Hello No. 37 - First Days in Romania!

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We had an early, yet short flight to Bucharest.  We could have taken the bus but interestingly it would have been a six hour trip because of all the stops.  The flight was delayed for an hour, but this worked out great, and we landed just before noon to a snowed in city.  The taxi drive from the airport into town took about 30 minutes, passing massive city parks lined with palatial mansions, embassies, and huge government buildings.  The French Revival architecture is amazing.

We found our apartment building and enjoyed a self check in.  For Bucharest, we rented a very large, three bedroom apartment in an older building.   While the building itself could use a bit of updating, the apartment was nicely renovated with TWO new bathrooms and a great kitchen.  Each of the bedrooms have a king bed and TV.  We got to work quickly setting things up...the kids arrive in a few days.

The large dining room was empty with the table and chairs set u in the small kitchen...odd...and not suiting our needs, we disassembled the table and relocated it.  A short five minute walk to the grocery store brought back several bags of supplies.

The next day we went shopping for a tree, decorations, and more food.  For a whopping $9 USD we found a great four foot tall tree, decorations, ornaments, lights, and place mats.  Gotta love the Romanian economy.  The huge shopping mall just a ten minute walk away had everything, including a huge Carrefour Supermarket where we found the rest of our shopping list.  Then we got the tree up and decorated the place.

Day three had us preparing a fruit relish, making croutons for the turkey stuffing, an apple crumble, and a red chili sauce for the enchiladas.

Our Last Few Days in Sofia

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We departed Plovdiv and took the back roads to Sofia.  Along the way we stopped off at the Thracian Cult Tomb.  It was a bit of a hike to the top of the hill but the site was great.  There we realized that this was only one of over 30 magnificent ancient sites and there was not enough time...another trip.

The tomb was built on top of a hill, the then site was surrounded by a stone wall, and then the whole site was filled in and the toumb covered by a huge mound.  It raised the height of the original hill by another 150 feet.  The entrance was long closed and covered over and was discovered in the late 80's.

 We fantasized about fixing up this old camper.  Ha-ha.

Once back in Sofia we found our Airbnb, an apartment in a heavily inhabited tenement block.  From the outside we thought maybe we might have made a major mistake in booking.  Once inside we were pleasantly surprised.

We returned our car to the airport, just a few minutes away, took the metro back to the apartment and stopped at the grocery store for a few additional supplies to last us the next four days.  Our plans for the balance of our stay in Sofia were simple.

On our second day we visited the National History Museum.  It was a cold snowy day and we used public transport...first the metro to downtown, and the the local Trolleybus to the museum.  We got sidetracked by a well-meaning local who gave us directions to the wrong museum and we ended up taking a taxi the rest of the way.  By the time we had paid the taxi and the museum admission, we were out of cash. The museum was not busy...obviously because of the heavy snowfall and we toured the two huge floors for an hour.  The best part of the museum was the building itself.  The Roman and Thracian artifacts were interesting...but we have seem much the same MANY times over.

 This collection of royal gold drinking utensils was made in the 3rd millennium BC...that's almost 6000 years ago...wow, what amazing craftsmanship from such a "primitive" society.  We are certainly only just beginning to understand the past!

At the end of the day a nice lady in one of the shops helped us call a taxi, stop at an ATM for cash, and then back into town.  A short metro ride got us back to our apartment.  We made a Southern dinner tonight...fried chicken, cornbread and potatoes.

We spent a whole day waiting out the snowstorm at home...working on some art, catching up on trip planning, and writing this blog.  We headed downtown late in the afternoon for the 4PM Communist Walking Tour by our friends at the 365 Organization.  The tour was amazingly good with over three hours of commentary about the 48 years of communist control of Bulgaria.  We got home late to carnitas baking in the oven...so tasty.

Our last day was spend hibernating as we prepared to depart Bulgaria the next morning. 

A Week in Plovdiv - World's Oldest Continually Occupied City

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Our drive from Pamporovo was beautiful.  There was a bit of new snow, the sky was bright blue with not a cloud to be seen, and we followed the river downstream most of the way, winding through small villages, monasteries, and Roman sites.  We took notes along the way for day trips later in the week.  It took us two hours to reach the valley far below and then another hour across the Bulgarian plain and into Plovdiv.  Once in the city, it was a snap to find our home for the next week.  We booked a small two room apartment at the back of a family owned commerical building...two blocks from the main pedestrian street and minutes to just about every historical and local site.  The whole place was decorated in the Art Kitsch style...this gal knows her thrift stores...and it was cute, comfortable and perfectly outfitted for our extended stay...it enven had a PIANO!

 

We settled in and located the nearest grocery store...just a few blocks away.  A short walk restocked us for the week and we relaxed the rest of the day.

Our first full day in the city took in the Free Walking Tour.  Done by the same folks as in Sofia, we met our guide and for the next three hours we toured the "TRAP," the arts and crafts neighborhood.  It is called the "TRAP" because in the early 1800s this where the vendors all had their shops, there were only two entrances to the area, and the streets were constructed in such a way so that once you got in, you had a hard time getting out...and spent lots of money.  Sound familiar.  And we thought that this was a NEW idea...LOL.  There we participated in a few silly projects making a key ring and wood burning the maze of streets on a piece of wood.  We visited a coffee roaster and took photos of the amazing street art that has been photographed, cataloged and classified as city treasures.  These are some of the few public mural paintings in the world to gain this type of local protection.

 We have become 365 Geeks, the 365 Organization is a non-profit that puts on the free tours.  Although in reality they aren't so free since most tip the guides handsomely.  This is our fellow for today and we did another free tour of the historic sites.  He is a law student and a real talker.

A model of the stadium, mostly still intact but under the city streets and not excavated becuase it would mean tearing down most of downtown's high end shopping district.  This part was exposed an made into a visitor site...very cool... 

More street art.

 Streets of the old town winding up to the top of one of the seven hills of Plovdiv.

Several historical preserved homes we would tour in a few days. 

Church tower. 

Top of the hill overlooking the city below. 

Entrance to the Roman theather only discovered and unearthed 30 years ago.  Magnificent. 

Wall sculpture done in carved plaster. 

 We took a day off and lounged around the house.  Then we spent an afternoon driving back into the canyons and visited Assen's Fortress, a ruin from the 13th century and it's really nice church.

 Today we visited several of the historic homes.  This one had been restored and was the home of the ethnographic museum.  A nice collection of cultural artifacts were on display.

Ladies belt buckles...and we thought American rodeo stars had that market. 

Bulgarian embroidery.  Unique geometric designs. 

We prowled the streets. 

Two of the additional homes we toured.  Such big rooms...so cold...not heat and NO FIREPLACES.  In their day they were heated using copper bowls filled with hot coals from the hot house separate from the home...and you can figure out why...the homes are all wood. 

A local artist on display.  Very Van Gogh.

Turkish styled hamman indoors.

We visited the stadium once more.  It held 30,000 spectators.

One of the hills with its monument to a Bulgarian tsar. 

Our last two days were spent visiting the local cinema where we were the only people in the theater to see "Robin Hood."   The rest of our time was spent lounging, watching a few Netflix movies, and taking some neighborhood walks.  We even splurged and had dinner out...QUITE AN EVENT FOR US...at a restaurant called the "Happy Grill" that featured really decent beef...and Bobbie was a "happy girl."