Have you ever returned home from your incredible adventure exhausted and had the thought of *sigh* "I really need a vacation from my vacation?" 😫 That's how we all felt on December 26th after we returned home from the Christkindlmarkts 2019 in Germany. If you missed that post and all the German sausages, here's a quick link to catch you up (just so you get the full-exhaustion effect I'm talking about now).
Before our German Christmas vacation, I was counting the days for this road trip. In fact, it almost didn't happen. Remember how I told you we packed up our possessions in the US and shipped them over the Atlantic back in June 2019? Well, they arrived four weeks late and right in the middle of our carefully planned out road trip. Thanks Bulgarian & EU customs! 😬 Our moving agent was kind enough to store our goods an extra day or two, so we could keep our plans. Our little Christmas miracle!
Before we got on the road, I mapped out our trip with scheduled stops and AirBnbs to guarantee we would have a bed to sleep in at night. We rented a Suzuki Vitara for the five of us to explore Bulgaria. Yep, you read that right! Matt, Christopher, Shaggy, Blu & myself. Family Time!
One note about traveling with dogs is that they do not have the courtesy to roll down the window when they need to go toot-toot. 🤢 Our first stop was 2.5 hours outside of Sofia at Devetashka Cave, a large open cavern that is home to thousands of bat species. The cave has wide openings in the ceiling that let in light and also boasts an underground river that spawned new discoveries in hydrobiology. Walking into the cave's entrance, you'll notice an old movie advertisement poster like the ones you see hanging on the walls in movie theatres -The Expendables 2. It's placement feels like an anachronism from your favorite TV show where they left the Starbucks coffee cup on the Queen's medieval dining table. Yeah, I saw that GOT. 😎 Apparently, a few action scenes from the movie were filmed here. I may add it to my watchlist now that I've been there in person, but does that mean I have to watch the first one too? 🤔
We continued for another hour on the road before landing at our first AirBnb stop. After driving for a little more than three hours total (or more appropriately described - riding in the passenger seat 😬), I got to see a whole other side to Bulgaria. Leaving Sofia, you immediately starting winding through forested mountains before you reach countryside. You'll find a lot of farmland in the Bulgarian countryside. We couldn't figure out what kind of agriculture grows on the fields throughout the year; however, they were recently tilled and seeded with grass making beautiful rolling, green hills as far as you can see. Although roses are out of season at the moment, Bulgaria does happen to be the largest exporter of Rose Oil. I'm hoping we will take another trip come spring/summer seasons to catch a glimpse of those rose fields.
Passing through thousands of acres of developed farmland made us wonder who owns all of this. The surrounding villages were, for the most part, very poor and decrepit. Roadways were hardly considered roads in the countryside, spotted with pot holes, disappearing lines, and the width of a single car at times. Some villages looked like ghost towns with abandoned homes that were luckily still standing by the strong will of the red crumbling brick. I'll not forget anytime soon the road sign upon entering a dying village. We immediately passed a cemetery with obituary posters smothering the gates, a few crooked houses and then found ourselves crossing the town lines on our way out. If you blinked, you would have missed it all. These sights got me wondering if these towns are literally dying out. Are young Bulgarians leaving behind the Boomer generation to find better opportunities elsewhere?
We approached our first stop: Karaisen. Pulling off the neglected road onto an extended dirt driveway, we were searching for the AirBnb home. The pictures online depicted a beautiful house with a large green yard and fountain, but the surrounding neighborhood looked nothing like the online photos. I was becoming increasingly concerned. We drove alongside a barrier wall dotted with garage doors and messaged the owner for help. When the door opened, our paradise suddenly appeared (exactly like the AirBnb photos.) The dogs were reminded of what it feels like to run wildly around a fenced yard just like our home in Phoenix. The air was crystal clear and CLEAN! This is particularly important because we've been advised that Sofia has some of the worst air quality in the EU. Yuck! We asked our host for restaurant recommendations because we were starving by 3:00pm. Our host was an Italian man living in the outskirts of Bulgaria because of it's cheap cost-of-living. He is a landlord with multiple apartments/houses and hunts for truffles on the side which he processes into oil and cheeses. Very interesting guy! His recommendation: drive to the next village 15km away to find a little Bulgarian restaurant. This was literally the only restaurant within 25km. Challenge Accepted! (Btw...he said next time we stay with him, he'll make us an Italian dinner. New friend.)
