After some thoughts about writing 3-4 different blog posts about my experiences in Bulgaria, I have decided to combine them into one. Under 2000 words is probably not enough to highlight my 2 month experience in this fascinating country, but I hope it will help you if you are considering visiting in the near future. If you don’t want to read the full article here are a few pointers to keep you going.
- Bulgaria not only uses the Cyrillic script – but invented it!
- Uses the Lev as currency and credit card use not as common as in most other EU countries
- Said to be the poorest country in the EU
- They just love cheese
- Buses still use conductors in places but not always!
- Lots of history and historical sites – but often not kept well
- Can use a transport card only in Sofia
- Trains are efficient if slow and no buffet cars – bring your own food and drink.
- Did I mention their love of cheese?
- Might be difficult country to negotiate for people with limited mobility.
So you left me in the carpark in Gorna Orjahovica as my host picked me up to take me to the Airbnb I was to stay in for the week in the nearby town of Veliko Tarnovo. It was right on one of the main tourist streets in the town, surrounded by souvenir shops and small cafes. It gave me the chance to see the difference between what was there for the tourists and what the locals have to put up with just to live in this place.
Tarnovo (Veliko means great in Bulgarian) is very much a tourist town, loved by people from the rest of Bulgaria as well as overseas visitors. It has historical significance, was the capital of the 2nd Bulgarian Empire and was where the Kingdom of Bulgaria was proclaimed in 1908. The city’s attractions include the fort, the old town (where I was) and mosaics of some of the historic events.
I had chosen to go there for my introduction to Bulgaria partly because it was a smaller town, so less daunting that going to the “big city” of Sofia and partly because I had been impressed by some videos of the place and wanted to check it out.
I felt a little underwhelmed if I am honest.
The area I was in was the main part of the town for tourists and was made up of bars, coffee shops, restaurants and souvenir shops – the usual shit. There were a few wooden statues dotted about which were planted there for tourists to take the Instagram shot, I don’t think they had any historical purpose, although they may be there to highlight the woodcarving traditions of the nearby town of Tryavna, about an hour away by car. That street and the main roads around it were well lit and seemed safe – but I did not have to go far to see some real problems. A lot of the streets were very steep with cobbles and no pavements, some were just steps up and down between houses – treacherous enough in the summer but in the icy winter something of a death trap. And talking of a death trap I came across a couple of steep drops – one of about 30 feet straight down into a yard in a badly lit part of the town, luckily I was there at dusk and there was enough light to see it. I did go to some of the historical sites, but had to pass on most of the fortress because it covered a big area and my aching feet couldn’t cope with it.
I think one of the nicest parts of the trip was going back to Gorna Orjahovica to catch the train on to Sofia. I did this on the public bus (about 3 lev – payable to the bus conductor) and it took about 40 minutes through some stunning countryside which I wish I had the time and the feet to explore.
The train to Sofia was fine – on time as all were in the country, but slow and rattly. I arrived in the mid-afternoon and decided to get a taxi to the airbnb. I had downloaded an app called taxi-me which worked well and the driver set off to the address I had provided, but after a while it became apparent we were going in the wrong direction. Although he didn’t speak English, I was able to stop him and showed him on Google maps where we should be going. It later transpired that the same street name was used in two different parts of town.
My airbnb was about 30 minutes from the centre of town and about 10 minutes from a busy shopping area with some bars and restaurants. The public transport was good in that the bus into town was a 5 minute walk away and the bus to the shopping area was 2 minutes away, that bus literally did a loop around my apartment block. The only downside was that it was the only bus route I had, so for most journeys I had to make a change. But I had already made a decision to buy a travel card – so once I was settled in I did just that.
I took a trip to the bus station and found the kiosk, I asked in my best Bulgarian for the card, but it was obvious I was not understood, so the server pointed me to another counter and the woman there spoke perfect English having lived in Luton for a few years. She had come back to Bulgaria after Brexit, but missed the UK and all that was going on there. I got the card no problem and saw my name in Cyrillic script for the first time. It cost about 70 lev (£30) but more than that, it allowed me to jump from bus to bus without having to worry about having the right change in my pocket and I could also use it on the trams and metro system.
Cyrillic script was invented in Bulgaria – originally as a means to decipher the bible for Slavic people who could not read Latin. It’s not the first time I have had to deal with it, (used also in Bosnia and Macedonia) but it does take some getting used to again having had the change to a Latin based language in Romania.
One of the words that I soon learned in Sofia was сирене, pronounced sirenne, which means cheese. The Bulgarians love their cheese. I don’t like sweet things but do enjoy enjoy pastries so am always looking for something with a savoury filling, however if you don’t like cheese you would be in trouble. Most Bulgarian pastry shops read like the cafe board in the Monty Python spam shop. They sell pastries with white cheese, with yellow cheese, with white and yellow cheese, with white, yellow and cottage cheese, with spinach and cheese, with ham and cheese. I’ve even seen hotdogs sold with cheese in the middle. Any meal that I bought in Bulgaria (except one Indian curry) had cheese in it, even when it was not asked for.
Despite the cheese obsession I really liked Sofia, it has a beautiful city centre but the surrounding sprawl is anything but, with one of the biggest and ugliest areas on the southern fringes of the city. I got to see this close up when I made an overnight excursion to Kulata. This was a train journey which took 4.5 hours with a change near the end. I guess the excursion could be a blog post in itself – but in case you are wondering why I did this … the answer is simple.
I left Greece in March 2024 and travelled back to England for a co-counselling residential and to catch up with friends. Whilst I was in Greece I thought ahead and caught a train out to the little village of Strymonas which is up by the border with Bulgaria. Kulata is the nearest station on the other side of the border. It is sad that cross border trains no longer operate, strange as they are two EU countries now in the Schengen zone (Bulgaria joined it in January 2024) and yet there is no route open. It would alleviate the horrendous traffic issues that the motorway link causes. Anyway, I was there overnight and in the evening got a taxi to take me to Greece and back for around 30 Euros … one of my most geekiest journeys. But I digress.
My last stop in Bulgaria was Plovdiv and I was looking forward to a month there. It is much smaller that Sofia but still a sizeable place of 340,000 (about the population of Coventry, UK). It also has an awful lot of ruins. The oldest is on the top of one of its 7 hills (I could only count 5) at an estimated 4-6000 years old, but there are more ‘recent’ ruins from the Greek, Roman and Byzantine eras – as well as some soviet-style architecture. Like Veliko Tarnovo, it’s a bit of a split town between the touristic centre and old town and the outskirts. It is also a heavily populated student town so lots of young people around. The big difference to Sofia was the lack of public transport infrastructure; only buses – and not enough of them with severe overcrowding and an antiquated method of collecting the fare (1 lev (45p) per journey) either to the driver or a conductor on board. This, together with the hills, underpasses (which are often convoluted) and dodgy pavements makes it a difficult city to navigate if you are older or infirm, although taxis are plentiful and cheap.
Overall I liked Bulgaria and would have liked to have spent more time there – particularly in Sofia and maybe seeing other places that were recommended such as Burgas and Varna on the coast. But as always it was time to move on …
