My husband and I flew in to Sofia at around 2 p.m. As we had been flying from the US, we were tired and jetlagged and made the mistake (against the advice of fellow TT boarders) to go to Melnik by train. Man, it's a long and bnoring ride. As we had arrived on a rainy Saturday, Sofia was totally empty, and as many have said on this board the Sofians are not the most friendly and customer service minded people in teh world. Anyhow, we took a taxi to the train station (9 Leva), and then got tickets to Sandanski. To our surprise we managed to buy second class tickets instead of first class tickets, but we just went with it and it was totally OK. The train trip took about 4.5 hours. In the beginning we were in a compartment where a lot of people smoked, but once they got off around Dupnitsa, no one else dared to! come in to our compartment :) My husband is South American, so he doesn't look like a Bulgarian, exactly. Second class is totally OK and comfortable. I had a little bit of a scare in the train bathroom, because I couldn't manage to open the door (from the inside). So I banged and banged on the door until the guy who was standing outside with his cartons full of live chicken came to my rescue. Not that we really could communicate because i don't understand Bulgarian, but I finally managed to open the door (there's a trick to it). A little bit before I had warned the guy that his chicken were crawling out of the boxes and were flying around in the back of the train, so after my 100 merci's he and I were best buddies.
After arriving in Sandanski we took a taxi to Melnik, which is only about 20 minutes away (also about 10 leva). The taxi dropped us off at the begining of the street in Melnik (there's only one) and from there we started walking towards the village... Wh! at's really incredible about Bulgaria is that there's not a lo! t of pus hing product. In other words, the majority of people are not really business minded and even if they have a room to rent, they don't come to you, you have to go to them. Also, there's no internet for some reason...
I'm not sure what the place was called where we stayed, but it was the first house on the road. They have a store and restaurant downstairs. The owner is super nice. The room was clean and kind of modern, and totally fine. As we arrived so late on a Saturday night all the other places (hotels and rooms) were booked - Melnik is a weekend getaway place for teh Bulgarians. There were vacancies at the Hotel Melnik, but it was such a horrible, smelly place that I couldn't imagine to stay there although the room was considerably bigger and had a fridge. We met another couple from Finland who stayed there and they thought it was totally OK.
I loved Melnik, it was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. It's very picturesque and has stunning scenery. Def! initely worth going to! And the people are very nice. But I wouldn't go there for the wine, because the wine is definitely not good in Melnik. The beer's Ok, though. And if you are non-meat eater like me, be prepared to eat a LOT of white cheese (like Feta) every single day with every meal - it goes with everything. I would recommend the grilled fish, though. Both times I had fish in Bulgaria it was exquisite.
More about Melnik... We tried to go to the Rozhen monstery, and we took the trail through the woods. There are no signs, so you have to kind of guess where it might be going. In the beginning, just follow the river for teh first couple of kilometres. Then you will see piles of stones here and there, and that's what you should follow. It's a really difficult trek, so don't wear a miniskirt like I did. Wear shorts and walking shoes or sneakers. Once we were almost, almost there, like 200 m away, we got to this very narrow path, maybe 1 foot or 30 cm wide, on one side! there was the wall of the mountain, and on the other side the! re was a steep drop. In addition, the path was slanting towards the steep drop... There was a place where the path was really bad, and you could only cross it if you walked really fast without shoes, like jumped two-three steps. I made it across, but my husband didn't. He's a very fit 45 year old, and not scared of anything, but he just wouldn't go... So we had to turn back. The route along the road is easier and safer, but longer. Just so you know. If you think you might be scared of heights, then take the road...
We had this really cool experience in Melnik, this family or bunch of friends were celebrating something, and one guy with a guitar was singing old Bulgarian songs at a table in a restaurant. We were watching them and smiling for quite a while, and then before we left the restaurant, we went inside to see where the party noise was comong from. They were all in a wine cellar, drinking wine and singing. Maybe 50 people or so, because everyone else had come in to see what! was going on. They offered us free wine, and they were very, very friendly. They even sang a song in Spanish, which was super nice.
