The Journey Home

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Bob Hall

It was surprisingly cold at 7am in Izvor. After two weeks of 25+ degrees, an early start reminds us how low it can drop to overnight: 9 degrees!

No matter, we have a flight to catch at midday and therefore a house to close down. As we are not due back until after the weather turns to winter I have to turn off the water and drain everything: even water left in a tap will freeze and crack the unit as we have found on many an occasion!

So after breakfast a familiar routine begins. The main water supply is turned off, the drain tap in the basement opened, all the taps in kitchen and bathrooms opened, and the toilets flushed to empty the cisterns. The final touch is to put anti-freeze down the drains, u-bends and toilets (we had a toilet crack completely in half last winter when it froze solid).  When we arrive next the house will be literally frozen without the precautions.

Finally, we have to set alarms, lock doors and chain the gates.

We leave about 8.30am, again a precautionary measure to allow plenty of times for unexpected but likely traffic, and of course the ever present risk of puncture and subsequent wheel replacement: when travelling to a schedule in Bulgaria, everything has to be allowed for unless you are less risk averse than me.

Almost inevitably, and to spite my planning for the worse, our drive is without incident and we arrive at Sofia Airport, check the car back, check-in ourselves and proceed through security all by 10.30 and find ourselves facing a one hour wait until boarding. Then, as if to really mock my caution, we are told our flight is to be twenty minutes late.

All we need now is to miss the connection in Vienna….again.

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Vasil Levski Park (Вазил Левски)

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Bob Hall

As I write it is 36 degrees and rising, and we are sat in Park Cafe with cold drinks.

The park is one of the largest green public spaces in Sofia and is popular with locals and visitors alike. At the bottom of the park is the National Stadium Vasil Levski where the Bulgarian team call home, and where there are regular stadium concerts.

Adjacent to the Stadium is a boating lake surrounded by various cafes and restaurants (we have just eaten in the island restaurant, and it was very good, traditional fare).

As you walk up through the park you can keep to the main avenue or explore the many small paths in to the woodland. There are lots of vendors scattered about offering drinks and ice-cream, and also lots of children’s play areas.

We are here on a Saturday and it is quite busy, but knowing the Bulgarian penchant for Sunday walks I can imagine it being very busy on Sundays.

It is rather too hot to row a boat in full sun today, so that pleasure will have to wait.

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The Village Bar

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Bob Hall

Tonight we are in the bar, again. We have been here most evenings just to unwind with a cold drink.

The bars in Bulgaria are a long way from the great British pub. The are not licensed, they are not an oasis of light, glass, wood or polished chrome. In fact the bar in Izvor has one small room and not much more than a hatch through which you are served. The are two large display fridges – one for bottled beer and the other for soft drinks – and a small freezer with all the spirits in, which largely consist of rakia and mastika.

 

Outside there are currently seven small tables of varying quality, a couple of parasols advertising beer, and some metal and wire chairs.

We have a mini-bus of ‘gypsies’ who have here for an hour after work each evening (they always leave about 8.45pm), there is a family opposite with two small children, and a small collection of local old-boys. At a far table is Kapka (Капка) she runs the shop next door; in the evening she often sits outside between occasional customers. (She attends shop from 7am until about 9pm every day of the week).

Ady is our usual host, but she is off tonight and another local is on an occasional shift.

Drink measures are a bit different here. In UK a typical short is 25ml but here it is 50ml, and most usually buy a ‘large’ one – equivalent to four English shorts. Personally I buy one of the best rakias available and pay about 3 leva (£1.10) for a large drink. Margaret’s mastika (Bulgarian version of Pernod), cost about 1lv 50st (about 60p!), for 100ml. A 500ml bottle of beer is about 50p in the village.

The downside, if there is one, is that income is very low. The rakia I drink can be bought for about 12leva in a supermarket. I think Ady sells a bottle for about 15leva when bought in measures. (By comparison UK pub sells a £15 bottle of whisky for about £75 as 25ml measures.)

Despite the low cost and wide availability you never see anyone blind drunk; no one is loud and obnoxious, and there are no fights. The come, they drink and chat, they leave eventually. No need for bouncers or security, and no street pastors to pick up the pieces.

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Beli Iskar (Бели Искар)

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Bob Hall

Okay, so first we still had no water as we left the house at 10.00am this morning. We have been off since Monday! Service was restored briefly at about 4.00pm yesterday; we all had the foresight to shower which was fortunate as it only lasted an hour before going off again. I love village life in rural Bulgaria.

Today we picked up Randy from Drugan (Друган) and made for the Rila National Park at Beli Iskar – over the hill from Borovets (Боровец).

There is a stunning walk up the river towards the dam. The path is about a 7km round trip which winds back and forth over the river. There are a series of eight wooden foot bridges you pass over as you walk up river and then walk back along the narrow windy road. Each bridge is named (Yew, The Long One, Two Boulders….), and numbered so you know how far you have come.

Whilst the river is interesting as it runs down through the bottom of the glacial valley, what is most eye-catching are the views either side up the steep ravine to the wooded slopes and high cliffs. In the UK it would be the sight of much climbing, but here it is empty with hardly a soul anywhere on the path.

At regular intervals on the riverbank there are various picnic spots. Bulgarians know how to picnic. They drive up and unload a pile of assorted paraphernalia including barbecue items. The light a fire, put the beer and rakia in the river to cool, and put a cloth over their chosen table for their meal. Not much walking takes place, but they will sit, chat, eat and drink for hours. As the sun sets they pack it all away and go home.

