I left Bucharest late this afternoon by train to travel further south to Bulgaria. I shared a compartment with these fine Romanians. I sat silently in their compartment somewhat embarrassed at having intruded upon their space, as they were clearly all traveling together. They chatted amongst themselves in Romanian for the first half of the 5 hour trip. Finally halfway one of them asked me in English if I was American. It turned out that they are doctors and were on their way to a conference in Bulgaria and three of them spoke decent English. I asked them some questions about Romania, but mostly they grilled me about life in America. Many Americans have the idea that Americans are disliked in most other countries. Ive never found that to be true. Most people dislike America's foreign policy of using our military and economic power to shape their countries policies to fit America's interests. Many dislike our President. Few will hold that against an individual American though, and most everyone wants to come to America at least to visit. I had a great conversation with these folks, though I felt embarrassed when they began to ask questions like how much was my vacation going to cost me, and how much do doctors make in the U.S.
Veliko Tarnovo was my first stop. I met up with Josh here, and we travelled through Bulgaria together for the next four days. Veliko is a town of 70,000 and was the capitol of the Bulgarian Empire from the 12th to the 14th century. Above is the Tsvaravets fortress, the primary stronghold of the empire. It is well preserved and tourists have free reign of the grounds. In fact, we were free to climb up a crumbling 13th century stone stairwell to the top of one tower, with a 60 foot fall to certain death looming beside the stairs. There was no guardrail. There was no sign indicating whether it was safe, or unsafe, or to "use at your own risk". Apparently Bulgaria doesn't have an overly litigious society like the U.S. The views from the fortress were stunning, and due to a passing rainstorm and a lack of tourists in general, we had it all to ourselves. The fortress would have hundreds of people all over it if it were located in England or France. In Bulgaria it remains practically undiscovered.
Above is a picture of the the art inside Tsaravets.
Above is a picture of the the art inside Tsaravets. Bulgaria is unbelievably inexpensive. Josh and I had a dinner and put away a massive number of beers for a grand total of $18. For breakfast we had a banitsa, a delicious fresh baked bread filled with cheese, for 30 cents. Two banitsas is enough to fill you up for hours.
Also, almost no one in Bulgaria speaks English. Ive had no problem getting by in any of the previous stops on the trip. Romania had the fewest English speakers thus far, but I could always find someone who would look around for an English speaker to translate. In Bulgaria, when I would say in Bulgarian "Hello, I'm sorry, I do not speak Bulgarian, do you speak any English?" people would just shrug their shoulders and ignore me. We never found any English menus at restaurants, and the fact that Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet makes it completely indecipherable.
I'm not so arrogant as to expect people in other countries to speak my language, but English is so prevalent all over Europe, that you do become accustomed to expecting people to understand it. As such Bulgaria was a complete shock to us. We simply could not complete the most simple conversations like buying a bus ticket or ordering a meal.
Upon leaving Veliko we needed to catch a cab to the bus station. Should be simple enough, however, we could not make the driver understand "Bus station Zug". He drove us to the wrong bus station, then drove us to the train station, at which point we gave up and got out to catch a different cab. The only problem is that the next train was not due for over an hour, so there were no cabs waiting. There was one cab actually, but he had just started on his lunch, and refused our fare. We had less than 20 minutes till our bus ( the only bus of the day) left for Plovdiv. After asking random people on the street to give us a ride, I finally had to bring out the big guns. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a 10 lev note (about $7 U.S.) held it into the air, and shouted "Bus Station Zug, Ten Lev! Who wants it?" The cabbie did. He jumped up from his table, had the waiter save his unfinished lunch, and he drove us to the bus station straightaway. I love Bulgaria.
