The Rock-Hewn Churches in Rusenski Lom Nature Park

We left Camping Veliko Tarnovo, in the village of Dragijevo this morning, having spent 2 lovely nights there, but not before having one of Nick and Nicky’s Full English Breakfasts, consisting of their homemade sausages and home-cured bacon – yummy! We got talking to an English expat who lives in the next village.  He was telling us that there are about 5 families that have bought in the village, including 'Buster Bloodvessel' - English singer and frontman from the 80's group Bad Manners.  He is planning to do up one of the restaurants there.  Property is so cheap in this area that it is attracting a lot of people of retirement age.

Mel taking a run up the big hill to get out the campsite

We headed towards Romania and are parked up at Rusenski Lom Nature Park (N43. 69520 E25.98712).  It's just a car park but it is free and we are surrounded by trees and nature and 32 metres above us is the Ivanovo Rock Church.

Sonny, the motorhome parked up at the bottom of the rock church

We visited this place last time we toured Romania in a hire car from our apartment on the Black Sea, about 6 years ago. This is where the first hermits dug out their churches during the 12^th century.  The church is a World Heritage site because its frescoes – the work of a gifted artist from Tarnovo in 14^th century, are one of the best surviving examples of ‘Palaeologian’ style throughout the entire Medieval Christian arts.  It only costs 4lv to get in but the church is very small and the frescos quite faded.

No photos are allowed to be taken within the church, but I managed a couple of sneaky ones from the entrance.

You get some lovely views as you walk around the rock.

Tomorrow we head into Romania and plan to stop at Curtea de Arges, at the start of the transfagarasan road (Transylvanian Highway) – described by top gear as “The world’s best Road Trip".  We drove it in a Fiat Panda last time we were in Romania and thought we would let Sonny, our motorhome try it for size.  Plans to be a real test for him!

Sally x

Veliko Tarnovo – one of the oldest cities in Bulgaria

We are currently parked up on Camping Veliko Tarnovo (N43.069722 E25.753055) a lovely campsite 14kms outside the beautiful city of Veliko Tarnovo, run by English couple Nick and Nicky, who bought the land in 2005.  It took them 2 years to get planning permission before they were able to begin their ambition of making the campsite the best in Bulgaria.  Seventeen years later and a real ‘labour of love’ we truly believe they have succeeded as the facilities are 5 star! Having spoken to them though, it has been no easy ride and Bulgarian health and safety laws seem stricter than ours…. surely not I hear you say!  Cost per night without electric is 34lv, which we didn't need as our solar panel has been working overtime with all this sun we have been getting to keep our 12V charged up!

View of the campsite from the pool, with Sonny, the motorhome nestled in the bottom left-hand corner

Before setting off to come here from our apartment, we spent the last few days doing lots of walking along the beach and planning the next stages of our travels.  Mel also had a massage to release a trapped nerve that he has suffered on and off with over the last year.

The Black sea is non-tidal, making it a calm and very safe sea.  They even have lifeguard posts every 100/150 metres.  It is surrounded by 6 countries – Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia – the sea being the connecting link between all countries.

Lifeguard post on the left in front of a mass of white umbrellas, massage to the right!

We even got to celebrate our 29^th wedding anniversary here a couple of days before leaving!

You can do so many excursions from Sunny Beach and over the years we have done nearly all of them, either through a tour operator or by ourselves in a car.  The one place we haven't visited though is Istanbul and the Blue Mosque. As cheap as it was to do an excursion, it was a lot of travelling for 2-days and we weren’t feeling it so decided to save it for another day when we can visit in the motorhome.

We were sad to leave our apartment yesterday but it was pouring with rain and temperatures of only 16°C, so we took this as being a sign to move on!  It was 140 miles to the campsite near Veliko Tarnovo, a journey we last did about 9 years ago.  We decided to avoid the motorway and take as many different scenic roads as possible.

