the Old Town Square with the iconic Astrological Clock through to the Jewish quarter of the city (as well as the fantastically named 'Night Gym' complete with red lights and lewd sign).  The tour lasted for around 3 and a half hours and so we were happy to be able to recharge our battery’s and drink hot wine to keep us going for the duration.  The majority of our time was spent leaning about the old town square and some of the stories behind the statues and symbols dotted about the area.  One of the largest statues in the square depicts a Czech hero, Jan Hus, the former dean of the Charles University who played a major role in changing religion in Europe.   It was interesting to learn that a hundred years before the Protestant Reformation was started by Martin Luther, Jan Hus was burnt as a heretic for reformist ideas in the old town square.  We also enjoyed discovering what all of the different dials on the Astrological clock actually do, from showing the “Babylonian Time” to pointing out the name to be celebrated on each day of the year in Czechoslovakia.  We then walked back to our accommodation via the Charles Bridge and past the John Lennon wall (it used to be daubed with political messages and beetles lyrics following his assassination despite the best attempts of the secret police to stop it) that still provides people (mainly crusty hippies strumming on guitars and handing out flowers) with an opportunity to graffiti the wall with peace symbols and messages.

The John Lennon Wall

On the second day we spent the morning roaming the hill above Prague before walking through the now scarlet and gold wood to the Prague Castle complex.   The views from the walk were well worth the climb to the top and we were able to look out across the Charles Bridge into the old town as well as seeing the new sprawling city beyond.  We then headed to the Powder Tower to go on a tour of Prague that highlighted the city during WW2.  The tour described the terror of the Nazi occupation and we explored the last hideout of the Prague resistance beneath the city.  The tour explained how the city was saved by the resistance as the Nazi’s in Prague agreed to leave with no more fighting and surrender to the Americans across the demarcation line, rather than surrender to the advancing red army.  Sadly the leader of the resistance and German army both ended up serving a prison sentence in the cellars under the city during the Soviet occupation with the German receiving better treatment and a more lenient sentence than a national hero deemed to be a threat to communism.  The guide was very knowledgeable and finished by describing in detail the assassination of the highest ranking Nazi to be killed during the war, Reinhard Heydrich (the architect of the final solution to the Jewish question).  Although the tour was a sobering end to our time in Prague it was a good way to learn about Heydrich as we headed off to Krakow to visit Auschwitz and Schindler's Factory.

Germany's even more organised brother, Austria

The Kaiserforum Complex, Vienna

I carried on my journey along the Danube excited to finally explore Vienna having visited Austria a lot to ski but never been to the capital. Vienna was the resplendent heart of the Holy Roman Empire that was ruled by the Hapsburg family from 1438 until 1918.  The Hapsburg's were related to royal families from Mexico to Russia with the empire covering nations across most of central Europe until its defeat by Napoleon.  Vienna reflects this Imperial dynasty and following the re-designing of the centre by Emperor Franz Joseph I in the 1800's it is rightly regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Unfortunately it marked a considerable step up in price for my budget and so I had hoped to spend much of my time on free walking tours.  With Hannah still in Munich I booked into a hostel looking for fellow backpackers.  Despite Vienna being every bit as impressive as I had hoped it also managed to make Germany look anarchic and my hostel was no different.  With an atmosphere similar to the Emirates Stadium I looked forlornly around in search of people but as tumble weed rolled across the ‘social area’, furnished with gleaming steel surfaces, tiled walls and health and safety notices galore I gave up hope of even mild entertainment and settled in for the evening at 6pm, breathless from the excitement.

St Stephens Church

I should have been concerned from the previous evening but undeterred I woke up and started to research  free walking tours, only to discover that they are prohibited as tips might not be properly taxed.  As such I was forced to follow Big Boy Tours who provide excellent self-guided tours of cities (we had used their ideas in Istanbul already) with in-depth information about each stop.  The walking tour focussed on the old town and I spent the day gazing at Vienna’s most famous buildings; The Opera House, Saint Stephens Church, Hero’s Square and the Kaiserforum Complex housing the museum quarter.  All of them were suitably impressive and as horse drawn carts ferrying awestruck Japanese tourists rolled past designer shops I had never heard of the city seemed to ooze money and sophistication.  However, as I stood waiting at the crossing with the other lemmings on a totally deserted road not wanting to break the law by facing down the red man it struck me that I missed the chaos and colour of Mexico City.  For all of Vienna’s undoubted elegance and magical sights it lacked the personality of other cities that appeal to me with order and obedience replacing spontaneity and commotion.  The only sight of fear I saw all day was when I asked another man who seemed to be following the same route whether he was also on ‘the big boy tour’.  He was the only person I saw in Vienna who ignored the red man as he fled.