From Melnik, since we didn't have a car, we had to go back the same way we came. There were two buses a day to Sandinski, one at 6 a.m., the other at maybe 3 p.m. We woke up late (we left the alarm clock at home), and missed the first one. Around noon time we went to the bus stop where all other backpackers were also standing (about 5-6 in total), and everyone was wondering how they could get away froom Melnik and on with their trip. This is what I mean by the Bulgarians not being driven or business minded... A smart person would have taken his car, and played taxi and made a lot of money... We tried to hitch hike for a while, but no one was going to Sandanski, or so they said. Finally one guy responded to my begging. He was supposed to take someone else to Sandanski, but they didn't turn up, so he agreed to takle us and the four other ! people who were waiting for the bus.
Back in Sofia we t! ook the taxi to the airport because we wanted to rent a car to drive to Veliko Tarnovo. But although there were around 10 different car rental services in the airport none of them had a car available. So we found this place in the airport where there's free internet (one of the mobile phone stores). This guy who works there is very friendly and helpful and speaks excellent English!!! He also gave us free Sofia maps. I'd definitely recommend a visit to his store if you're just arriving in Sofia. He's in the arrivals hall.
So, we couldn't get a car and decided to take the bus to VT. We arrived in VT at 2 a.m. and since we had nothing booked, we stayed at the Hotel Etar where the bus from Sofia stops. Typical Soviet style hotel, but clean and comfortable enough for one night. Too expensive for our budget, though (80 leva), so the next day we moved on. We checked into a budget hotel Trapetiztza, which gets very good review in the LP, but was really substandard for even a budget h! otel. One of the towels was dirty and they didn't clean the bathroom properly. But the people in the hotel were nice, and that helped the situation.
One thing for couples who travel in Bulgaria, I don't think they ever have double beds, just to separate beds. Maybe it's just in the budget hotels, though...
People on this board have raved about VT, but we actually found it very boring and unimpressive. The old town is picturesque, but it's really only 3-4 blocks and can be seen in half hour, or one hour at the most. There is NOTHING going on at night. There are quite a few bars and restaurants, but people just sit still and have a beer or coffee and smoke, smoke, smoke. The fort is nothing to see if you have travelled at all anywhere and have seen anything... If you love churches, then perhaps you can fill your days with something to do... We left the next day because there really was nothing for us to do there. The setting of the city is stunning, but that's it.
We! rented a car through the tourist office. The woman we spoke t! o is mar ried to a man who runs a car rental service. From all the people we met in Bulgaria, this man (his name escaped me, but it's Dara or Rana or something) was by far the most entrepreneurial. He imports and sells cars, he rents cars, he has a little bar at his car rental place!!! A very nice man, indeed, who we sat down and talked to, and who recommended a lot of places to go to. We rented a car for I think 30 Euro/day, or was it 30 USD. It was very cheap in any case. The car was small and scruffy but ran well.
So, on the road we drove to Dryanovo Monastery (so so), Gabrovo (boring) and Etar/Etra... Etar was totally different than I had imagined. It's a small tourist complex where they sell handicrafts. It's really an open air museum and not a small town, which I had thought it was. Although it was touristy, we actually enjoyed it because they had a lot of nice stuff and it was realtively inexpensive. From there we drove to Tryavna, where we stayed the night. The thing a! bout Tryavna is that it's hard to find. We almost gave up. We drove in to the city and drove around, and wondered why the LP says it's a charming town. We thought it was hideous. So we drove around and around, and then suddenly this really charming town opened up before us. We booked into a newer type of hotel (Hilez) where we finally had a double bed!!! Most of the other hotels were fully booked, and we didn't want to stay in another Soviet type hotel again. Tryavna is actually the other one of the true highlights of our trip... It's a small town, but it has this really cute city center where they have restored the houses and lit them effectively at night. There are a lot of restaurants and pubs. During the day time there are lots of shops and galleries in the old part of town that are really worth visiting. The food here is also better than normal. I had some really good pancakes!!! A lot of hiking routes start in Tryavna, and the nature around is absolutely beautiful.