We passed by  endless fields of sunflowers.  In June the fields are full of these golden flowers in full bloom; however, this time of year they have turned brown and are ready for harvesting and they extend as far as the eye can see.  Bulgaria is the 7^th largest producer of sunflower seeds in the world – with sunflower oil its primary product from the flowers.

Fields of sunflowers ready for harvesting

We have learnt over the years that Bulgaria loves a good concrete monument or figure head.  We came across this on on a mountain pass - not sure what it represents though.

We spotted an interesting form of transport in one of the villages. Mel remembers having one of these in the mid 60’s as a young boy!

We didn’t wake up this morning until 10am - we had had one of the best sleeps in ages! It is so peaceful here and with night temperatures dropping to a cool 14°C we slept with the quilt cover on us all night - a rarity since setting off on our travels, as it has been so hot!  The weather had cleared and was back up to 28°C, so it was a quick breakfast and off on the scooter into Veliko Tarnovo, the medieval capital of Bularia steeped in over 7,000 years of history. The houses, stacked one above the other situated on the slopping hills of the town have their own unique architectural style.

We walked down Samovodska Charshiya - a lovely artisan street where you can see a wide range of old style crafts and skills.

Samovodska Charshiya - artisan street

Another monument – Mel adopting the pose

Not much health and safety going on here renovating this house!

We stayed at Hotel Gurko when we last visited, situated on the oldest street in the town. On July 1877 the Russian army (headed by General Gurko) was welcomed by the citizens of the newly liberated Veliko Tarnovo.  The street still keeps its Renaissance atmosphere.

Hotel Gurko with all the lovely flowers outside

The hotel overlooks the impressive Assen’s Monument, erected to mark the 800^th anniversary of the overthrow of the Byzantine rule and the crowning of Veliko Tarnovo as the second capital of the Bulgarian state (1185-1393).  It represents the four Bulgarian Tsars: Assen, Peter, Kaloyan and Ivan Assen II on horseback.

Tsarevets Fortress, a reconstructed fortress dominates the skyline of Veliko Tarnovo.  A former seat of the medieval tsars, it boasts the remains of more than 400 houses, 18 churches and royal palace.

Looking towards Tsaravets Fortress

Tsaravets Fortress

It's surprising the places that you will find a cat!

Heading back through the town we came across this sign.  Mmmm let’s see, where do we fancy next?

We enjoyed our day walking around the city seeing all the historic sites again.  We noticed though how European it had become since we were last here, with its types of clothes and shoe shops.  That said there are still a few traditional Bulgarian shops left, mainly down the Artisan street - mostly for the tourists!  After a hot day walking around it was back to the campsite for a dip in the pool, a cold beer and a barbecue!

Camping Veliko Tarnovo Pool

Sally x

Sun, Sea and Sand with a splash of Nessebar culture!

For the last 9 days we have been lazing around at our apartment in Sunny Beach on the Black Sea with our daughter and her boyfriend who have been holidaying here for 3 weeks.  We haven’t seen them for 8 months, so there has been a lot of catching up to do mostly spent around the pool, on the beach, and eating and drinking!

View from our apartment balcony

Sonny, the motorhome has been parked up at the complex and enjoying a well-earned rest having already done 9,490 miles (15,184 kms) since setting off from England on 27 December 2016.

Sonny, parked up and enjoying his rest !

We were last in Bulgaria 6 years ago and have noticed lots of changes – mostly good. The infrastructure has significantly improved across the parts of Bulgaria that we have travelled already and Sunny Beach is still as ‘cheap as chips’.  Eating and drinking out is such good value for money.  Two people can have a starter, main course, dessert, a litre of wine followed by cocktails and still have change from 40lv (roughly £20)!

Fortunately, Bulgaria coming in to Europe hasn’t meant that the resort is swamped with European shops.  There are a couple of McDonalds, KFC, Costa Coffee and Subway but mostly it’s local shops.  Like most cheap seaside resorts it is full of your tacky souvenir shops and here you can pretty much get every ‘knockoff’ brand in the shape of shoes/trainers, shirts/T-shirts/sweatshirts, sunglasses and handbags.

