Sheep Guarding Llama

I was up long before everyone else this morning so I went out for a long morning walk on my own to do some exploring.  I can walk so much farther than everyone else that this just makes sense most days.  Today I started by going down and finding the footbridge that goes from the new town over to the peninsula where the giant monument and the art museum are.  It was a good walk and I got to see some neat stuff.  I walked back on the peninsula and found a massive staircase that just went up and up to the top of the hill and started a nature trail there.  There was even a playground at the top of the hill, but far too much walking to consider taking the girls there.  I have no idea who would use that playground.

It was a long walk, over an hour, maybe close to two, by the time that I got back home.  I got some good pictures, though.  And I got some serious exercise.

Once home I showered and we all went right across the “street” which is car free, just a pedestrian way, to the Alegro Hotel and sat outside and had a late breakfast or early lunch.  The girls loved that a cat came and was all over us while we ate and even hopped onto the middle level of our table and made itself at home there.  Restaurant cats are their new favourite thing.

After breakfast we found a taxi to take us to the Tsarevets Fortress which is the focal point of the city.  This is the old fortress of the tsars of the Second Bulgarian Empire and a major historical site.  We could have walked but that would have left us very tired before we even got started for the day.  It was already getting close to ninety degrees and full on sun when we started so this was going to be very hot and our clothes are all rather heavy as we had no plans to be anywhere that wasn’t relatively cool for our entire cycle in Europe this winter and spring.  So we are melting.

The tickets to the Tsarevets were very cheap.  It is all outdoors and you just walk around.  You take a long bridge over the ravine and then climb into the old fortress.  It was really cool.

The girls enjoyed it but it was a lot of walking and, more importantly, a lot of climbing over rough terrain and ancient steps for a long time.  We were all exhausted and hot by the time that we got up to the top and I had to carry Luciana for a lot of it.

There was a neat, recreated church at the very peak which we checked out.  And we walked all over the grounds.  It was a good, historical experience.  It wore on the kids, though.  We are very glad that we did it, but we were tired quickly.

After we were done in the Tsarevets, it was probably two hours there, we hit a nice restaurant right at the entrance to the bridge to it and had a nice meal of traditional Bulgarian food.  Light stuff that was refreshing and we were quickly feeling better.

After our meal we decided to skip the taxi and walk back.  It really was not all that far and it took us down the old town shopping district again.  We stopped and got candy again for the girls.

Before getting back to the apartment we stopped and got steamed corn again.  The girls love it.  Nothing like steamed veggies as a street food snack.  This is awesome.

We relaxed at the apartment for about an hour and then went out and got take away falafel from the Bulgarian chain place Aladin Foods which turned out to be awesome.  Their falafel was so huge and filled with French fries and all kinds of stuff, it was great.  And the price was insane.  We bought way too much food for the four of us for just over three dollars!  We could have pretty easily eaten for just over two dollars had we known how big everything was!

After we ate, Luciana and I went out for a walk together to try to find more steamed corn but they had packed up and left by the time that we got there.  It was a nice little walk together, though.

Off to bed full of falafel.  This is our last night in Bulgaria.  Getting the train tomorrow and going back through Bucharest and on to Transylvania all in one day.  That is going to be one long day for us.

We all slept in a bit today.  We are tired from all of the travelling and it is a comfortable apartment.  It took a while to get the kids up and out.

We started with a walk to the old town.  We screwed this up and took a really difficult way that led us down and back up with a ton of tough walking and a relatively tourist free experience, which was probably good in the long run.  Had we known how the city was laid out vertically we would have walked a completely different way and been in the old town in a fraction of the time without so much effort.  But we would not have seen so much, either.

We ended up finding a cool taverna early on our walk.  It catered enough to tourists to be easy to deal with but was clearly as much for the locals as for tourists which was nice that this was real Bulgarian food, too.  We were the only non-locals in the place but our waiter spoke English well.  This was the tavern of the Hotel Gurko, although we never found the hotel.  The taverna had some great views, too.  The whole of the old town has amazing views.  What a gorgeous city.

Lunch was very good.  The girls really enjoyed the fact that several cats inhabited the restaurant and were under our feet the entire time.  Then we filmed some videos outside and were off for more walking to try to figure out how to get to the big tourist street of the old town.

Eventually we found it and we put in an hour or so slowly going from shop to shop being traditional tourists and shopping for all kinds of things.  We found a cool antique shop and got new handmade purses for the girls and each of them picked out an antique Bulgarian pin, as well.  They are very excited about their purses.

Down the street farther we found a candy store that made their own candies.  Everyone got something.  The girls each got a hard candy lollipop thing.  I got the best meringue that I have ever had.  it was two meringues with vanilla icing holding them together and rolled in chopped walnuts.  It was amazing.

