Plovdiv

It was an absolutely wonderful day!

Because of a number of factors, including limited bus/train service in Bulgaria, my own time limit and desire to see things, and my laziness, I decided that in order to see everything I wanted to, I would take bus tours. Today, my tour was only me, my guide, and a future guide he was training.

I started the day by hopping into my tour guide’s car and heading to Plovdiv, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe. We drove the 2 hours to Plovdiv, the cultural capitol of Bulgaria and the EU’s 2019 Cultural capitol. On the way, I started discussing the archaeological dig I was going to go on. It turns out that my tour guide had also done some digs, and so we talked about it.

My tour guide decided to tailor my tour specifically to me. When we arrived in Plovdiv, after a bathroom break, we headed straight towards the first Roman Ruins. He said, and I quote, “Here in the Balkans, we don’t really believe in gates,” before setting off into the closed off ruins. I followed him, quite literally having the time of my life as I was inside of Roman ruins that were off limits and my guide had taken me there.

We walked to another site and peeked through the gates. This one was privately owned, and as such had better security, so we passed by it. But then we started up into the lower town, again passing a gate so we could see the amphitheater where political discussions had taken place. Beside it, we were able to get a glimpse of the ancient forum.

We then started down the main road of Plovdiv. We first saw the ruins of the Roman Stadium, which we got to sit on as we discussed the political changes of ancient Plovdiv, from Thracian to Roman to Byzantium to Bulgarian to Ottoman and back to Bulgarian. We also got to see evidence of Ottoman occupation with the Mosque. After our history lesson, we wandered through the relatively new art district, admiring murals/graffiti.

We then started up towards the old town, where we got to see the amphitheater, used exclusively for theater performances in ancient times. Although they were preparing for an opera that would be held on the stage, we got to visit the theater, sit in the stands, and even stand on the stage. It was pretty amazing getting to see what the theater looked like from where the stage would have been.

Next, we wandered around the old town. We passed merchant houses on the way to a beautiful view of the city among ancient Roman and Thracian ruins.

After that, we went into one of the merchant houses, which today houses the ethnographic museum. My tour guide was a fan of the museum, and so he gave me spiels about all the artifacts within the exhibits.

We wandered through the rest of the old town before coming back on our car. We hopped in, drove a bit, and then stopped for a quick lunch. I got a delicious Moussaka.

We hopped back into the car and drove for another half an hour until we got to the Bachkovo Monastery. The monastery’s oldest building, the church, is dated from the 11th century. An addition to the church was added in the 16th century, with most of the rest of the monastic buildings added in the 17th and decorated in the 18/19th centuries.

We went into the church, wandered around the monastery, and got to see where the monks ate.

Finally, it was time to head home. After a two hour journey back, I was ready to go back to my hostel and deal with my missing luggage, but my tour guide and his trainee asked if I wanted to get a beer and have a drink in the park. I agreed, they bought me a beer, and I stayed for about a half an hour with them in the park. To top it all off, when I finally had to leave to make the phone call to the airport, I tried to tip them both and they both refused. Which just means I’m going to have to give them a 1000% rating on the tour site.

And to top it all off, when I got back to the hostel, my bag full of clean clothes was waiting for me!