Plovdiv
BULGARIA
The Cultural Capital of Europe
By LYNDI
Thursday, February 22, 2018
I love the confused looks on locals’ faces when conversations go like this:
Us: “We would like to get to Plovdiv tomorrow. What is the best way to get there?”
Them: “There is no direct route from Bansko to Plovdiv. You can hire a car or take a taxi to get there in only 2.5 hours.”
Us: “Hmmm… nope. What else?”
Them: “Oh. Um, okay. Well, you can take the bus if you want to save some money. That’s only 5 hours.”
Us: “I heard about a local train that can get us there. Do you know anything about that?”
Them: “The train. Bwahahahahha. The train is terrible. It’s old, slow, goes through the middle of nowhere on the most illogical path. No one takes the train. Don’t do it. I won’t even tell you about it. Just take the bus.”
Us: “Ooooh! That sounds nice! What time does the train leave?”
Them: “No. Really. The train sucks and takes twice as long as any other option. Don’t do it. Please – I’ll drive you. The train will make your life miserable.”
Us: “Sold! Thanks for the advice. Now, how do you get to the train station?”
For some reason, Aaron and I have always preferred the slower route – especially if it is on rails. You get to see countryside that highways would otherwise cut through, you have space to walk around on what is otherwise a terribly cramped bus ride, and there is some sort of romantic quality to the chugging of trains through epic scenery that cannot be surpassed. So after a morning walk around the actual town of Bansko, we ended up at the Bansko train station that was probably built in 1937, upgraded in 1955 and then left in utter disrepair since then. Exactly what we were looking for!
One problem we would continue to run into in Bulgaria was the language. The Bansko train station was easy enough to find, especially with our friend Google Maps’ help. However, buying a ticket to our next location would prove problematic, as we weren’t sure if we needed to go to ПЛОВДИВ, СЕПТЕМВРИ or СТАРА ЗАГОРА. There are many countries where you can sound out (to the best of your ability) foreign words and manage to get by. Bulgaria is not one of those countries. Unless, of course, you know how to pronounce the number 3 as a letter.
But we managed to communicate with the 4 other people in the train station through maps, pointing, laughing and gesturing where we needed to go, and they assured us tickets on the slow and rickety narrow gauge steam train railway to СЕПТЕМВРИ (or Septemvri) would do the trick, where we would change to a standard fast train to Plovdiv from there.
The “terrible train that no one takes” ended up being an enormous highlight of our trip in Bulgaria. Yes, it was slow. Likely due to the necessary stops for wild horse crossings. No, it was not comfortable, and despite the freezing temperatures outside we were boiling up inside. But wow – the steam train hugged the side of mountains as we navigated around narrow bends and traversed evergreen forests, open fields, raging rivers and snow covered landscapes. After 5 hours, we arrived in Septemvri and easily moved trains to the fast and comfortable train to Plovdiv. It was a nice upgrade, but not nearly as scenic.
I was really looking forward to Plovdiv – preemptively named “Cultural Capital of Europe 2019”, but a city that holds incredible historical relevance. Plovdiv is known as the sixth oldest continuously occupied city in the world – that’s impressive. Nestled between the Balkan mountains and Rhodope mountains, Plovdiv was considered incredibly strategic for the historic struggles between Asian and European powers. Between occupations by the Thracians, Ottomans, Romans, Greeks and Byzantines, it should be no surprise that ruins abound within the city limits. In fact, an ancient Roman stadium was discovered under the main street in town in the mid-1920s, but left alone until excavations could get underway in the 1980s. Similarly, a huge Roman amphitheater was discovered in one of the hills surrounding Plovdiv in the 1970s and fully uncovered and renovated. Today it still hosts concerts and theater for locals.
But I must admit, visiting Plovdiv in the summer would be much more enjoyable than visiting in frigid temperatures in February – the best parts about the city are walking around the old town with it’s cobblestone streets and Victorian homes scattered with ancient Roman and Greek ruins. But when you’re freezing and need to move quickly to keep warm, the casual strolls through town lose their appeal. The good news is that frequent stops in small and cozy wine bars become less gluttonous and more a means of survival.
So after walking through the beautiful sections of Kapana and Old Town with the lantern-lit narrow alleys, we stopped in at Vino Culture to warm our bellies. Our bartender took us through a tour of delicious Bulgarian wines – something we had never tried and that would probably be very difficult to find in the U.S. And with the lovely conversation, fireplace-warmed underground bar, and plentiful and complex variety of wines – it would have been rude to leave after just one. Or two. Or three?
But finally we were done – and after judicious research found that we definitely preferred the Mavrud varietal – and stumbled back to our small hotel outside of the city center.
After discovering that we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we decided we would eat at the first place we spotted on the way home. But even though we are official Flashpackers, we still can’t bring ourselves to stop in overpriced restaurants along touristy main streets – which was our route home. So we started really looking outside of the city center, thinking we could pick up food at a local Bulgarian restaurant for the locals. Apparently, Bulgarians don’t eat after 9pm and we were out of luck. However, right around the corner from our hotel, we saw a lit sign that appeared to be a bar or restaurant of some sort. To our surprise, it was the only “English” pub in town. I’m not entirely sure what they mean by “English” pub since the food was completely foreign and the menu was strictly Bulgarian – but we did meet the English owner Mike who stopped by to say hi to the strange foreigners visiting his restaurant. We used the handy Google translate tool to take a picture of the menu for translation – it was definitely not perfect, but we were at least able to avoid the “liver of chicken neck” item. We pointed to items to order them and were pleasantly surprised with what arrived.
After a leisurely start the next morning, we set out to explore the ruins and city. Our first two sites were pretty lackluster – the Roman Stadium buried under the main street in town was close to hilarious. They have a 3D movie about the ancient Roman times and how the stadium was used, but it reminded me more of a Wii Olympics game. We next headed to the Archaeological Museum just outside of the city center, and kind of got to see a bunch of coins and swords. There were some interesting pieces for sure, but with so much history in the region, I was expecting a little more. To be fair, there might have been incredibly interesting historical uncoverings on the Bulgarian signs – but the English translations were less than titillating. I’ve never used that word before. Titillating. There. Now I’ve used it twice!
One highlight was our free city tour with Iliya. He had a lot of really great information and took us through the pedestrian main street, Kapana arts district and Old Town, ending at the Roman Stadium. The tour was about 3 hours and after discovering that all of our extremities had gone numb hours ago, we knew the only way to recover was a pub crawl of Bulgarian wines on the way home. Survival can lead one to take extreme lengths – so we stopped at Monkey House, Opera House and a small shop to pick one up for the road.
We finished with a few card games in our gorgeous room at Hotel Guest House and did some prep work for the rest of our way through Bulgaria and Romania. Though we enjoyed Plovdiv and were impressed with the history, people and wine – I would only do it again when it was above freezing so we could enjoy the outdoor sites and cafes – but keeping warm with stops in and out of wine bars was a great backup option.
