Entrance to the Fortress

Execution Rock

No 17 Email – Veliko Tarnovo

I arrived in at Veliko Tarnovo earlier than I excepted with a train faster than I anticipated. As a matter of fact I fell comfortably asleep and by some miracle woke up when the train stopped in Veliko. I barely had time to collect my stuff and get off the train before it moved on. I then took a taxi to the tourist office to seek some help with finding appropriate accommodation. The helpful office suggested a room in an hotel nearby. He got on the phone and told them what I wanted. I wanted: a private room with breakfast included, the possibility of using a kitchen for my own cooking, and if possible, a wireless connection to the Internet. I got what I wanted for about 15 euros per nite.

The nearby hotel is run by a family: the mother (who is definitely in charge!) the father, two sons (with wifes) and a couple of grandchildren.

The next day, the mother cooked me a nice breakfast that include philo, sweets stuff and cheese (unavoidable it seems). I decided that from now on and would cook my own oatmeal breakfast.

In the evening I showed up with pasta, pasta sauce and fresh spinach. The following convinced me that they are not used to have someone using their kitchen. The woman grabbed the spinach and proceeded to trim the ends and wash it, then she took a pot , put water in it and told me this is for the pasta. I explained that I was first going to cook the spinach then the pasta. She gave up and let me do my stuff.

Her husband, for ever looking happy and smiling, offered me a drink. It is either grappa or rika? Not bad, but I prefer beer. The scene was somewhat repeated the next evening, with and added challenge, the son tried to tell me that I should change room? I acted like I did not understand. So here we are, the mother is again trying to help me, the smiling father is still offering me drinks, and the soon is trying to make me move to another room. He is down to making drawings with arrows to show my moving.

I finally told him ok but I want to see my “new” room. We are not getting anywhere and he finally gave up.

The main sight in Veliko is the Tsarevets Fortress. Sitting high on a cliff and overlooking the valley and the river below, the fortress is located on a site shared over the centuries by Thracians, Romans, and Byzantines. The present ruins of many houses and churches largely dates between the 5^th and the 12^th centuries.

I like to have some idea of what I am looking at, unfortunately, none of the information panels are in English (they are in Bulgarian, Russian, German). I now that somebody speaks English. The price list at the ticket booth clearly states the different price categories in perfect English!

I let the local tourist office know about my disappointment.

I walked the mostly uphill 5 km road to the small city of Arbanasi, from which one has a great view of the valley (and the fortress) below. The first place I came across is a restaurant (mentioned in LP guide) where the very helpful owner speaks English and runs a somewhat non-traditional hillside hotel.

All and all a worthy visit in this town where one in six residents is a student.

After over two months of intense travel I need to go somewhere to just relax. Varana, on the Black Sea Coast seem the best choice.

Love and Peace -henri

Eastern Europe - Plovdiv -Bulgaria

The "Revival" museum

The Amphitheater

No 16 Email – Plovdid – Bulgaria

From Sofia I took a train to Plovdiv. Seems that the scenery out of Sofia is pretty flat, almost like the US Midwest. In Plovdid I checked into an internet-reserved private house. Eventually I am sharing a two-bed room with a young man from the US. He is on a short two-week vacation and making the most out of it.

The Thracians moved into Bulgaria in the 4^th millennium BC and by 100 AD, the Romans controlled the land. Apparently Plovid goes back to long before the Thracians and became known as Phillippopolis to the Romans in the 3 rd century AD. The city is built over ruins of past civilizations and digging for the past is going on in several places. The most outstanding discovery, so far, is a Roman Amphitheater that was buried deep into the dirt under several houses. The renovated theater is now the site of many events (many including famous singers and performers). Several of the revival-era wood-shuttered homes are open to visitors and a 22-room (circa 1847) building is now a fine Ethnographical Museum..

Much of the Old Town is built on a steep hill from which there are great views of the city.

My accommodation was nothing to brag about but the price was right.

Next: Veliko Tarnovo.

