{"id":5014,"date":"2015-06-25T09:52:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T09:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=5014"},"modified":"2015-06-25T09:52:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T09:52:46","slug":"northern-bulgaria-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/word.christopherwagner.org\/?p=5014","title":{"rendered":"Northern Bulgaria 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulgaria is a strange country. We\u2019ve been to some strange places but Bulgaria stands out as being the most odd in the bunch. We really are enjoying our time in Bulgaria; we are driving a big circle around the country and we\u2019ve noticed the northern part is pretty different than the southern part so I\u2019ve decided to break this up into two parts. We are in the south now and that will part will come once we\u2019ve left Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

So Bulgaria is a weird country for a handful of reasons but I want to stress how much we are enjoying our time here. We\u2019ve had some phenomenal experiences that cannot be replicated anywhere else. Bulgaria has all the attributes we enjoy: the people are kind and generous, the sights are magnificent, stellar hiking, the price is right, and all the roads are pretty much paved. There is one huge difference in Bulgaria vs. everywhere else we\u2019ve traveled: the seclusion and the ability to enjoy activities in solitude. It\u2019s truly remarkable!<\/p>\n

With that said, it\u2019s a \u201cmake your own adventure\u201d place. There\u2019s not a lot of information online, the country really isn\u2019t foreign tourist friendly as spoken English is not common and the few English information boards we find are often useless. There are some wonderful sights we visited that have 2-5 TripAdvisor reviews and no other information online. It\u2019s like international tourism is just starting and they are figuring out all the things they need to make multinational tourism work.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a problem we regularly encounter and we\u2019ve given it the name \u201cthe last 5%\u201d. It seems as though there\u2019s enough information for us to get close to the things we want to do but the last 5% of needed information, be it knowing the hours of operation, the cost, the location, part of the route, activities at the destination, etc., are unknown. There\u2019s always enough information to get very close but we have to figure out the last 5% on the way, when we arrive, or while we\u2019re doing the activity. The best example is when we wanted to visit a tourism information center to get a map for a hike only to find out the road became undrivable and we had to walk the last 15min to the center. We were fortunate someone had put the GPS coordinates for the center on TripAdvisor otherwise we would have never found the place! It also applies to our dealings with people and businesses. The first clue things were different in Bulgaria is when we picked up our rental car from Enterprise with \u00be\u2019s of a fuel tank, \u201cthis is how we things work in Bulgaria\u201d the sales agent after I expressed surprised for not getting a full tank. It\u2019s not necessarily bad, just odd and different.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria is super chill; pretty much everyone is really laid back. Once again we are driving around everywhere exploring and stopping to check out cool things we find while roaming around. Just like in Romania, we find ourselves trespassing a lot to see different things but we don\u2019t really know a better way. We may not find the people we need to pay or find the actual entrance for the place we\u2019re trying to visit. No one really cares. The Bulgarian people are very enterprising. It seems wherever a congregation of people could possibly be there is a shop selling food or trinkets. I had remarked to Jacquelyn that I was seeing a lot of women on the side of the road and it was really strange to see all these women dressed like they are going to a nightclub waiting for buses out in the middle of nowhere . She replied, \u201cChris, they are prostitutes\u201d. Then it made sense; Jacquelyn\u2019s comprehension skills are one of the many reasons why I keep her around J.<\/p>\n

For about the first week we had bad luck with food, it was like we were living in bizzaro world. Things we ordered were nothing like what we envisioned. Everything we ordered seemed to be drenched in cheese, oil, cream or all of those items. One time we thought we were ordering cheese bread only to find we ordered two slices of deep fried cheese each about the size of Texas Toast. The most hilarious mix up occurred when I ordered a \u201clocal salad\u201d only to get all the ingredients unprepared on a plate! Jacquelyn ordered a different type of salad and hers came prepared. There was no price difference between our salads so I wasn\u2019t even able to save money due to the lack of preparation! It took a lot of mistakes but we\u2019re now ordering absolutely delicious food and have come to thoroughly enjoy traditional Bulgarian food.<\/p>\n

Now, on to the things that make Bulgaria uniquely awesome. There are so many Roman\/Turkish\/Bulgarian historical sights all throughout this small country a person could probably spend months touring around and never see it all. Outside of Sofia and a couple other touristy areas, there\u2019s pretty much no one visiting the sights, especially international tourists. We thought Romania had a dearth of tourist but we regularly find ourselves alone. There is a lot of great hiking around the country. We went to an area called Belogradchick near the Serbia\/Romania border and found an area a lot like where I grew up in the Black Hills \u2013 similar trees and rolling mountains but sandstone instead of granite. It was awesome to have some alone time on the trail and enjoy nature free from the ruckus of humanity. The solitude and seclusion has been absolutely amazing and rejuvenating. There are a lot of natural wonders that are beautiful like massive caves, mountains, and waterfalls. We had no idea Bulgaria had such diverse sights to visit<\/p>\n

There are still a lot of communist relics littered about and they are endlessly fascinating to us. Just driving down the highway we\u2019d see abandoned monuments with massive statues dedicated to the people and the workers. Socialism started in the early 1920s and there was an monument built by the communists on the site of the first socialist meeting. The monument, called Buzludzha, was used as a meeting place during communism and since been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. Before we visited we had asked many locals how to find the place and how to get in; almost all the locals thought we were insane for wanting to visit. Since it\u2019s technically closed we were only able to get in after crawling through a hole someone made in a wall. Once we were in it was very eerie and enough of the d\u00e9cor remains to give a flavor for how the building looked when it was in use. It was a surreal experience<\/p>\n

We thought the first half of our time in Bulgaria was really cool and fun but the second half is just as good if not better but that\u2019s for next time :).<\/p>\n

Enjoy the photos!<\/p>\n

Chris W.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t[Show slideshow]<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t