When we pulled up to the restaurant Гостилница "Ранчото" (Ranchoto Hotel), there was a loud party going on inside the quaint and cozy little eatery. Matt and Christopher were hesitant to crash a party, but I didn't care. Heck, we could just join them! The celebration was a 50th birthday party for a beloved woman. Her family and friends danced around the joint while a professional "party singer" duo performed for the crowd. We scored a table in the corner and watched the celebration while eating our humble homemade dinners. We were the "flies on the wall" during their moment of jubilation.
Our next stop was only 1.5 hours away - Veliko Tarnovo. This city used to be Bulgaria's old capital and is built on the side of several mountains. The homes are stacked on top of each other overlooking the Tsaravets Fortress and Yantra river. Driving through the narrowed cobblestone streets earns Matt the much-desired title "Driver of the Year." Check out the video!
Our AirBnb was a unique little house that had an upstairs balcony with a magical view of the fortress at night. If it hadn't been freezing cold, I could have sat there all night just looking out over the city. The Tsaravets Fortress was built in the 5th century but destroyed in the 14th century by the Ottomans. It was restored in the 20th century over a course of 60 years, thankfully so. It is one of the few medieval fortresses we've seen throughout our travels. The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God sits in the middle of the fortress on a hill towering over the city.
The next morning, we woke up to a smoky sky. The last picture in the slideshow above shows how the chimney smoke settled into the valley between the mountains. It looked ghostly towards the old fortress. We packed up the car and began our drive towards Buzludzha Monument, an old Communist relic that looks like a UFO. It is commonly referred to as "Bulgaria's UFO." This drive was another two-hour adventure through highs and lows as we climbed mountains and drove around the sharpest U-turn curves that I have ever ventured on. Regardless of Matt's splendid driving skills, Christopher and I both felt car sick from the limitless turns and climb in elevation. Snowfall became heavier and the ground whiter as we climbed in altitude. Eventually the snow-packed roads turned to ice-covered roads, but we continued to climb - almost there with only 4kms left 'til our destination.
Then BAM! From the rear of the car, we all jolted forward. What the heck was that? We were hit! Holy cow! Just outside the town, Shipka, we found ourselves on the side of a mountain road with damage to our rental car. Panic ensued as we were frantically writing down all of the license plate numbers involved before people began to leave the scene. Being involved in a car accident on familiar roads is already a stressful experience; now add the "foreign environment" and "lack of English" factors to create a twister of chaos and emotions. As the panic feeling settled, we began to remember what to do in the event of an emergency - call the police! I dialed 112 on my cell phone (that's the 911 equivalent in Bulgaria). Of course, the police don't speak English (and I wouldn't expect them to); however, a young officer knew just enough to refer us to our rental car company. She stated that they would not come out to the site because no one was physically injured. Here's the problem: the car rental company
told me the police HAVE to come out to file a report to show we were not at fault. This would be the only way we would avoid charges for the damage. So I called the police back; however, the man who answered the phone this time was not so pleased that I was asking if he spoke English to communicate with me. He proceeded to yell at me as if that would magically help me to understand an ENTIRELY different language. Now, I have been working on my Bulgarian language and I'm proud of what I can say, but I certainly cannot give all the facts and details of a car accident. Sorry folks! I just don't have that proficiency yet. But that's when another miracle occurred. The people from the other car DID know English & Bulgarian and offered to speak with the police for us. They were honest and detailed the accident as it truly happened. By the end of this chaos, we were not charged any additional fees from the rental car company. Thank you kind Bulgarians! Unfortunately, we decided to end our road trip at that moment. No Buzludzha today. We were 2.5 hours away from Sofia, so we hiked back to the city to avoid any further conflict,
On our way back home, we passed through the Stara Zagora Valley (Стара Загора) and were stunned by the beauty at the base of snow-capped mountains. More fields and small towns nestled in the valley. During one of our potty stops for the dogs, we saw a shepherd and his flock grazing the field. He had an energetic dog that took a break from the sheep to say hello to our pack. Passing the town Kalofer on our way home, we saw a giant monument that was explained to be a memorial for a famous Bulgarian author, Hristo Botev.
We had intended to stay in a small town of Karlovo and visit Plovdiv, one of the world's oldest cities; however, we didn't make it this time. Waterfalls and ancient Roman ruins will have to wait until we take another road in another time.
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