It was a very hot day.  We have been used to cooler weather but it is nearly summer and we are nearly down to Greece again at this point and the sun way out without a cloud in the sky and we were really cooking today.

We found a little cafe place on the main stretch and stopped there for some awesome, light refreshing drinks while the girls played on a little playground that they had there.

While we were at the cafe, and we were probably there for an hour and a half, a woman with a four year old boy was hanging out on the playground with Liesl and Luciana.  They made friends with her and introduced her to us.  She was actually from California but had, long ago, married a Bulgarian and they were here in the country for five months so that their son could get used to the area and learn the language and culture while he was young enough to absorb it.

We ended up hanging out.  Then her sister joined us who has been visiting Bulgaria for a week or two.  And her husband and her sister’s boyfriend joined us as well.  We ended up hanging out for a while and managed to exchange contact information.  We’ve made a lot of new friends this week.

After the cafe we continued shopping and Dominica managed to find a purse that she really liked.  She had been planning to be shopping for one; it was not an impulse purchase.  We also got some of the best gelato that we’ve had in months.

We found a restaurant on the tourist stretch that looked good that we did for dinner.  Food was good.  The place was incredibly busy.  Many hundreds of people in the restaurant.  Hard to believe that a restaurant so big would exist in Tarnovo.

After dinner we returned to the apartment.  Everyone was tired after a long day of walking and the sun was really wearing on us.  We went the “right way” back and found that getting to and from the old town to our apartment was really easy.  We also found a steamed corn stand along the road and stopped and got a big thing of corn for the girls to eat.

It was dark when we got back and everyone was ready for bed pretty early on.  Today was exhausting and we expect the same again tomorrow as we want to go to see the famous local fortress and that is going to be a lot of walking out in the sun as well.

Today we are leaving Bucharest to take the train all day down to the old capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and the first capital of modern Bulgaria: Tarnovo.  Our train is not until the very early afternoon so we started with getting breakfast at the same place that we did yesterday, did a couple of additional videos, and then checked out of our hostel, the Crazy Duck Lodge.

We had the hostel arrange a taxi for us today.  Better safe than sorry, although scammers would not bother coming into this neighbourhood; it is all local residential.  The trip to Gara de Nord, Bucharest’s main train station, was quick and easy and very cheap as all the real taxis are here in town.  The train station has warnings all over the place about the scam taxis, too.

We got to the station plenty early, which is always very smart, and had time to do things like get Subway sandwiches for the girls to take on the train with them.

Our train today is a daytime train; there is no overnight on this run down to Tarnovo.  This is mostly good as it will give us a chance to enjoy the scenery as this is our chance to get a good look at Bulgaria.

The train was incredibly warm and we had to share our cabin with two other people who wanted the window closed making it incredibly warm.  I spent pretty much the entire trip standing in the hallway with an open window to keep me cool with the air moving by.

Standing in the hallway always makes it easier to get to know people.  I ended up talking to a New Zealander who works in London and travels extensively.  We talked for over an hour at least.  And a Norwegian traveller that I met got some awesome pics of Luciana and me that he plans to email to me.  I have not seen them yet, though.

At the Romania border we were stopped for over two hours.  So long that everyone got out and just hung around outside for a long time.  We have no idea why Romania would have an exit border process that takes so long.  What could they possibly be doing?  I met several kids travelling from France and talked to them for a while as well.

Once under way we crossed over the Danube, which I have done before twice in Belgrade but not here, and went into Ruse, Bulgaria.  Border control on the Bulgarian side was under twenty minutes, which is like nothing.  And we were into Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian countryside was really beautiful.  We loved it.  Gorgeous, open farmland with great rolling hills and deep river valleys.

We had many hours inside of Bulgaria on the train and we ended up being very late getting into our first stop at Gorda where we thought that we were going to miss our connecting train but the Bulgarians held it for us and we were able to leave immediately for the last leg of our train journey to Tarnovo!  The last bit was only about twenty minutes so very fast.

Getting into Tarnovo, all of the French students that had been on the first train with us were still with us and going to Tarnovo for the weekend, too.  Because our train was late there were no taxis available for anyone which was rather a pain.  Of course there is no cash machine at Tarnovo station so that did not matter all that much since we could not take a taxi anyway.

We started walking and realized that it was going to be a very uphill climb.  So Dominica called the apartment that we were staying at and they ran down to get us themselves which was awesome.  So we got a quick ride up to the apartment.

The train coming into Tarnovo is really cool as the city sits on several hills with a deep river coursing through it and the train would be very disruptive to the old fortress site, the old town and everything else.  So the train actually goes far under the city near the river level and so you never see the train even though it goes right through the middle of the city.

