Teaching and Travelling Abroad

So late afternoon yesterday we arrived in Veliko Tarnovo after an uneventful bus journey. We had dinner at the Lucky Man and straight after that we were lucky enough to get a great view of the Sound and Light Show with the accompanying soundtrack.

In the morning today I was at work, but while I was away Mum walked down to the river on my recommendation. The sun was very hot. She had a lovely poke about by the river, watched the fish from the bridge and picked some elderflowers. She didn't manage to get into any of the churches down there because they were closed - probably because it was a Monday.

I finished work at one, so I came straight home (via a shop for some bread, tomatoes, milk and Coke Zero) and we had lunch at my flat. Along with the bread, we had herby soft cheese, Edam, smoked salmon, roasted peppers from a jar and some pesto, plus Mum had black olives and the tomatoes as well.

After lunch Mum showed me the pictures she'd taken on her walk earlier. Then we walked to the fruit & vegetable market via the craftsmen's street - we did some window-shopping but didn't go into any shops. We knew we would have plenty of time to return before Thursday, after all.

Before we got to the market we stopped for some ice cream first; then we nipped into the supermarket to get some things for our meal tonight and for Wednesday night - eggs and chicken breasts, plus Mum said she'd make some coconut & jam slices for us, so we got butter too.

At the market we saw that strawberries and cherries are most definitely in season now! There were stalls almost filled up only with trays and trays of both; who were we to resist? We bought a kilo of strawberries and half a kilo of cherries, plus a punnet of peaches and a bag of broad beans which also looked very fresh. The whole lot came to just over 12 leva - £4.40!

After that it was just gone 4 pm, so I had to go back to work. I didn't get back until ten to ten; Mum had already had her dinner, but cooked mine for me; a lovely mushroom omelette with broad beans. She hadn't had pudding yet though, so we had that together. She'd made a syrup using Kate's rosehip jelly and we had it poured over some of the strawberries. Delicious!

At lunchtime we were due to catch the bus to Veliko Tarnovo, but we managed to fit quite a lot into the morning.

The first place we went was another gorgeous National Revival house (the Old Town is full of them).

In the courtyard we admired the roses - right now we are in the middle of the rose season in Bulgaria.

From there we walked down the road to the Roman stadium remains, popping into one or two antique shops on the way (one of these shops had lots of amazing old painted wooden chests - we both coveted them, but potential transportation difficulties put us off buying any).

The stadium lies in front of Dzhumaya Mosque, in the middle of the main shopping street. The seating in the stadium is made of the same gleaming white marble as those in the Roman amphitheatre.

Our next destination was the intriguingly-named 'Singing Fountains' within Tsar Simeon's Gardens. I visited this park back in March, but it was still a bit wintry-looking then, plus I didn't go as far as the fountains. This time all the trees were fully in leaf and the flowers had bloomed. The fountains turned out to look quite impressive, set within a massive pool which I was desperate to swim in. The sun was very hot and the water looked so inviting! No evidence of singing though...

After staying there a while we suddenly realised what the time was. Quick march back to Guesthouse Old Plovdiv! On the way back we saw part of a procession celebrating the Day of Culture & Literacy. This public holiday celebrates the Cyrillic alphabet in particular.

We took a taxi to the North bus station, where I bought our tickets to Veliko Tarnovo. We had a bit of time to kill then, so we took turns to go next door to Lidl while the other person stayed to look after the bags.

Half term has just started in the UK, so Mum has come to Bulgaria for a week! She's flown into Plovdiv this time, rather than Sofia. I've come to Plovdiv to meet up with her; tomorrow I return with her to Veliko Tarnovo, where we'll stay until next Thursday. She flies back from Plovdiv too, so on Thursday I've arranged for us to go back there via the Shipka Pass, Kazanlak and the Valley of the Roses.

