I've been trying to go to Bulgaria for six years, but today was the day. I had booked myself onto a day-trip and had to leave very early to head for the taxi rank by the Grand Hotel. My sense of direction does not improve the longer I stay in a place, which left me a little panicked, but I arrived with two minutes to spare. Had I had a huge group of children with me, be assured that I would have triple-checked the route and arrived half an hour early. But it's a bit different when it's just me.
I was expecting a coach, until a picture of the vehicle was sent to me early this morning which was of a minibus. I know people with family cars bigger than our day-trip vehicle, but it was all ok. As has become the norm, the guide looked like a Spooks villain - I suppose they have to have side hustles in between operations. I met two friendly Greek / Americans and we waited for another two people. The family car would have been quite tight with five of us, so I was selfishly quite happy when they didn't show.
We glided out of the city and were soon surrounded by un-ending fields of ailing sunflowers longing for hydration, which was a sorry sight. There must have been ten million of them.
I hadn't slept much due to being anxious about the early start, so true to form, I dozed off in the back of the family car and when I woke up we were just pulling into the oldest monastery, in Bulgaria!
This consisted of a series of rock-hewn chapels, which are chapels carved into the rock. They each hosted various icons, candles and more, all representing different saints within the Orthodox church. Various monks floated around reading scripture, singing and kissing icons. I am fascinated by expressions of faith and enjoyed visiting this place.
The next stop was Arbanasi village, a quirky, traditional village which is home to the Church of the Nativities where the decor inside and out is unique to this village, apparently. I went wandering around the village and fell into conversation with a lady selling postcards. She was happy to speak to me as she has been to London some years ago as a tourist.
I asked her how business was at the moment; she replied that it wasn't great because of the River Danube being down; usually her summer is punctuated with cruise ship passengers from nearby stops but the ships are not running because of the water level. Tough times.
We bundled back into the family car and headed for Veliko Tarnovo fort. Uncle Bulgaria parked up and told us we had three hours to explore and that he would meet us at his mate's very expensive restaurant up the road.
I headed for the fort and went to buy myself a ticket. The fort is a huge sprawling mass of bits of fort and there are all sorts of bits you can climb on. The panoramic views over the surrounding area are spectacular. I was intrigued to have an aerial view of Mini Bulgaria Park which I now know to be an open-air miniature park at the foot of Tsarevets Fortress in Veliko Tarnovo, showcasing over 60 hand-crafted replicas of Bulgaria’s most famous landmarks at a scale of 1:25. But this didn't seem to be on the agenda. There's no punchline, it just wasn't.
At the fort, there was a fantastic announcement in a British accent with a hint of a northern twang (Andy's influence has reached here already):
'Remember, that whilst the fort is well preserved, you are in nature, therefore it is possible that you might meet reptiles'.
I had visions of a lizard coming up to me, greeting me and having a good chat. This happened to me in Costa Rica a few years ago, although he only spoke Spanish. It didn't happen today, but I was ready for it, thanks to the Tannoy.
I wandered through the village, stopping at a cheap pavement cafe for some Bulgarian cuisine, then was reunited with my Greek/American friends who insisted on buying me a delicious ice-cream. I chose salted caramel flavour and it was divine.
We piled back into the family car and drove for some time, again past fields of a million sunflowers desperate for rain. I'd packed my little neck pillow - I thought I left it in Serbia last year but found it down the back of a drawer when I was packing - so I had a good snooze.
We were held up for what felt like hours at the border. I'm not sure what they were doing as we didn't have to show our passports or answer questions or anything. I think maybe they were just holding up the traffic for fun. Once we were across the border and over the Danube, our Spooks villain was in an incredible hurry to get back to Bucharest - may he had to go and shoot someone or something.
We were deposited back at the starting point and we all said goodbye. I took a new route back to my lodgings - not intentionally new, I just went the wrong way. Again. I popped into the supermarket to get myself a dinner picnic which I have enjoyed whilst writing this for you.
Sleep well everyone, thanks for reading.
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