   

The river has an average annual temperature of 4 Celsius, so you are not going to want to swim – even at the summer high of 10 degrees! You might brave a quick paddle of the feet, but then sanity will return as the feeling in your toes recedes. In deep mid-winter it freezes over in places although I think it would be difficult to witness this unless you walk from the village as the road would likely be impassable unless you drive a specialist vehicle.

When we got home at 8.00pm there was water, and hopefully hotter than the river at Beli Iskar. It really is an amazing place to visit, but a long way to go for a cold bath.

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No Water Again!

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Bob Hall

We are all desperate for a shower; but at least we are all equally aromatic!

One of the joys of rural village life in Bulgaria is that occasionally there are short periods of no electricity or no water! In 1995 when we first moved here it was almost a daily event for some short outage of water – most often during early evening when the locals all water their gardens and there would be a subsequent drop in pressure for the duration. The only real inconvenience was that the washing-up would have to wait.

When it came to electricity then the primary cause of downtime is thunderstorms tripping the local sub-station. Usually the power comes back on in a few minutes, or a couple of hours at worse. Unfortunately most commonly we have thunderstorms early evening – just as we are cooking our evening meal in our electric oven. The food goes in the fridge and we go to a restaurant.

Anyway, at this time we have had no water for 18 hours! The sink is full of dirty plates from last night’s dinner, the washing machine is full of dirty clothes from our weekend away, and we have not showered for 24 hours.

If this happened in UK there would undoubtably be a news story, at least on local news programmes and maybe even the national news; there would be locals being interviewed demanding a resolution (and probably compensation); and at some point a politician or local worthy would be ‘demanding’ an immediate enquiry. Of course these kind of outages are very rare in UK, and generally the result of some other catastrophe – storms bringing down power lines, burst water main during road works, etc – but we demand 100% reliability and no failure can be tolerated. Someone has to be held to account and shoulder the blame.

Of course there are places in the world where even a Bulgarian level of supply would be beyond expectation. Right now in Pakistan their is major flooding of the Indus river. No drinking water, no electricity, and right now no end to the shortages.

Isn’t it about time we put our ‘problems’ into perspective: we are not going to die from lack of a shower!

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Kazanlak to Koprivshtitse (Копривщица)

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Bob Hall

The Journey West

Driving west on E871 from Kazanluk (Казанлък) we come to Koprivshtitsa. Actually, last time we drove this way there were replacing the road surface – what seemed like the entire 100km in one go. Needless to say we cut off across country to find an alternate route to Sofia!

The drive along here is stunning. To begin with the road is flat and quite straight through farmland. To the north are the mountains which look quite beautiful in the morning sun, and to the south it stretches away to more mountains in the distance.

These routes have ample places to stop and eat – although the one we chose for breakfast, near the Aleksandrovo (Александрово) turn has no eggs; so no omelette for breakfast! Margaret and Naomi order a ‘burger’ which turn out to be an enormous bread roll with meat, salad and chips stuffed inside. At least we did not have to resort to that Bulgarian breakfast staple: a slice of pizza from a roadside vendor.

As we travel further east we climb up over the mountains. There are a number of viaducts over deep ravines with yet more amazing views over the mountains. Eventually you turn of for Koprivshtitse and take a 12km winding, wooded road to the village.

Koprivshtitse (Копривщица)

This small town is where the independence from Ottoman rule began in April 1876. Today it is a living museum and a magnet for Bulgarian tourists. With its beautiful old buildings and mountain views it is not hard to see why people come here.

Although there are the expected shops selling trinkets and numerous cafes they are subtle enough not to detract from the beauty of the place and it’s surroundings. The best view is probably from the monument on the eastern side of the valley, but just wander around the cobbled streets to take it all in.

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It’s My Birthday!

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Bob Hall

Ok, as you asked, I am 46 – but that is not important. What is important is that I am in Bulgaria and not working.

We are staying in Kazanlak for the weekend in Hotel Zornitsa. Not the nicest hotel I have stayed in, but adequate. Why do so many provincial hotels in Bulgaria still have communist era undertones: subdued lighting in the lobby/reception and walls a subtle mixing of beige paint and tobacco staining? On a positive note, the views from the pool terrace out over the city are quite impressive. It helps that there is currently wall-to-wall blue sky, and now the wedding party have left it is quite relaxing (Bulgarian weddings seem to be very noisy, particularly as they travel in convoy and all blare their car-horns as the move!). The small tortoise in the walled garden is a nice touch, although I would not dare ask how it came to reside here…

This part of Bulgaria has a lot of history in the nearby moutains between Kazanluk and Gabrovo, particulalrly in the Shipka Pass.

The Russo-Turkish War

Until 1877 Bulgaria was a part of the Turkish Ottoman empire. In August 1877 the city of Plevna (Pleven) was under seige by the Russian army and Bulgarian volunteers. a 27,000 strong turkish force was despatched north to break the seige, and were defied by 6000 Russians and Bulgarians. Today this event is remembered at the Shipka Memorial Church and the Shipka Monument at the top of the pass.

Shipka Church

Construction of the church was completed in 1902 after some building delays. It is built in the Russian Orthodox style of the 18th century. With it’s golden onion domes it is easily identified as you approach Shipka village from Kazanluk. It has a number of memorial stones identifying the fallen and the crypt contains a number of sarcophagi containing their remains.

 

Shipka Memorial Tower

Built at the top of the pass you ascend almost 900 steps from the main road (there is also a road access for the less energetic!).

The tower contains a museum of the defence of Shipka (2lv). The viewing platform on the top affords spectacular 360 degree views of Gabrovo, Shredna Gora and the Valley of Roses.

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