The National Library

Despite not necessarily captivating me in a way other cities have Vienna is undoubtedly aesthetically beautiful.  My favourite building was the Austrian National Library which was built by Emperor Charles in 1720-23 and remains one of the most beautiful libraries in the world today. It houses endless rows of handsomely bound leather books under a magnificently painted domed roof supported by marble columns.  The library has original work from over a 650 year period which has attracted sponsors from Arnold Schwarzenegger (yes, it turns out he can read) through to Henry Kissinger and it is an inspiring place to explore. I also allowed my budget to stretch to a slice of Original Sacher-Torte, regarded as the best chocolate cake in the world in one of few privately owned 5* hotels, as well as a visit to the Karlsplatz History Museum and a tour around the Opera House, both of which were well worth the entrance fee to begin to feel the Imperial History of Vienna.  

Aimless wanderings in Bratislava

Bratislava Castle

Having been left to my own devices for 4 days whilst Hannah visited friends in Munich I planned to visit two more famous capital cities situated along the banks of the Danube, Bratislava and Vienna.  As I only had 2 days in each, time was of a premium and the two hour walk in the driving rain when I arrived in Bratislava was not part of the master plan.  Refusing to take another taxi has no doubt helped my wallet and anger management issues but it has led to longer walks than planned from bus and train stations to our accommodation.  However, I am well known for my aversion to modern technology and posess an ability to draw scrawled maps (rather than use GPS and googlemaps) that somehow lead to our destination is a forte.  Up until Bratislava, navigating our way around cities had  thus far proved to be successful.  In defence of my crudely drawn map my adventure to my room in Bratislava was not helped by the accommodation being on a series of streets in a re-developed Soviet housing complex that contained four roads all with the same name.  This was further exasperated by my accommodation having no advertising and a phone number that when rang went straight to an automated system that my fluent grasp of the Slovakian language could not translate.  By this stage my crudely drawn paper map on the back of a bus ticket had disintegrated in the deluge and coupled with carrying 30 kg for 2 hours I was beginning to have a sense of humour failure.  Getting increasingly wet I began desperately asking anybody else stupid enough to be out in the monsoon for directions.  Eventually a women was able to walk me 2 metres away from where I had started my quest in the housing estate nearly an hour before to an unmarked building and a  concealed intercom system to my accommodation.  Brilliant. 

The view from Devin Castle

The following day I was rewarded with a beautiful winter’s day to explore and so I headed 10 kilometres out of Bratislava to Devin Castle.  Although the ruins themselves do not take long to explore they are situated a few hundred metres above the merging Danube and Morava rivers.  From the highest buttress of the castle you can look out across the forests towards Austria and I spent the rest of the morning with my headphones in enjoying life with a walk along the blue Danube.  Bratislava is a relatively small capital by European standards and sits under the watchful gaze of the restored castle that dominates the surrounding area from its lofty position.   It offers an impressive panoramic of Bratislava and the beautiful countryside that surrounds it although having visited enough museums recently I walked back down the hill into the old town without going inside.  The city’s Stary Mesto (old town) has been beautifully restored after the Soviets built a motorway through the middle of it.  St Martins Cathedral which crowned 11 Austro – Hungarian monarchs is right next to the motorway but it was easy to imagine the coronations of the Hapsburg dynasty despite the Soviet redevelopment of the area. The old town itself is quite small although its maze of streets and road works seemed to thwart my every turn which meant I spent a lot of time walking in circles which had seemed to define my time in Bratislava.  By late afternoon I felt I had wandered enough and I headed back to my accommodation surprisingly without incident to watch the football guilt free with Hannah still in Munich and not being forced to endure an afternoon of me shouting at a TV.  