Our apartment was right on what felt like one of the main intersections in town, across the street from the Alegro Hotel and La Scala restaurant and near the city park and Aladin Foods.   It’s a great location.  Our apartment was on the second floor and while small was really nice and comfortable.  We liked it a lot.

This apartment is the first time that we have had a place in Europe with the infamous shower and toilet area all in one where the shower actually gets the toilet wet and there is just a drain in the middle of the floor.  No actual shower space.  The biggest problem is getting the toilet paper wet, although it is not as problematic as it seems unless you are flailing around in the shower.  It was nicely done and not actually bad at all, but having the entire bathroom floor wet all of the time was a problem as you get your feet wet any time you use the bathroom.

It was getting dark by the time that we were settled in and ready to head out to get some food.  We are just getting dinner and going to bed tonight.  We did not want to go anywhere and I felt like falafel but Dominica wanted something sit down so we went to La Scala on the corner, we didn’t even have to get to the sidewalk before getting to it, and had a nice dinner there sitting inside by the front door.

We turned in early.  Tomorrow we will explore the old town of Tarnovo, Bulgaria.

Today is our one, big day to be tourists in Bucharest so we are dedicating the day to seeing the city.  First thing this morning while everyone was just getting up, Liesl and I set out on a search to see if we could locate some breakfast options.  We walked around the area where our hostel is and also checked out the playground situation.  There is a really nice playground right across the street from the hostel that we think that Luciana is going to really like.  We also found another playground down the street that was smaller but had nice swings for Liesl as swings are her favourite thing at playgrounds at this age.  She just loves getting to swing.

We walked back and reported that we had found nowhere that had breakfast nearby except for the bar that is in our driveway.  We asked at the desk about that and they said that they had breakfast, so we went there.

Breakfast ended up being pretty good.  Lots of fruits and veggies and fried eggs.  Americans are really missing the boat with fresh veggies with breakfast, Europeans get this right much of the time.  Tomatoes and cucumbers are really common breakfast foods over here.  And if you have tomatoes or bell peppers and a good, salty cheese, which they always have here, you have an awesome combination.  A bite of each together is just delicious.  And so healthy.  We lingered for a while at breakfast.

After breakfast we took the girls to the playground across the street and let them play for a while.  We did several travel videos while we were there as well.  Even the girls did some and Luciana has gotten into doing her own YouTube channel, too.  Adorable.

After we had time on the playground and had had breakfast it was getting late and we needed to get to the Parliament House to be able to do the tour as the place closes at five and the last tour goes at four and it is some distance away.  We grabbed and taxi and headed across town.  The ride was maybe ten minutes.

At the Parliament House things were a little confusing.  It is not clear how you go in and there is no obvious entrance.  I guess that they just assume that you will arrive on a tour bus and lack even a sign as to where to go in!  We got in, probably around three or three thirty, and once inside it was a mob of people and very confusing there, as well.

We eventually got our tickets, but decided not to pay the extra fee to be allowed to take pictures once inside as the inside of the building will only be so interesting.  We had quite a bit of time to kill until our tour which was going to be the English one at four o’clock, so we had some time to kill.  You must get a tour for this attraction, it is illegal to go around the building unescorted.  So only official government tour guides may take you.

With our spare time we were able to go to the art exhibit which was open in the Parliament House and Luciana especially enjoyed the chance to see a small art museum.  She loves art and had a great time and was hoping that we would be able to come back.

The tour took an hour and a half and was pretty good.  The building, the second largest in the world by square footage and the third largest by volume, is really something and quite recent in comparison to the other giant buildings in its category and the largest government (non-military) in use building anywhere.  I would say that the tour is worth it, it is not so expensive and the “profits” all go towards maintaining the building, which costs a fortune just to keep lit.

At the end of the tour we were taken out onto one of the balconies and got some seriously impressive views that were well worth it.  Here we were outside so allowed to take some pictures, which we did.

We continued across the street from Parliament House to a park and gardens there that looked interesting (the opposite direction from the way that the picture above was taken) and almost immediately discovered an epic playground that is one of the best that we have ever found.  So that was our afternoon plans right there.

The girls had a great time on the huge playground.  Tons of kids and so much to do.  It was a great find and worth going to with kids even if you skip the parliament tour!  We were very impressed and we made a couple of videos there, as well.

We could not stay as long as we wanted on the playground because we needed to get dinner and I had after dinner plans to meet up with a friend in town.

We took a taxi back to the hostel, and got hit with one of those tourists fake taxi rate scams; word to the wise, when in a city like Bucharest and you are venturing into tourist areas bring the phone number of a real taxi agency with you, it’s worth it.  We only got scammed to the tune of twenty dollars, so it wasn’t tragic, just foolish and annoying.  But a twenty cent phone call would have fixed that, gotten money to a legitimate taxi driver and been far easier, in reality, as finding a taxi where we were was a challenge (and hence why they got us.)

