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Showing posts with the label BULGARIA

Autumn in Bulgaria – the second day

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Morning in Plovdiv As I mentioned in my previous blog post about our 2024 trip to Bulgaria , we returned to our hotel around midnight after a relaxing walk through Plovdiv centre and went to sleep. We had booked a room without breakfast, so in the morning, first thing after waking and dressing up, we headed straight into the city. Before continuing our journey to the Black Sea, we wanted to experience the city’s historical and cultural heritage in daylight. Plovdiv is like a living museum. As we walked through the pedestrian-friendly centre, we were immediately captivated by the city’s relaxed atmosphere. One of the sights we were determined to visit was the ancient Roman amphitheatre, one of the best-preserved in Europe. Built in the 2nd century AD during Emperor Trajan’s reign, the amphitheatre could seat up to 6,000 spectators. Although finding the amphitheatre wasn’t easy due to the narrow maze of small streets, the effort was well worth it—the view from the top was impressive, off...

Autumn in Bulgaria – 2024

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Autumn Adventure in Bulgaria This was our second adventure to Bulgaria, a destination that had piqued our interest since our first visit in 2007. Back then, we drove through the country in early spring, admiring the stunning Belogradchik cliffs , the serene Bachkovo Monastery, and exploring the picturesque Black Sea coast . The memories remained, but we were eager to return for a deeper exploration in the fall of 2024. There is also a video about this trip on my YouTube channel . A different way to explore Bulgaria Unlike our previous journey, this time we flew from London to Sofia, ready for a weeklong adventure. No more long drives from Riga to Bulgaria, we were here to savour every moment. After landing in Sofia, we rented a car from CarRent Bulgaria, a local company we booked through DiscoverCars . Having used DiscoverCars for car rentals in Riga and Greece, we knew we’d get a great deal. Their service was reliable, and the pricing was better than other platforms like Booking.com. ...

A bit of Bulgaria

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In the middle of March, we managed to go on a short about a week-long trip to Bulgaria. We had to drive more than five and a half thousand kilometres in eight days (more than six hundred kilometres per day on average). The idea of a trip was born when I was returning from a business trip; I met a young lady on a plane sitting next to me. She told us a lot of interesting things about Bulgaria and we went to check how it is there in the west of the Balkan peninsula. Arrival to Bulgaria Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Bulgaria by ferry connecting the Romanian town Calafat and Vidin in Bulgaria (the location of Vidin and Calafat on the map). The size of the Danube River is very impressive there – another coast of the river looks quite far away. And here it is – a journey back to the last century: apart from customs and border control, there were several other official authorities collecting currency for various mandatory border crossing “services” – phytosanitary control, veterinary ...

Black Sea coast of Bulgaria

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Coast of the Black Sea After visiting the monastery, we continued our way to Burgas (see more about our whole trip to Bulgaria and Bulgarian fermented grape juice). Burgas is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast after Varna. Between Plovdiv and Burgas, we saw lots of newly established vineyards – the view was really impressive! We did not stay in Burgas for long – just filling up petrol and a quick look around while driving. We aimed to go to the south along the coastline to see old and newly established seaside villages and resorts. It was surprising how many new buildings are being constructed along the coast! Any small village located on the coast was like a big busy building site. In 2007, even in our host country, we saw many offers to buy a new property in Bulgaria. In reality, a major part of all new buildings are located far away from advertised sandy beaches because houses are built on cliffs. It may be true – very near to water, however often it seemed imp...