Eastern Europe - Sofia and Rila - Bulgaria

No 15 Email – Sofia – Bulgaria

The trip from Skopje to Sofia took about 6 hours. Of those hours about 40 minutes were spent at the border between Macedonia and Bulgaria, most of it in Bulgaria. There was practically no traffic at the border and our bus had about 8 passengers. First they took our passports, then they gave them back, then they wanted to see each one of us in turn and they brought a laptop in the bus. They spent several minutes trying to work it, then they gave up and went back to their control room. Then we had to get off the bus and approach the control point one at the time with our passport. The all scene apparently was very funny to the border control people and the drivers from our bus because they seem to be telling jokes and laughing all of the time.

An explanation might be that Bulgaria is part of the European Common Market (EC) while Macedonia is not. When Macedonia will be able to join, the border between the two countries will, for all purpose, be totally open with little or no control. Weird isn’t it.

In Sofia, I decided to take my chances in an 8-bed dorm in a popular youth hostel. What I did not realize is that the location of Sofia makes it a natural stop-over point for travelling from one country to another.

So, this hostel is always practically full. The lack of a curfew makes it also a cozy place for all-night drinking parties! The end result is that people come in and out of the dorms at anytime of the nite, and sleeping is somewhat difficult. Is too bad because there are some nice pluses in favor of staying here. The rooms are cheap, the price includes breakfasts with a choice of cheeses, meats, tomatoes, olives, breads, etc..

Each evening they offer pasta with tomatoes sauce. They also provide free beer (a perfect way to promote and start the all night party!).

I have been in Sofia before, shortly after the communist regime left, Bulgarian Airline bought some Boeing 737. I was part of a small team that Boeing sent here to assist the airline with airplane maintenance.

Sofia was a very different place then. At that time, all the big squares where practically empty, and there was no traffic in the streets. The restaurant had no menu, they offered whatever they could get in the scares market places. Personally, I was well treated as I stayed in the Sheraton where all kinds of food was available.

Today, the traffic is bad and the squares have become parking lots chock-full of cars.

In Sofia, I visited the numerous churches, mosques, and I revisited the massive gold-domed Russian-style Aleksander Nevski Church.

I went to the incredible Rila Monastery located high in the mountains. This Unesco World heritage is 120 km away from Sofia and somewhat hard to reach by public transports. I teamed up with a couple, a French woman and her Italian husband and we went with a private car. As they did not really understand English, we had a three-way conversation going on. The driver would tell me something in English, I would repeat it to the woman in French, and she would repeat it to her husband in Italian.

This remained me of a somewhat similar scene in a movie with Peter Sellers.

The Rila Monastery is an amazingly interesting place. I really love the fact that the church has an outside gallery full of frescoes going around the church. The best thing is that one can take photos of the icons, something which is not allowed inside of a church (generally). I bought their booklet so that I can understand the story told by the frescoes.

In short, I had a great day!

I wish I could express the same thoughts about my stay in the hostel! Win a few, loose a few. Learn from each new experience!!

The left picture is of a Rila Frescoe,the right is the Rila Monastry and the third is the Gold-domed Aleksander Nevski Church.

Next Plovdiv.

Eastern Europe -Skopje - Macedonia

The Saveguard
Carvings in the Synagoge

No14 Email – Skopje – Macedonia

The three hours trip from Ohrid to Skopje winds its way thru majestic snow-covered mountain scenery. We arrived in Skopje at a real bus station, and l guess we are back in the civilized world. It took a taxi (inexpensive) to the hostel. This is a real funky place where you can do yoga with one of the people in the morning. The furniture is of the “eclectic” style, but, the have a nice big table in a cosy kitchen/dinning room, and a great genuine wood stove that they keep going all day. It remainded me of the place I stayed in Doolin, Ireland. They had such a room were you just want to sit there all day, close to the stove, reading a book and drinking tea, or coffee (or beer!)

