Bulgaria’s old capital

With a 1030 departure to Bulgaria’s old capital Veliko Tarnovo, we had a leisurely start with some muesli and milk before a taxi ride to Hotel Horoscop where the bus would leave from.  Here we finished our Romanian money with coffee, pastries and some takeaway sandwiches.

The Pegasus van service (pre-bookable online) was god-sent and a chance find.  Most information suggested taking a bus to Ruse (just across the border) and changing to Veliko Tarnovo which would have been slightly more complex (but not too much I think).

After 1h30, we approached the border area.  There were small kiosks selling green cards (international car insurance) and medical insurance.  We continued over a large bridge across the brown Danube to enter Bulgaria.

The Romanian and Bulgarian authorities have co-located booths which means a one-stop process.  Our passports were stamped in and out and there was no luggage inspection (but it is not a common/free border as many trucks were lined up for inspection).

The whole process took about 10 minutes and we were at Ruse station shortly after for a 30 minute break.  I was frantically looking for my exit/entry stamps and couldn’t find my Bulgarian entry one.  As it turned out, it was so faint it was hardly visible.

The stop at Ruse was long enough for a pitstop, ATM and a cuppa tea.  Most passengers disembarked here leaving us plus one more, with no new joining passengers for the 1h30 journey to Veliko Tarnovo.

Google Maps suggested it was a 2 minute drive to our hotel.  With Kim’s luggage it translated to quite a long uphill slog.  Once there, it was like  a 6 storey climb to our room:  upstairs to check-in, upstairs again to the garden, up again and to the standalone building behind and then upstairs again!  But we were rewarded by having the best view in the hotel overlooking the old city and the valley.

After a rest, we wandered out towards Tsarevets, the Citadel from which old Bulgaria was ruled.  We saw a bit of the old town along the way and the Ottoman influence was obvious.  The citadel itself would have been ginormous but only parts of it remain. Fortunately there was a diagram to explain its magnitude and how it covered several hills.

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The weather here was surprisingly cool, dry and windy compared to where we had come from.  I thought we might have been at altitude but we definitely weren’t when I checked on Google (220m).

Having just had a simple sandwich for lunch, we had an early dinner at an awesome restaurant called Ego:  Potato and white cheese fritters, pork in lemon sauce (with edible slices of lemon including the skin) and a salad .