One of the numerous strange statues around Brastislava

Cultural bar crawls in Budapest

We had already planned on slowing down the pace of our travelling by spending a week in Budapest before arriving and so we booked an apartment just outside of the Jewish quarter in the heart of the city.  We were joined by my sister, Rosie, and her partner Graham for the first four days of our stay who helped to provide more company for us both after two months on the road.  During our stay the Budapest Marathon was taking place and so we expected the city to be a hive of activity but we didn’t really notice a difference apart from watching the runners along the banks of the Danube on the Sunday of our stay, although the lack of crowds may have been due to the relentless drizzle that lasted for the duration of our stay. Despite the weather Budapest was not tarnished and bought us into the central European part of our journey. The city is beautiful with classical baroque and neo classic architecture spanning a gentle curve of the river Danube.  The Buda hills mark the last elevation before the Great Plain that stretches on to Russia and the city felt like an important point on our journey north.

Graham is a fine dining chef and as such we spent the first four days enjoying the finer things in life, wine, beer and food.  We embarked on my favourite way to explore a city, a cultural bar crawl.  Around Budapest the old Jewish quarter (which housed the last remaining ghetto during WW2) has re modelled itself and used the remains of destroyed buildings to create unique ‘ruin bars’.  Navigating our way around the ruin bars we started the cultural voyage with local beers at Szimpla Kert, a huge skeleton of a building that looked as if it was furnished at a second hand shop with old bikes, toys and even a vintage car.  We followed this by heading to Taste Hungary, who offered us the chance to get very drunk the chance to immerse ourselves in culture and sample local Hungarian wines.  I was amazed to discover Hungary was a major wine producing nation and the fantastic wine, meat and cheese left me in my element (unsurprisingly I cannot remember much about the wines we tasted).  The place was very welcoming and the sommelier made sure he sampled along with everybody else so by mid-afternoon everybody was suitably drunk.  Having enjoyed this so much first time round we did a similar cultural expedition on our last day, visiting a more up scale, renovated wine cellar buried deep into the rocks below the Matthias Church.  The sommelier closely resembled Count Von Count from the Muppets and he proceeded to rub his hands together and hunch over the table whilst teaching us about the wines in a menacing routine.  As I became more culturally enriched Count von Count became ever more like the vampire form of Quasimodo as he hunched over more tables pouring and explaining about the various wines.   I began to question the decision to be in a dark cellar with him (although my fear may have been due to the recent trip to Transylvania) but we escaped unscathed in to the cold afternoon.  With our greatly expanded knowledge of Hungarian wine we washed down some of the excellent local food during our stay with more Bulls Blood wine (Hungary’s most famous vintage)  whilst sampling amazingly flavoursome wild boar, mini sausages served in bread cones and incredible strudel from the market amongst other amazing (and cheap) local cuisine.   Much to mine and Hannah’s delight we also found Heinz Beans and had our first fry up since we left England, a rare novelty on the road.

As with the food the History within the city is impossible to escape from and the city still bears the scars of the last 75 years following Nazi and Soviet occupation, with many buildings still showing bullet holes and damage to their exteriors.  .Budapest’s own History mirrors the nation’s past in terms of its relatively recent conception.  The city is a union of three old towns, Buda, Old Buda and Pest and was only created in 1873 although the area has been inhabited for thousands of years.  As with the other nations we have travelled through Hungary was controlled by the Ottomans after Sultan Suleiman I annihilated the Hungarian forces in the 16^th century.  The Ottomans domination was short lived and they were evicted as early as 1686 by the Archduke of Austria Ferdinand and Hungary was swallowed into the Habsburg Kingdom.  An unsuccessful uprising in 1848 sparked a push for independence and following Austrian defeats to France and Prussia Hungary was promoted into a dual monarchy (The Austrian Hungarian Empire) until their defeat in WW1.  As resentment at the harsh terms of the peace treaties of WW1 grew (Hungary lost 2/3rds of their territories) Hungary fought alongside Germany in WW2 from 1941, although the Jewish community were relatively unharmed until Germany occupied Hungary in 1944 and installed the Arrow Cross Party.  Fierce fighting led too much of the country being destroyed as the Soviets devastated all in their path en route to Berlin in 1945 and their domination of Eastern Europe.  We visited the Terror House in Budapest which accommodated both the Facist and Communist regimes secret police.  The museum has a wealth of information (we spent over 3 hours reading!) about the regimes and their actions and a lift to the basement contains the old cells and torture devices.  It is a very moving museum and videos play interviews with former prisoners reinforcing the brutal nature of the regimes that terrorised Hungary for 50 years.  My favourite resistance to this oppression was pointed out to us on a walking tour of the city when we passed a very suspicious looking fountain that closely resembled a penis.  Known as ‘Budapest’s Public Penis’ the sculptor was apparently requested by the communist regime to create a monument to commemorate Budapest’s 100 year anniversary and his creation was an apparent deliberate effort to show his contempt at the Soviet occupation.     