We spent lots of time in the kitchen/dinning room as we had a nice breakfast each morning and soup with bread each evening (all included in the price). This is a perfect set up, it gets me started in the morning, then I can buy a meal when I am visiting the sites, and then go back to the hostel for my evening meal.

Now for the other side of a funky place. The hostel is in a converted house and has several rooms that are shared dorms. They also rent another small house, very close by, where they offer two private rooms with one shared bathroom. It stayed in one of the two bedrooms. I am sort of glad I did as later that day, 15 people from different countries showed up for a 3-month seminar. They are performers, mostly dancers, and they do studio work together for three months in different Eastern Europe countries. They are in Skopje for about 10 days and then they are going to Sofia. There are people from Switzerland, Germany, France, Macedonia, etc…. This makes the atmosphere around the dinning table very congenial.

The next morning I discovered that there was no electricity anywhere in the small house. I went to the main building where, after a few ringing of the doorbell, one of the women caretakers showed up. I told her about the problem and she agreed that I could take a shower in the main building. Later, one of the caretaker started to look around for the problem, and eventually found a blow fuse. The same day I came back in the afternoon and found that we had lost the electrical power again. The caretaker decided to do some investigations and opened the room where the couple stayed. We were greeted with a strong burning smell. What had happened is that a big heather in the couple bedroom was very close to the bedspread. The couple left for a walk early in the morning when the power was off and left the heather on all day (which apparently is a bit much for the circuit), a potentially dangerous situation.

Skopje has an old quarter with several mosques, churches, one synagogue with amazing wood carvings, and two large Turkish Bathhouses that have been turned into museums.

Tomorrow I am taking a bus to Sofia, Bulgeria.

