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