Another not to be missed activity in Budapest are to visit the local thermal bath houses, especially on a rainy autumn day.  We visited two baths dating to different periods and offering very different experiences. We visited the Rudas Baths with Graham and Rosie whose central part is housed in a sixteenth century Ottoman, octagonal building with a huge domed roof.  The bath house was very atmospheric (apart from the English guy on a stag do trying not to throw up with a heavy ball chained to his foot) and we relaxed whist sitting in the steam rooms and the pools (which went up to 42 degrees!).  A particular highlight was tipping freezing water on yourself from the old buckets that were suspended on a pulley within the chamber.  We also visited the more modern Szechenyi Baths built in 1908 in a huge neo-classical palace in the city gardens.  The city gardens contain many of Budapest’s sights and begin with the imposing Hero’s Square, one of Budapest World Heritage sites.  They also house the Vajdahunyard Castle, an amazing building created using architecture from different time periods which provided an unexpected find for us on our walk through the park towards the baths.  The Szechenyi baths themselves were colossal and contain 18 pools, 3 swimming pools and 10 saunas and it was very cool sitting outside as the steam rose up from the pools on a cold day.   The baths became something of an endurance challenge as I embarked on a mission to last as long as I could in 55 degree steam rooms followed by freezing cold plunge pools but this was nothing compared with trying to avoid permanent mental trauma by witnessing overweight men in grape smugglers clambering in and out of pools.  Budapest had been a great stop for a week to relax and re charge our battery’s for the next leg of our trip as we have to rush towards Russia for mid-November through central and northern Europe, although by now we are both slightly concerned about the cold weather heading our way.

Vlad the Impaler and the legend of Count Dracula

Parliament Palace, the worlds largest civilian building

As we crossed the imposing river Danube separating Bulgaria and Romania it immediately became apparent that Romania was a very different country from its neighbours. Having been dominated by the empires of Austria Hungary to the north and the Ottomans to the South it was only formally created in 1918 by the union of its three provinces, Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania. Wallachia and Moldova had offered furious resistance to the Ottoman Turks and remained autonomous.  Transylvania however was successively taken under Ottoman & Hungarian rule but remained semi – autonomous by paying high taxes.  The Romanians however root their own ethnicity back to the Roman occupation and are noticeably different from the surrounding nations, both physically and culturally, despite sharing the Orthodox Church and having strong Slavic influences. Romanian is considered as the fifth romance language stemming from the Romans and the architecture is more akin to central Europe rather than other former Soviet satellites.  Even as part of the Eastern Bloc Romania maintained a separate foreign policy from the USSR and refused to assist the repression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956, ignored the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics as well as condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.   Despite this the people suffered from the brutal secret police under the infamous dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.   Known as ‘The Paragon of Reason and clear sightedness’, ‘Source of our Light’ and ‘First Personage of the World’ in an attempt to satisfy his ego by the press, he demanded that before entering a village on a state visit dead leaves and trees be painted green and that all children be quarantined for 48 hours before in case they infected him.  Rumour has it that when he was assassinated, along with his wife on Christmas Day 1989, 300 soldiers volunteered to pull the trigger.    

