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| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Portsmouth FC in Plovdiv?
20th to 21st July - Plovdiv
My next stop was Plovdiv, a town as fun as the name sounds! However, it's quite a long journey between Veliko and Plovdiv, so there's only one bus a day, and it leaves at 8am, meaning I had an early start. :o(
 Jackie decided to head over to Plovdiv on the same bus as me, and as you would expect, Rosa arranged for a cab to pick us up in the morning to take us to the bus station. She also heavily emphasised how dangerous it would be in Sofia (or, how dangerous she believes it is). She kept telling us that theft and scams are rife and that we needed to be very careful everywhere. She really did seem to care for our wellbeing! And to help ensure our safe passage, she tied a dozen or so red and white bands to all of our bags, a traditional Bulgarian sign of good luck. I have a feeling they'll be staying on my backpack for many years to come!
We arrived quite early at the station, so I had time for a typical Bulgarian breakfast of coffee and banista, a flaky pastry snack stuffed with white cheese. They're really nice, but very greasy, so it's a good job I'm only in Bulgaria for a week or so!
Looking around the bus station, there was a very eclectic mix of buses. From old, battered mini-buses to new, mighty European style coaches. Luckily, as the journey to Plovdiv is a long one, we got a large, comfortable bus.
The journey went smoothly, if a little slowly due to the Eastern European way of taking a silly number of comfort stops. Oh well, I guess you appreciate it when you're the one needing the toilet!
It was actually quite nice having a travelling companion on the bus for the journey. The problem with solo travel is that it's very difficult to leave your bag unattended or to get off your transport at a stop. Because the driver only makes his announcement in the local language, you don't know how long the stop will be for. Do you have time to go to the toilet? To get a drink? Or will you come out to find the bus gone? And what about all your bags? Will they be ok on the bus? Having a travelling buddy helps overcome this, because you can take it in shifts, taking it turns to watch the bags or the transport.
Quite bizarrely, when I stepped off the bus to stretch my legs at one stop, I was amazed to see a Bulgarian guy wandering around with a Portsmouth FC polo shirt! Portsmouth are my local team and they are battling hard to stay in the Premiership. However, I'd always imagined that there fans came from quite a geographically limited region! But here I was, at a small town in the middle of backwater Bulgaria, and we had someone who appeared to be a Pompey fan (or just had the top). I was too shocked to try to start up a conversation before the guy wandered off to his own bus, so I'll never know how he got the top!
We arrived in Plovdiv in the early afternoon, to be greeted by searingly hot temperatures. We tried to ask the driver which way we needed to walk to get into the town centre, but he just looked at us flabbergasted. Apparently, he'd made a stop in the town centre, and now we were quite a way out. Whoops.
We wandered around the roads by the station, trying to question a few passers-by. Eventually two old guys indicated that we needed to take a bus into town because it was too far to walk. We were a little doubtful as we'd already seen that Bulgarians think at 50m walk is too far. But he quickly waved down a passing bus for us, so we hopped on.
After about 10 minutes on the bus, we realised we were a long way out...good job we were made to take the bus. We were also able to get off exactly where we wanted by quoting street names to the conductor and watching his sign language. Disembarking the bus, Jackie and I had actually booked rooms in different hostels, so we set off to find them, arranging to meet for lunch in an hour.
My hostel, PIB Hostel, was the most well known hostel in town and I found it easily. It was well located, at the end of the main street, but the place was pretty spartan with simple facilities and curt staff. Quite amusingly, a single room served as the kitchen and the bathroom, with a plastic curtain separating the shower cubicles from the small stove and kitchen sink.
Plovdiv is Bulgaria's "second city", but it's actually quite small and easy to see in a day. After meeting Jackie for lunch, we set out to explore the town with two Ozzie girls from her guesthouse.
 Plovdiv has a main street in the new town, which everything revolves around. It's very much like any high street you'd find in Southampton or Liverpool! However, a few small nuances, such as the Cyrillic signs (such as this McDonalds one, click to enlarge it) remind you that you're far from home. More interestingly, the streets at the top end of the high street begin to shrink and mesh together into a network of cobbled paths and tightly packed wooden housing. This is the old part of town and a nice place to spend an hour or so wandering and exploring.
 We had a look at the Ethnographical Museum, with a small collection of old costumes and ancient tools, and also went into an open house, kept in the traditional style.
The old town actually appears fairly modern compared to two of the other major sights, an ancient Roman theatre (nearly 2000 years old) and a not so well preserved Roman stadium.
I didn't do much else in Plovdiv, apart from wander around town and watch the locals (if you've ever wandered "Just how does a backpacker fill his/her day?", then that's your answer!).
The first night ended with us all getting dinner at Bulgaria's favourite type of restaurant...yep, a Pizzeria! They love pizza more than the Romanians! And after a bit more strolling during the next morning, I said goodbye and went to catch a bus to Sofia.
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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