In April this year, Sunny Beach was ranked as the most affordable resort in a study of 19 European destinations and we’re not surprised.

Although Bulgaria is in Europe, they chose to keep its currency, the Bulgarian Lev and all over the resort you can find exchange booths.  Interestingly the Scottish and Irish pound isn’t valued as high as the GB pound!  When we first came to Bulgaria in 2005 the rate was 3.20lv to £1, now it is only 2.06lv.

The resorts construction began back in the Communist times and although there are hundreds of new hotels and apartments that have been built over the years, some of the communist style hotels remain - the mind boggles as to what the state of the rooms are like!

Old Communist style hotel at Sunny Beach

There used to be a lot of Scandinavians that holidayed here, I guess it was very cheap for them.  However, 6 years on and it is mostly Russians, Ukraine’s and Romanians, as it is easy for them to get to and of course plenty of Brits – who love value for money!

They cater that much for Brits you can get a full English breakfast out here for only 6lv (£3). 

Mel enjoying his 'Full English'

You can also get roast beef dinners if you are missing your Sunday dinners - not sure why anybody would be though with the amount of food choice out here. Lots of Pizzas too, but no idea what a ‘Running Chicken’ pizza consists of!

Running Chicken Pizza - don't fancy that one!  Maybe it has been mixed up in translation!

It’s ‘Happy Hour’ all day long here as well and they don’t use measures!  A typical cocktail would set you back 4lv for 2 doubles and a large beer 1lv!

About 4kms from our apartment is Nessebar.  It is split in two, a new town and an old town that juts out on a rocky peninsula, connected by a narrow strip of land.

Old Nessebar is a UNESCO World Heritage site, over 3,000 years old.  It has pretty narrow cobbled streets, historic buildings/churches, museums, quaint shops and old houses - 18^th century two-storeyed houses with stone-built ground levels and wooden upper floors jutting out above the street.

The local pottery

Church of Christ Pantocrator (13th/14th century) 

St Sophia Church (5^th/6^th century) - unfortunately people choose to ignore the 'do not climb on this building' signs!

Down by the marina, where you can catch a boat across the water to Sunny Beach

Located on the bridge connecting the old and new town, is the ancient wooden windmill – a popular Landmark.

Watching the sun set over old Nessebar from the Sky Bar in the new town.

Enjoying a lovely beach day at Primorsko, with our Bulgarian friends, Rado and Mary who we met in 2005 and have stayed in touch with ever since.

Our daughter and boyfriend flew back to the UK in the early hours of this morning and we will resume our travels on Tuesday.  So, over the next few days we will start planning the next stage of our route.
Wishing you all a 'Happy Bank Holiday' weekend!

Sally x

Rila Monastery and the Seven Lakes

We are currently parked up at Alexandrovo campsite (N41.98714 E25.72641), a lovely peaceful campsite in the south-central part of Bulgaria run by an English/Japanese couple.

We haven’t been on a campsite since 13 July, in Sicilly and it hasn’t bothered us at all, as we have been loving ‘wild camping’ in Greece and now in Bulgaria!  We are using the campsite just as a stop over from Rila to the Black Sea, where we are headed tomorrow. Plus, an opportunity to give Sonny, the motorhome a good clean inside and out!

We left the Pirin Mountains 3 days ago and headed for the Rila Monastery.  The weather changed quite a bit, we woke up to 12°C - Brrrrr and the clouds had covered the mountain tops.

We arrived at Rila Monastery at about 2pm and parked up at a large car park, just below it (N42.13948 E23.34823), at 1,818 metres.  There were tour buses and cars everywhere and you couldn’t see the Monastery for people.  We asked the car park attendant if we could stop overnight and in a mix of Spanish and English said ‘Si Si, it’s okay’.  Within ½ an hour of us parking up the heavens opened.  It continued to rain, with thunder and lightning for about 2 hours.  Everyone came rushing back to their cars and by 5pm the car park was empty. 

