The time is going by super fast! We left Elena yesterday afternoon and drove a few kilometers to an old town named Veliko Tarnovo. It has been inhabited since 3000 years BC. Later it was an important city for Bulgarian empire. In the 1300's until 1800's it was under Ottoman rule, yet it remained an important area for resistance against Ottoman Empire. Very interesting. It has a fortress, castle, and super old churches.
After souvenir shopping we had dinner outside a nice restaurant with the Bulgarian name 'Happy Man'. Yummy food - I had quinoa+cheese balls and a grilled vegetables. Everyone had salads too...the salads here are amazing! Tomatoes and cucumbers in particular. I know...imagine ME eating tomatoes!
We are now staying at an apartment that Niko's Dad owns in Varna on the east coast (Black Sea). I totally did not imagine beach scenes in my minds eye of what Bulgaria looked like - it's pretty amazing.
Highlights:
1) Eating ice cream from a food cart. Nestlé and Raffy's are the two competing carts...capitalism at its best is delicious.
2) Beer comes in TWO LITER bottles here.
3) Food is not expensive at all - I don't think we've spent more than $20 for a meal yet (for both of us).
4) The city is a mixture of modern and outdated. It kind of reminds me of scenes from movies that are supposed to be in Russia...looks like the 70s and has and old, former communist look. Some buildings are crumbling while others look fine. This is only the second former communist country both Dave and I have visited (both if us visited Prague 10+ years ago). It's kind of hard to explain how it feels.
5) The city is very walkable with various parks, churches, and some common areas with nice food booths around.
6) Hearing stories about Bulgarians trying to fight corruption and their rights.
Tomorrow we will hit the beach for some sun (today we only got as close as drinking lots of beer at a beach bar).
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