We should have stayed in Tryavna two nights, but instead ! we drove on. We actually wanted to change our plane tickets and leave Bulgaria earlier, but it turned out to be impossible so we stayed on the road and slowly the trip got a little better. The next day we drove back through Gabrovo, taking only tiny country roads to Troyan. Again, the nature is stunning in Bulgaria! Lots of virgin land! Before Troyan we stopped in Oreshak, where we had read there's a nice crafts market. Don't bother to go there, it's totally overpriced and the assortment in poor. You're better off buying (the same) stuff in VT or Sofia. But there was a street market and probably this was the most liveliest place we saw on our trip. Near Troyan is the Troyan Monastery. While you're not allowed to take pictures, the monastery is aboslutely amazing! It's like going back in time. We only have one question - what do the priests do when they go into the back room!!!
From Troyan we drove to Lovech with the covered bridge. Lovech has a cute old town and a nice covere! d bridge, but it's not enough to travel there for hours. The old town you can see in 20 minutes, and the covered bridge is the only thing to see in the town. they do have an OK square with lots of restaurants, though. This was the first place on the trip when the waiter gave us a Bulgarian meny because they thought I was Bulgarian. After that, it happened a lot! I speak a (very) little Russian, so the simple Bulgarian phrases were very easy for me to pronounce, and if I didn't know I just said it in Russian, which seemed to work, too. It was funny, but we did ask for an English enu, which they did have. We stayed at the Hotel Lovech because the other places were either full or too pricey. It's an OK hotel, very Soviety but clean and didn't smell bad. Totally fine for one night. The room was huge, which was nice for a change :)
On the way back to VT we went to Arbanassi, which has also received rave reviews on this site... Arbanassi is very pretty and VERY touristy. I! think we saw 20 tourist buses parked there while we were havi! ng lunch . It's not the kind of place I would pick to go to, but I can understand the charm of it.
From VT we took the bus to Sofia, and stayed at the Slavyanska Beseda, a hideous hotel that was recommended to us by a very friendly Bulgarian Businessman. We asked for a cheap, clean place, and he recoommended this rathole which was not only dirty and worn down but also expensive. Since we couldn't get another hotel room that night, we decided to stay. We had wanted to avoid Sofia but ended up there because we ran out of places to go. Sofia is fun and lively and there are more things going on than in the other towns we visited. But it's really expensive, so on a budget it's difficult to be able to afford it... We saw lots of weddings and bought a really nice ico of St. George in a street market in one of the parks. The second night we stayed in Hotel Enny which was nice, clean and the people who worked there were super nice. I did see a cockroach there, though, which freaked me ! out a bit. But I stepped on it and didn't tell my husband until the next day :)
In conclusion, there were good and bad things about Bulgaria. Contrary to what some other people have written we thought the people were super nice, friendly and very helpful. The girls are super pretty and skinny. The nature is beautiful, and a hikers paradise.
But if you want some action, some life, then Bulgaria is not the place for you. Sure you can go to the beach resorts, but that was not the kind of action we were after. Culturally, we didn't think Bulgaria had anything special. It's very much like any other place you'd go in Eastern Europe. It's possible that the country will change in the next 10 years when they become more integrated with the EU and more English people move in. But I think it's a mentality thing. They just want to take it easy. And that's fine. I'm sure there are lots of people who like just sitting around watching time go by...
And, the main thing! about any place is that the people are nice. And the Bulgaria! ns reall y are nice.
I hope no one is offended. i just wanted to give my two cents on Bulgaria, because I'm sure there are others who want to travel there and don't really know what it's going to be like.
Cheers.
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