Sonny's spot for the night, nestled between the mountains in an empty car park!

When the rain stopped we decided to walk out, and take a look up at the monastery.  Well, what a lovely surprise all the tourists had virtually gone and we almost had the place to ourselves – definitely the best time to visit!

Rila Monastery

The Rila Monastery is one of the most important religious and cultural sites in Bulgaria and judging by the amount of people here when we arrived, one of the most popular places to visit in the country! The monastery was founded in the 10^th Century by St John of Rila, a hermit who devoted his life to a spiritual calling and gaining a strong following among the people.  It was significantly rebuilt in the 14^th century, but was destroyed by a fire at the beginning of the 19^th Century and was rebuilt between 1834 and 1862.  It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

The Rila Monastery encircles the large Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, that contains the relics of Saint Ivan.

Entrance to the beautiful and ornate Cathedral - no photos are allowed to be taken in here

One of the Orthodox Priests chilling!

The Monks quarters.  People were booking in for overnight stays - they must let it out a bit like a hotel to make money!

Alongside the cathedral is the oldest part – the 14^th century Hrelyu Tower, named after the nobleman who built it.  It stands 23m high, contains a number of impressive frescoes and an important chapel on the top level.

Leaving Rila we stopped at this antiques/scrap yard – wow, there are some really old and fascinating items in here that would probably fetch a fortune in the UK.

Mel surveying all the old bikes

We stopped at Sapareva Bania for lunch, where we discovered this hotspring 'geyser-fountain' with 103° C - the only one in continental Europe.  We didn't hover too long though, as the smell of sulphur was strong!

Apparently, in these parts you take your cows for a walk rather than a dog!

Our spot for two nights at the bottom of the Seven Rila Lakes, a large car park for 10LV a night. (N42.24274 E23.32441).  Parked nearby to us were 2 German motorhomes and a Spanish Campervan.

The next day we took the chair lift to the top (18LV/€9 return per person), which is very slow and takes about 15 minutes. 4x4s take campers up to the top, where you can pitch your tent on selected areas. You can hike to the top but it’s a long uphill slog and takes about 2 hours.

The lakes are situated in the highest mountains on the Balkans, between 2,100 and 2,500 metres.  Getting off the chair lift you start your hike, to the lakes.

Looking back to the chair lift

All the lakes are given names because of their shapes.

The Lower Lake – the lowest, The Trefoil (three-leafed) Lake, The Fish Lake – the shallowest one, The Twin – the largest, The Kidney, The Eye and The Tear

Not long into the hike, we found all the campers, near The Trefoil!

 Arriving at The Kidney Lake, we came across a group of people dressed in white, arranged in a circle doing small dance moves to live music.  We had heard of Paneurhythmy (sacred Bulgarian Dance of Life) performed by the ‘White Brotherhood’ at the lake but it is usually performed on 19 August.  It was so peaceful and relaxing to watch.

The Kidney Lake, with the circle of dancers in the distance

The Eye - the deepest lake

The Tear - the highest lake

At the top, where you get a view over all 7 of the lakes.

The clouds started to come in very quickly up here - time to put rain coats on!

So, we headed back down to the Kidney Lake for sun and a picnic.

Once back down, we stopped at one of the little stalls outside the chair lift and treated ourselves to some homemade white cherry honey - very sweet but delicious!

The roads in Bulgaria up to now had been really good, and obvious signs that there had been input from EU money.  However, leaving The Seven Lakes it was noticeable how quickly the good roads turned to bad, especially once we got near to Borevets, which is a big ski resort.  The place and roads were very run down, unlike Bansko (in the Pirin Mountains), the other big ski resort we had come from a couple of days ago.  So we headed for the motorway (A1), which unfortunately wasn't much better but quicker!
Tomorrow we travel to Sunny Beach on the Black Sea to meet up with our daughter who is holidaying there at our apartment - we can't wait!

Sally x