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With the direct sun, and our uphill climb, we were getting a bit hot. We recalled our days in Cambodia, and just shrugged this heat off. We kept hearing things rustling in the bushes, but were pretty sure they were just lizards, and hopefully just the occasional snake. We then passed a decent sized, but dead snake. Yikes - we kept to the road :). After another 2 miles uphill, we finally made it to Arbanasi. We came upon a small church, and took a peek in. There was a baptism going on, so we only stayed a few seconds. Taking a shortcut through the grassy hill, we stopped off at a cafe just at the top of the hill. We had climbed roughly 1000 feet, and it was time to take a break. We bought some water and a juice, and just relaxed in the sun overlooking Veliko Tarnovo on the hill. From the cafe, we passed the hotel which was perched on the cliff that we could see from Veliko Tarnovo. It was called Arbanasi Palace. Jaimie had seen umbrellas on the terrace, meaning there was probably a terrace restaurant, so we walked down the road to the "palace". When we got in, a person started taking us to the restaurant, but another lady stopped her. She asked if we were with the tour, and when we said no, she said sorry, that they were full. We were a bit annoyed, as this place definitely had the best view in town. Disappointed, we turned around and walked into the center of town. For the commercial part at least, the town was just one street lined mostly with restaurants. There were a number of tour buses here - this must be where the tours go to eat after visiting Veliko Tarnovo's castle.
We walked over to the restaurant across the street. They spoke great English, but no English menu. We didn't want to make them translate everything on the menu, so we just decided to walk to the next restaurant. The next 2 restaurants were busy, maybe at 75% capacity, with tour bus people. When we asked to see a menu at these places, they said no, they were full with the tour. Odd, who would turn away customers, when there were clearly more tables available. We don't usually like to stop at restaurants that were empty, but we'd have to make an exception here, as the busy one's don't want our business! We found another restaurant that had an English menu, although the meals were a bit more expensive than the others (Bulgarian expensive that is, meaning instead of a $4 meal, we ended up paying $9 for the 2 of us :)). We had 2 beers to sip and watch the tour bus folks finish their meals and take off. For lunch, I had a chicken/cashew dish, while Jaimie had a spinach potato patty - both of which were pretty tasty.
We kept a fast pace, and within 30 minutes were back in town. As it had started to rain the last few minutes, we bought another bottle of wine, and headed back to the room to do some research and planning about Romania. A few hours later, we headed out for dinner in town. We were just interested in a light meal, with a beer for Jaimie, coke for me (as I wasn't feeling 100%), and a caprese salad. The person who brought out the menu spoke English, but the person taking our order didn't. We thought she could read English, as we clearly pointed on the menu to what we wanted, and said it out loud as well. Well, a few minutes later, we had the beer, but also had an opened bottle of wine, and some glass of hard liquor! We ended up having to get the English speaking person, as we couldn't explain that this wasn't what we ordered in our very limited Bulgarian :). We felt very bad about the miscommunication, but what can you do? The bottle of wine was only $6 (on their menu), so we didn't feel too bad about not buying it. We left a 30% tip to hopefully cover some of the confusion (we didn't want them to have a bad impression of travelers who don't speak their language :)). We headed back to our room and continued our planning for the next few days.
Beer of Choice: Zagorka Special Memories: First realizing the taxi driver meant yes when he shook his head!, the smelly rooms with tiny showers (that we didn't take), taking a nap on top of the castle, whole pizza and large beer for $2, $1 wine, the movie theatre lady shaking her head but meaning yes, waking up at midnight to 2 minutes of huge fireworks outside our window, walking to Arbanasi and back, snakes in the road, the guy shaking his head but smiling and being super friendly when we said we were American, being turned away from restaurants because of too many tour groups!, rabbit place, ordering a salad and getting a bottle of wine instead.
Economy: Triple digit inflation in the early years of democracy in the 90's severely impacted Bulgaria's economy. Recent years have been better for Bulgarians, but it is still one of the poorest nations in the region. In 2007, Bulgaria is slated to join the EU, which should weather very well on the nation's economy. Climate (June): A little cooler than expected. Maybe it's not normal, but it was in the 70's during the day, and maybe 50's at night. Exchange Rate: 1 US dollar = 1.55 Bulgarian Leva Safety Rating:
Recommendation to friends: 10 out of 10 - If you're looking for that medieval small-town feeling with cobble stone streets, incredibly friendly locals, and a destination not spoiled by tourism - this is the place to be. The prices are unbelievably cheap, you could stay here for weeks and not break even the smallest of budgets. View Veliko Tarnovo Photo Gallery Day 165 - Veliko Tarnovo < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 167 - Bucharest © 2007 Blue Ocean Studios, LTD. All rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Services | About | Contact Prints | Return Policy | View Cart World Travel Galleries | World Travel Blog | Links |
The Veliko Tarnovo atmosphere contributed to our leisurely wake up this morning. We looked outside - beautiful blue skies. After an omelette for me, and a brushetta-like concoction made by Jaimie with the assortment provided, we began our 5km walk to Arbanasi, a small town overlooking the valley and Veliko Tarnovo. We had seen on the town map and the guidebook, that we could get to Arbanasi by going north out of town. However, as we headed in that direction, I deciphered a sign that said Arbanasi in Cyrillic, pointing in the other direction. Well, we decided to follow the signs, but after about 1/3 of a mile, we realized this was the route for cars and might be a bit longer than we wanted to walk. 
Unfortunately, a few clouds had started to appear, but the weather was still nice - very sunny and about 75 - perfect hiking weather. We decided to turn around, and follow the street which the town map pointed to. We walked until a barrier blocked the road - indicating the road was closed. We saw stairs next to it and a sign pointing to Arbanasi - and decided to follow up. After walking another 1/2 mile, we found out why the road was closed. Looks like a good portion of the road was washed out from heavy rains (who knows how long ago this might have happened). Now it made sense. We saw someone walking down the road, and later a scooter rode by. Looks like the road is only used for foot and bike traffic now, since there weren't any signs of intended repair (thus the other sign was pointing out the new road to Arbanasi). 
We stopped at the first restaurant and looked at their English menu. They only had meat dishes, which consisted of lamb, rabbit, and some chicken. Not a first choice for Jaimie :). Their menu was full of crazy rhymes with very crazy pictures about each dish. IE, "Peter the rabbit ate carrots and read his book. This morning, we found him, and now he and the carrots are cooked." We didn't think the rhymes would be good nursery rhymes. On our way out, a bucket load of skinned rabbits was brought in. That was appetizing :). 
After our relaxing lunch, we stopped off at one of the town's monastery's. There happened to be one of the big tours there, so we hopped in with them, and toured around. Right after we left, the keeper locked the door - in other words, we really snuck in with the tour group!! :) Funny. After browsing through the monastery, we started hearing thunder, and decided it would be a good time to begin our walk home. 
Food: If you like pizza, you'll be in luck here, as they love it! There's a pizza shop on every corner (at least in Veliko Tarnovo:). There are, of course, a lot of meat dishes, including pork, lamb, chicken, and beef. We had read many places that the water was safe from Bulgaria and west - so we were daring with a few more uncooked vegetables. They seem to like salad a lot here, but we didn't feel that daring yet.
People: Super nice. They're not as outgoing as they were in neighboring Turkey, but they're very friendly. Lots of smiles from people. Don't forget that they nod when they mean no, and shake when they mean yes. This sounds easy, but when you're trying to understand someone (with body language playing such a integral role when understanding someone that doesn't speak your language), it's more difficult than it sounds!