Unsurprisingly then from its history Bucharest has a far more western European feel with its small but beautiful old town packed with small boutique bars, cobbled streets and a lively atmosphere.  We stayed in the centre of the city and spent our only afternoon in the city wandering the old town and visiting the largest civilian building in the world, the palace of Nicolae Ceauşescu which contains 3100 rooms and dominates the city centre.  The following day we headed north towards Transylvania, the focal point of our visit to Romania.  We took the train north and expecting the worst after our experiences of Bulgarian trains, we were pleasantly surprised to find a clean and punctual train.  We spent the entire journey speaking to a young medical student from Germany and as it transpired a famous Romanian poet.  She was able to tell us about life in Romania and described the country as being an island in Eastern Europe, something that seemed after only a short time in the country an accurate description.  She told us about life under the communists, from the public obedience to the private defiance.  As a lecturer at the university during the 1956 Hungarian Uprising she told us how despite not assisting, the university in Bucharest had many students and lecturers arrested and ‘re-educated’ with many not returning.  As she owned a type writer she described how it was checked monthly by the Secret Police to compare the print to anti-communist propaganda distributed around the city and how the Soviets banned 91 words as their subjugation of Romania began to unravel.  This included the word solitude, as nobody could be alone in a communist nation.  As we entered Transylvania and began to wind up the valley the mountains rose steeply either side, covered in fir trees that revealed pistes for the ski resorts around.  Although the towns were not picture perfect like in Austria they were very charming with Bavarian styled houses entwined with grand 19^th century buildings including the former residence of the King of Romania, King Carol I. Liliana pointed out the cross high above Sinaia that students had carried up the Bucegi Mountains to erect in disobedience of the Soviet repression of religion. 

Bran Castle

We based ourselves in the town of Brasov planning on spending a few days exploring the infamous castle at Bran, setting of the legend of Count Dracula.  The famous novel created by Bram Stroker was inspired by Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) and the legend surrounding him.  We took another free walking tour around Brasov and learnt about the tyrannical ruler of the region and his panache for impaling people outside of the city walls.  Some 20,000 people are rumoured to have been impaled in his 6 year reign and a ‘good’ impaling would leave the victim to die over a few days as he slowly slid down the pole.  Having met a nice group of travellers on the tour, Daniel  from Prague, kindly drove us, a Chinese / American guy named Peter and a professor from America to Bran Castle.  I was a little disappointed that Bran Castle was not quite as sinister as I had hoped but the information around the castle that explained how the story had led to the legend of Dracula (translated as son of the devil) was interesting.  Peter was struggling to come to terms with needing an endless series of VISAs to travel and spent the afternoon complaining about the travails of travelling on a Chinese passport as we had dinner in the hostel but along with a Vietnamese American, he did help to plan our route through Asia in a few months time. 

Peles Castle

Having planned to visit Peles Castle the following morning we awoke to discover the bad weather had closed in so we spent the time planning and drinking coffee with Daniel, who it turned out was a coffee connoisseur, spending an hour drinking a single cup of Colombian filter coffee as he explained the best brewing techniques.  We were rewarded with our patience the following morning with a crisp, winter’s day and after a few urgent skype calls trying to solve issues with the Trans Mongolian tickets and our accommodation in Brazil we caught the 1 hour train south to Sinaia and Peles Castle.  Situated among the forests on the slopes of the valley the setting for the castle was idyllic.  It is widely thought to rival Versailles for its beauty and the impressive wooden carvings throughout the building rather than ornate gold and silver meant that it felt far more homely than other royal residences we had visited and fitted in perfectly with the natural environment.  We rushed back to Brasov to catch the overnight sleeper train to Budapest.  Although booking
a 6 person carriage we were fortunate that only ourselves and Peter Griffin's twin, Brian, were in the carriage as it was a little cramped.  The train was very comfortable and we crossed the Hungarian border at 6am after a vigorous search of the train by the Hungarian border police.  We continued north towards Budapest through the rolling meadows in desperate need of one of Budapest’s famous thermal baths.

A derelict Soviet UFO on the top of a mountain - amazing!