Mum arrived in Plovdiv yesterday, while I was still in Veliko Tarnovo. I had work yesterday and this morning, so I wasn't able to come until this afternoon. In my absence she had a nice walk around, taking note of all the architectural details on the colourful buildings, before joining an excellent free city walking tour. Apparently, two days ago Plovdiv found out that it had won the competition to be European Capital of Culture for 2019, so the whole city is still celebrating. Before the tour started she saw people in traditional dress going down the street, and once the tour had started and had reached Nebet Tepe (the hill with ruins on it), they saw hundreds of helium balloons released in the distance. Credit to Mum for the following two sets of pictures;

After the tour finished, she went back for a proper look round the Roman amphitheatre and some antiques and handicrafts shops, including one where she could see weavers at work in the back and another which had the most amazing painted wooden chests.

Meanwhile, I was on the bus from VT; great weather, wonderful scenery... lots of poppies in bloom now, by the roadside and in fields. I arrived at a different bus station to the one I was expecting, but I'd cunningly brought the free city map I'd saved from March, so I found my way to the hostel easily enough. I arrived only five minutes after my ETA of 18.30. We're staying at the same place I stayed at in March - a hostel/hotel in a wonderful wooden National Revival building right in the middle of the Old Town.

We had dinner at a restaurant in a historic building which used to be the Muslim equivalent of a monastery for the mystical sect of Islam (Sufism) that had whirling dervishes in Ottoman times; in fact in the main dining area dervishes used to whirl. The building had two floors and a garden - there were extensive wall remains built into the main dining area. We ate in the garden; bread, tarator and a mixed grill of kebapche (flattened meatballs), kyufte (similar to kebapche but enlongated), a pork chop, two curly sausages on a skewer and some chips. We also shared a salad of roasted red peppers, raw onion, parsley, olives, tomato, cucumber, a mixed vegetable dip-like mixture and some large white beans in a garlic sauce. The beans had a taste and texture very similar to potato.

After that we walked to Nebet Tepe and wandered around the ruins while looking at the sunset over the city spread out before us. The air was balmy and there were lots of locals sitting in groups on the fortress walls. Mum said it reminded her a bit of Calton Hill in Edinburgh, with groups of local youth congregating in the fresh air in the evening. The atmosphere was very pleasant.

On the way back from Nebet Tepe we looked in some art and jewellery shops which were still open.

Today I had no scheduled classes, so I decided to do something that had been on my mental to-do list for quite a while. I walked across the railway bridge. I'd heard about the ricketty nature of the metal pedestrian lane and thought it sounded interesting, plus I wanted to take some photos as I knew I'd get a different viewpoint of the town than usual. Another thing was, I often hear trains passing over this bridge as it exits the tunnel under VT; the low BOOM-BOOM, BOOM-BOOM, BOOM-BOOM, soon fading into the distance as the track bends with the curve of the valley, is strangely comforting. I remember mistaking the noise it made for the drums of a procession in the first week I was here. It doesn't sound like UK trains at all (not that I'm an expert, of course).

I could tell that people don't often cross this bridge on foot, because the steps and path down the side of the hill to the crossing were very overgrown. Trees and undergrowth almost obscured them at times. The day was extremely hot and sunny, however, so the shade was welcome.

The pedestrian part of the bridge was indeed pretty ricketty. It was tacked on to the side so closely to the train track that if a train had passed by while I was walking over, it would have gone within only a foot or two of me. The part I walked on was made of a succession of very thin metal sheets, each one a couple of feet square. Inbetween each one there was a small gap, allowing me to view the river Yantra below.

On the other side, instead of continuing forwards along the side of the track I turned a sharp right and pushed through some more overgrown vegetation to the path on the riverbank. I walked under the bridge I'd just crossed, round the corner to a tiny near-white river beach, then back.

From the bridge it was a five to ten minute walk along the riverside to the big stone bridge, where I crossed and made my way up the hill back to my flat.

Bozhentsi has very similar architecture to Tryavna, complete with slate roofs. We walked round the village for around 45 minutes before having some dinner - for me, tarator and some stewed rabbit with potatoes and vegetables. It was past 9 o'clock by the time we finished.

It had been hot and sunny most of the day, but about an hour after we got back to Veliko Tarnovo a thunderstorm hit us. I've never seen so much lightning before! I just stood at my bedroom windows and watched both sheet and forked lightning strike the hills opposite. It was well after dark by now so every time lightning flashed, for a split second it lit up everything within my panoramic viewpoint. Some went dangerously close to the village of Arbanasi - I hope they were OK.