EASTERN EUROPE - Ohrid - Macedonia

Monastry Peacock

Roman Mosaics

No 13 Email.Ohrid. Macedonia
This is a continuation of my effort to go to Ohrid in Macedonia, from Saranda in Albania.
There was no bus from Saranda to Ohrid as I had been told, another case of misunderstanding. I have to do better by writing everything down and have the other people do the same.
Anyway, I went back to the hotel and checked at the “bus station” on occasion to find there was another bus to the border of Macedonia. None showed up. I went back to the hotel told them I was staying another day. As I was getting confusing infos from the owner of the hotel and from the other people there I decided that I had to regain control of this situation.
The real problems are:
It is hard to find anybody who speaks English
The only tourist office open at this time is totally useless. As an example, on the other side of the street from the office is an area full of Roman ruins and apparently some mosaics. I asked the office for some kind of pamphlet or guide to this site. It took the woman there about 15 minutes to find something.
All of the buses and minibuses are privately owned and do not publish any schedule. A rule of thumb, I was told, you know a bus is not coming if it does not show up about 15 minutes before departure time!
My first quest was to find somebody that spoke understandable English. Then I could ask this person to tell me how one goes about finding bus schedules.
Back at the hotel I asked the owner for an English speaking contact. He immediately called one of the two women who works there. The next thing that happens is that she eventually showed up with my breakfast, but she understand very little English. I am getting a little bit frustrated. I crossed my arms, told them that I want somewhat who speaks English, and I am not eating my breakfast until I am satisfied.
They finally understand, the owner gets on the phone and calls the other woman helper. She came in about 10 minutes later and she is able to understand what I want! She told me to follow her, we leave after I told them to leave my breakfast alone, I’ll eat it later.
She takes me to a coffee/bar shop near the “bus station”. She talks a few minutes to the woman in charge who take a piece of paper and writes down a complete bus schedule for both Pogradec and Elbasan. Two cities close to the Macedonian border and the only way to Macedonia.
I felt great having regained control of the situation. I go back to the hotel and eat my breakfast.
Maybe you can guess what happens the next day??
The bus to Pogradec is scheduled for 6:30 am (the preferred option).The bus to Elbasan is scheduled for 7:00 am.
Next day: At about 6:20, a bus driver and a woman approached me. The woman is a British nurse that works here in a small village. She told me the bus to Pogradec is not coming (she learned this from her own bus driver). She think that this is due to heavy snow fall in the north of Albania.
Not surprising, the bus to Elbasan does not show up. At this point I am not sure what to do: give up and buy a house in Saranda (just kidding but the thought crossed my mind) go back to the hotel and try again tomorrow? One of the problems is that I have made Internet reservations in Ohrid and I have changed them once already.
I go back to the café/bar and asked the woman about this situation. She suggested that I go to Tirana ( a 6-hour drive away) and catch a minibus toward the Macedonian border from there. The bus driver happens to be there and promise me that it will take me to the appropriate bus station in Tirana.
To make a long story short, in Tirana they dropped me in the middle of the town, and called someone to take me to an appropriate location. A man showed up (not a taxi!) and asked for too much money to take me to a place where I can take a bus. This turned out to be a station for private minibus only. This is a place where they do not leave until the minibus is full! Time is working against me and I finally agreed to pay 25 euros to take me to Pogradec. Expensive by Albanian standard but not too bad considering the fact that it is a three-hour ride thru the mountains and the driver promised me to take me directly to one of the Macedonian borders. This turned out to be a great trip. The driver speaks English, and he worked in Michigan for 12 years.
The scenery is truly spectacular along this high altitude twisting road. The driver wants to buy me a cup of coffee in one of the few restaurants on the road. This happens to be a very classy place, with waiters dressed in traditional Albania costumes. A nice fire is roaring in the fire place. A very nice experience.
I am somewhat worry about finding transportation from the border because I only have information about the other border. We make a deal, we will go to that other border if transportation is unavailable from here. The driver stays with me until the border guard told him that there are plenty of taxis at the Macedonian border.
At the Albanian border, and while they check my passport, I ask a driver going by for a ride to Ohrid. He told me, in perfect English, that there are taxis on the Macedonian side. As I am walking to the snow toward Macedonia, the same driver stop, and asked me if I am alone (is not obvious!?). He offers me a ride to Ohrid, and drops me very close to my hotel. A very good introduction to Macedonia!
The door of the hotel is open but there is nobody there. I go next door to a wine shop and the man in charge calls the owner of the hotel. He shows up a few minutes later and told me that he did not expect me so early (it is about 18:30). I did real well. According to the Lonely Planet site, it is next to impossible to make the Saranda to Ohrid trip in one day!
I have a double room for the price of a single (20 euros) it includes breakfast, a TV set (with some English-speaking channel including CNN) and it is centrally located. The owner speaks English and he is very helpful. He gave me two keys, one for the front door and one for my room. I asked him If I should lock the front door, and he said “ It is not necessary, this is not Albania” !?
Ohrid is at the edge of Lake Ohrid. It is a very pleasant place with several sights of interests. As a lone tourist I got special treatment in two of the churches. In the oldest Macedonian Cathedral I was showed parts of the church not generally available to tourists, including an attached smaller church for woman only. All the well-preserved frescoes shows women saints only. (including St Sofia, the church patron). The woman attendant in the St Dimitri Church has been working there for 27 years, has a Master Degree in Ethnography and for her thesis wrote an extensive publication on the meaning of the well-preserved, nicely restored frescoes that covers all the walls in the church. She was happy to explain her interpretation of the significance and the meaning of the beautiful frescoes. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures.
An early Christian Basilique is located besides Roman Ruins and some very well preserved mosaics. Most of the walls with two of the gates that surrounded the original city still exists. An Amphitheter, built around the birth of Christ, wasn’t fully uncovered until 1984.
One of my favorite sight, the 13th Century Sveti Jovan Church at Kaneo, provides a perfect background for a very nice view of Lake Ohrid.
A minibus ride took me near the southern end of the lake to the 17th century Sveti Naum monastery whose grounds are patrolled by dozen of beautiful peacocks. The monastery located on top of a hill offers magnificent views of Lake Ohrid and the snow covered mountains around it.
Note! The Macedonian TV offers a few channels in English, including CNN.
Next Skopje, the birthplace of Mother Theresa.