We walked to dinner at Nonna Mia, a fancy Italian place right across from our hostel.  We knew that the girls were not up for any more walking (nor were we, I had to carry Luciana a lot around the parliament building, especially on the stairs) and this was really close and looked good.

Nonna Mia worked out perfectly.  Simple and the food was quite good.  We were happy with it and very glad to be able to just walk home afterwards.

Gabriel, my friend from Axigen, came to the restaurant and picked me up there and we went to the old town for drinks.  Gabriel had not had dinner so we found a place across the intersection from Xclusive where I had eaten last night and he had dinner while I had a few cocktails.  It was a nice evening.

I got home pretty early, maybe just after ten, and worked for a bit before heading off to sleep.  This is the end of our mini trip to Bucharest.  Tomorrow we are heading off to Gara de Nord again and will be taking the train south to Tarnovo, Bulgaria.  Bulgaria is our thirty first country for Dominica and me, and the twenty ninth for Liesl and Luciana.  And Bulgaria wraps up the Balkans for us, with this we will have visited every country in the Balkans by any definition – geographic, geopolitical, socio-economic, peninsular, etc.  Even those that are technically kind of on the peninsula but not considered Balkan like Greece and Turkey.

 

This morning, around six, we pulled into Romania’s capital and largest city of Bucharest.  This was the last stop for our train so we did not have to worry about quickly getting off of the train, which is the best way because that adds a lot of panic.  You don’t want to oversleep and miss your station!

We did not have any word from our hostel yet as to whether or not we would be able to go straight there as it was first thing in the morning so we went to the Subway at the Gara de Nord Railway Terminal to see if we could get breakfast as Liesl was super excited to find that there was one there, but they were closed.  So we ended up going to McDonald’s instead as we knew that there would be food that we could eat there for breakfast and we could wait there with wifi until we knew where we could go.  Breakfast was fine, the coffee was awful, though.  We don’t expect McDonald’s to live up to European standards of coffee but in the US McDonald’s McCafe brand is one of the best coffees that you can generally get (definitely better than Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts) and yet, this wasn’t even remotely up to US standards.  It was awful.

While we were there a man overheard us talking about travelling and came over and introduced himself.  His name was David and he was a retired Anglican priest from British Columbia who had been travelling and had had some travel complications.  He is a full time traveller like us.  He had cell phone questions as he had just arrived by plane from the Philippines and did not know how the local mobile phones would work and he needed to get to Budapest, Hungary and was hoping that we had some insight into that process.

We ended up moving from McDonald’s to So! Coffee which was far better and hung out there with David for quite some time working on his phone, getting him a travel plan and so forth.    You often make new friends when travelling, everyone is in the same adventure together.

We were at the Gara de Nord for a few hours and had coffee, food and even hot chocolate before leaving.  Our hostel, the Crazy Duck Lodge, had responded long before that our room was ready and that someone was at the front desk so that we could arrive any time that we wanted.

We grabbed a taxi and went to the hostel arriving before noon.  We got checked into our room and the girls played out front with some of the staff doing chalk drawings on the “driveway”.  They had a great time.  The room was really nice and the shower is great.  We are liking the hostel private room here.  If we return to Bucharest we will definitely use the Crazy Duck Lodge again.

We relaxed in the room for a bit and I worked on some writing while I could.  The girls took naps, as well.

Around four we set out to walk down to the old town and see what was there.  That is one of the big attractions in Bucharest, a restored old town with lots of restaurants and shopping.

Our hostel is not far, but it was a decent walk to the old town.  Fine for me, but rather a lot for Ciana.  I had to carry her much of the way.

We walked around the old town for a bit, everyone was really starving.  We did not spend too much time before settling on Xclusive Grill & Crepes.  I grabbed a negroni and we ordered dinner.  The food and service were so so.  They got our order wrong and things took a while.  It wasn’t bad, but it was clearly focused on tourists and not looking for much repeat business.  Dinner was fine, but we would not make a point of returning.  The girls have been so addicted to crepes recently that we had thought that it would work out well.  Luciana fell asleep during dinner, again.

We decided to just grab a taxi back to the hostel after dinner.  We were tired and it was starting to rain and Luciana was not going to put up with another long walk, especially wet and this much more tired.

It was an early night for us.  I stayed up for a while posting and writing.  Everyone else was off to bed almost as soon as we got back.

Tomorrow is our chance to really see Bucharest and do something.  So we are going to be tourists for the day.  The one big thing that we hope to get to do is to go see the Parliament House.  That is the biggest attraction in the country.