Monday (21st May)
Our friend was leaving us today to fly back home, so after depositing them in a taxi, at the local taxi rank, we finalised our packing and got a taxi back to the train station. The taxi driver was asking where we were going by train, when we told him Plovdiv, he offered to drive us there in an hour. We declined and got the slow train, no reservations required, which took 3hrs 43 mins, we are, after all, on an interrail trip.
The train stopped at nearly every station on the way, our stop was number 34! At some of the “stops”, you can’t call them stations, there was absolutely nothing there, not even a platform, let alone a “station”. Rog helped an older gentleman man with a crutch, and a shopping trolley, get off the train at one of these “stops”, the gentleman then headed across a field, heading to who knows where, the 1930’s we suspect.
We had a 20 minute walk to our AirBnB in Plovdiv, a nicely appointed flat, a little bit 1980 retro, lots of primary red detailing, but large and clean. Only one pan, a large frying pan, which gave Nic a pleasing culinary challenge. Good job one pot wonders are a speciality.
Tuesday. Our first mission of the day was to see if we could buy tickets for a couple of music events we had spotted online, for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. We succeeded in finding the ticket office, a small old fashioned ticket booth in the main square, paying a total of BGN100 (£44) for 2 tickets each.
Plovdiv, as one of the oldest inhabited cities in Europe, means you pass, at every turn, Roman ruins, even in the basement of some shops! We also headed towards the “Old Town” which paradoxically was full of 18th Century houses, preserved as museums. Beautiful buildings in peaceful cobbled streets.
Next we visited the Large Basilica, no longer a church, but the mosaic floors of the old church, now preserved by the building of a what looks like a warehouse over the entire site. Discovered when building works were taking place. On entry you had to use a machine which vacuum packed your feet, so you didn’t take any dirt on to the site. Very intricate mosaics from two different eras of the church laid on top of each other. Fantastic mosaics, many of birds, none of which we photographed as we were too mean to pay the fee to do so !
We had an early dinner so we could attend the first of our music events. A choral concert in the small basilica, essentially another mosaic floor in situ under a smaller warehouse. Sneakily photographed by Rog under the glass floor! The choir ‘Gaudeamus’ were very good. The audience was made up of lots of family members, many carrying a couple of long stemmed flowers, it seems to be a tradition in Bulgaria for most occasions.
Wednesday, we headed out and came across a large procession of school children of all ages, with church bells ringing out. Later we found out that today is a public holiday in Bulgaria, St Cyril and Methodius Day, Cyril as in the Cyrillic alphabet! We walked back to the “Old Town” as following more research, we worked out that we’d missed a few of the houses. We also found the Ancient Theatre, the venue for the nights concert. So we would be back there later.
We then walked to see the “singing fountain” set in a park, but not singing today. We sat in a cafe and were fascinated by what we assumed was a bride and groom having photos taken, the “bride’s” dress had an enormous hooped skirt, and was a dramatic dark blue!!
We walked up the local hill to a large statue, with views over the city, partly as it was in the same direction as the supermarket for more supplies.
After dinner we headed back to the Ancient Theatre for a concert of Vivaldi works, the Ancient Theatre is a Roman outdoor amphitheater. The concert was wonderful, despite the musicians struggling to keep hold of their music in the wind, and various cars and motorbikes rallying around the area outside the theatre, blowing their horns and revving engines, which appeared to be a bank holiday tradition!
There was also some fun people watching at the concert, one family decided to keep their child’s not unsubstantial sized bike with them, despite sitting in the very middle of the seating. Also a teenaged guy purposefully marched right across the seating area disturbing everyone, whilst carrying two drinks and a guitar case across his back, but when he arrived at his intended destination, a woman with a very distinctive green coat. It appeared as if he’d got the wrong woman and had to march all the way back again, we never saw him again!
The concert was wonderful as it included Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, although it did include an audio visual display in Bulgarian which went mostly over our heads!
Thursday, the original plan had been to head towards Turkey, as we needed to leave the EU, due to complicated rules about the validity of a UK passport, which had been issued for more than 10 years. Anyway given the Turkish election on Sunday, we decided to head towards the rest of the Non-EU Balkans, starting with Serbia. So we got the train back west to Sofia.
In various countries we have seen flocks of animals, goats, sheep and cows in fields, usually with a shepherd and at least a couple of dogs. Out of the train window we spotted the usual flock, but the shepherd was sitting watching his flock from the drivers seat of a large, old Mercedes car in the middle of the field! After a few hours an older lady joined us in our carriage. When she realised our Bulgarian was not up to much she decided to read the station names out for us. And with sign language made it clear what she thought about graffiti on trains! We waved her goodbye as she headed off with her shopping trolley, a few stops before us, towards the local Lidl.
Friday, as there are currently no trains between Sofia and Serbia, due to upgrading of the tracks. This means an early bus for us from Sofia to Nis, Serbia’s second city. Thankfully we’re able to check in to our AirBnB early as we arrived in Nis at 10:30. A nice flat on the banks of the river 5 mins walk from the centre of town for only £29 per night! The only drawback we found is the Greek restaurant next door playing music until 1am!!
Saturday, walked through the city park, visited the Skull Tower, a gruesome relic from the Ottoman Empire, built using the skulls of their fallen enemies.
Visited the Cathedral, but there was a wedding party gathering so we didn’t go inside.
Walked down ‘Tinker’s Alley’, we imagined small local shops selling handmade crafts, nope it was just full of bars and cafes. Apparently it once was the centre of tin working but sadly no more.
Tried the local pastries one called, ‘Burek’ , filo pastry stuffed with cheese and spinach, and a sweet dough roll stuffed with cherry jam, both lovely! This part of the world does have a lot of pastry shops, virtually one on every corner. Up until today we had done well to resist!
Sunday, we set off walking to Bubanj park, to see a famous monument, the park is on the edge of the city, so we had a fair walk to get there. We ended up taking a very small overgrown path through the east side of the park, before arriving at the said monument.
We also visited the old monument in the same park, then plotted a route back to the flat. We ended up down a farm track, with lots of green in the middle, and evidence of horse and cart use. We were slightly unsure but we kept walking, and it did finally turn into a road and lead us back to the city. We only had to shelter from the rain once! It was not supposed to rain today.
Ended the day with a beer at the Irish bar, just on the other side of the river from the flat, we would not usually search out an Irish bar, but this one is the closest bar to the flat, and right on the riverside.
As we have now left the EU, our mobile contracts no longer give us free roaming data (12GB per month) so Rog has set up an eSIM, a separate facility with ‘FlexiRoam’ to provide data cheaper than the roaming charges on our ordinary mobiles, but only because we signed up when they had a 75% off sale! Currently it seems to be working well. We will continue to book accommodation with WiFi.
After promising to include our weekly train numbers and Kms, we only appear to be able to deliver every other week, sorry! so after missing last week again! Here’s the catch up.
W/E 21 May
5 trains
757 Kms
W/E 28 May
2 trains
312 Kms
Total
46 trains and 3 Buses (Kms not included)
8,895 kms
Travurple 