Our journey to discover the Communist UFO

The Ottoman Monastery

After collecting our old green Volvo (16 Euros for the day!) from the centre of town we spent the morning driving south through the lush forest on our History tour of Bulgaria, hoping to learn a little more about the quirky country.  Although the road signs were in the Cyrillic alphabet a combination of luck and planning meant that we arrived at our first destination,  just outside the village of Dryanovo to visit the 17^th century monastery and caves. The Dryanovo Monastery or “Saint Archangel Michael Monastery” is located in the gorge of the Dryanovo River.   It was an idyllic setting below the towering cliffs and after a short walk along the river we ended up at the Bacho Kiro caves.  We entered through some prison like iron bars and although the caves were not the largest the bats roosting above us and the dripping stalactites gave it a very spooky feel.   After heading further south through the town of Gabrovo we headed up the twisting mountain road climbing over a thousand metres to the top of the Shipka pass, from where we could head through the forest in search of the old Communist HQ.  At the top of the Shipka pass there was a huge memorial as it marked the site where of a series of conflicts collectively named the Battle of Shipka Pass were fought between the Bulgarians and aided by Russian volunteers against the Ottoman Empire.  The giant memorial is up 700 steps through the trees (although at the top we discovered you could drive) and provided an amazing 360 degree panoramic of the surrounding scenery.  We also got our first glimpse of the UFO across the mountain tops which spurred us on to climb back down the steps.

Entrance to the bat cave

The Shipka memorial

Buzludzha monument

After a 30 minutes drive from the memorial along a road full of potholes and sheltered by a tunnel of tress a huge concrete structure appeared through the canopy.  Formally known as the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the monument at Buzludzha is like something out of a 1950s sci-fi movie.  The huge building has the largest communist star in the world at its top and looks out at its vantage point of 1440 meters above the whole area, signifying the former position of the Communist Party above all else in Bulgaria. We approached the abandoned building which now has ‘forget your past’ spray painted ominously above the old door.  The building has been sealed shut and abandoned by the Bulgarian government as the roof has fallen in in places but there is a small hole to clamber through for the more adventurous.  Inside provided an equally surreal feel as the exterior.  As we got to the top of the crumbling stairs we discovered a vast, circular conference hall surrounded by low benches. The ceiling is now no more than a metal exoskeleton, a rusting shell, jewelled in the centre with an immense hammer and sickle.  Despite the condition of the building it was a reminder of the collapse of communism and added to the intense atmosphere within the building. Around the outside the walls were coated with fine mosaic designs. The mosaics depicted various scenes of workers and the struggle against the bourgeois and were accompanied by three familiar faces portrayed in richly coloured tiles, those of Engels, Marx and, of course, Lenin.  It was an amazing experience standing in the centre of the arena and imagining the past splendour of the building and its significance to the political power of the Communist party in Bulgaria.

Inside the centre of the monument

Our final stop for the day was to Etara, an open air museum dedicated to the lifestyle, customs and culture of traditional Bulgaria. The museum contained crafts and products such as leather, metal and wood work made in the restored cottage industry of pre industrialised Europe.  Gabrovo (the local town) was once referred to as 'the Bulgarian Manchester' due to the range of products produced and the museum was a nice way to finish exploring the history of Bulgaria.   Hiring a car is definitely an excellent way to explore northern Bulgaria and to get a feel for the history of the country with the UFO a must for any trip to the country,

The medieval capital of Bulgaria

We left the Bulgarian Police force in Burgas and bought a ‘train’ ticket to take us north to Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of medieval Bulgaria.  Not learning from our last experience of the Bulgarian train network we inevitably boarded a bus at the train station and set off, being told we would change on to a train later.  After an hour of slowly meandering through the rolling countryside the driver finally managed to get top gear (after repeated failures) and we sped up with the door flapping in the wind only to make our first transport swap of the journey on to the disease ridden train.  As we slowly made our way north we saw more gypsies in traditional carts as well as The National Donkey Museum (matched only by the Pencil Museum in the Lake District).   We made a further two swaps of transport on our journey, meeting an old musician from the Soviet era who despite lamenting the impact of capitalism happily showed off his iPhone before we eventually arrived on the train into Tarnovo.

Expecting to spend only one day in Tarnovo we took a walking tour of the old town, a really good way of getting to know the terrain and meeting other travellers.  Our walking tour, led by a local university student, also had three Israelis and an American so politics was quickly vetoed as a topic after one of the Israelis began to broach the subject but the group was friendly and we spent two hours exploring the town.  The beautiful old town showed us what we had hoped to find in Bulgaria with quaint white washed houses complete with red tiled roofs dotted along the river.  The town is set in the mountains along the edge of the river Yantra and the surrounding area is covered in a blanket of trees making it feel like we were in the Black Forest.  The guide happily pointed out the various places the Ottomans had hung revolutionaries around the town and informed us one of the local museum used to be a brothel although this was not advertised on the information sign outside. During the course of the tour we were told about a UFO shaped Soviet monument further south and we decided to hire a car for the following day to go exploring as well as to give Bulgaria more of a chance to redeem itself following the taxi fiasco.  Having explored the town we spent the afternoon at the medieval fortress that dominates the town. Although not a conventional fortress (it was more or a fortified town containing houses, markets and a church) and only partially restored it offered great views across the town and surrounding countryside.  A particular highlight was the very modern artwork in the church at the highest point of the fortress.  Having arranged to collect the car early the following morning we spent the evening in the local City Pub debating the  meaning of life with a lorry driver from Hertfordshire who had bought property in the surrounding mountains to practice yoga and Tai Chi.  If nothing else Bulgaria has certainly provided us with a stream of eccentric people to meet!

Inside the church at the top of the fortress

The Archangel and the Bastard Taxi

Many groups of people often compete to become the least popular group of people in the world. Bankers, politicians, parking attendants and the French all have strong claims to the title but as a frequent traveller, I find that taxi drivers have always held a special claim to the title.  Unfortunately this was reinforced in Bulgaria and left us getting to know the local police force in Burgas better than we would have liked. 

Following a good journey we were ejected from our bus in Burgas on an unmarked road at 2am with no discernible land marks.  Having no idea where we were a taxi pulled up and having checked that the price would be on the meter we set off. The seemingly friendly driver kept us distracted with chitchat until we arrived and then declared a ridiculous price for the journey.  Traveling with a British passport is very useful but one of our shortfalls as a nation has always been overt politeness in the face of people being complete dickweeds and in hindsight we should have refused to pay. However, at 2.30am, half asleep and in an unknown town and country we paid.   We did however photograph his license plate.  Having checked with the receptionist in the hotel about the extortionate price we called the police, more out of anger at yet another taxi driver screwing over tourists than the monetary value to us and we spent the next 2 hours with the police giving statements translated through the clearly dazed receptionist.

The following morning we went to the police station and tried to see where the investigation had reached.  After a short walk we found the police station, a depressed concrete building with an interior to make a cave dwelling look cosy.  We were greeted by the burglar from Home Alone minus two front teeth (the duty officer) and following some communication issues he excitedly told us that his baby spoke English.  As friendly as Angel (unbelievably his real name!) was he was clearly no Sherlock Holmes but he kept us entertained with his amazing accent and eccentric behaviour while we waited with growing bewilderment for his baby.  His baby (Natalia) arrived in a taxi 20 minutes later and our new friend Angel proceeded to take an hour to rewrite our statements (all of 8 lines) whilst he pinched Natalia’s bum, gesticulated widely and got completely over stimulated by the entire situation.  We left with Angel insisting we added him on Facebook and with assurances that our case would be looked at that day.  Judging by the other policeman who were very friendly but seemed more interested in sitting on their cars outside and smoking we left with little hope but very amused at the mornings events.

We decided to spend the afternoon exploring Burgas whilst we waited with baited breath for the outcome of the investigation.  Burgas itself is a nice enough town on the black sea but unfortunately the Indian summer Eastern Europe was experiencing seemed to end as he arrived at the black sea.  The town has been developed with a nice waterfront park and promenade and it has a large sandy beach that draws lots of Russians down for the summer.  Although it is no Caribbean beach as an industrial zone replaces the palm trees the town itself was far more modern and developed than Sofia as most of the governments money has been spent improving the tourist destinations along the coast.

The following day we returned and as Angel was not at the station we waited for another officer.  Unfortunately without Angel nobody spoke a word of English and after half an hour we spoke to the chief of the station who used his daughter in Manchester (via Watsapp) as a translator to update us.  The driver had given different statements (surprisingly) and the officer investigating our case had gone on his annual leave (obviously) the very day he took our case!  We left our email addresses at the request of the Police Chief and he assured us they would let us know the outcome of the investigation in due course as he showed us photos of his daughter in Manchester on his phone.  The entire episode with the Bulgarian Police had been ridiculous from start to finish but the officers had been so friendly and amusing that despite the affair it had almost been worth it so see the Bulgarian Police force in action.