And of course a link to the small Google Picasa album (click on the photo below:

Sozopol (Созопол) which lies about 20-30 km south of Burgas is a nice city, situated on a peninsula just where Strandzha mountain starts. The ancient name of Sozopol was Apolonia Pontika. It’s the oldest city on the Bulgarian seaside – about 3-4 millennium B.C. The old city of Sozopol has many houses from 18-19th century saved, making it a beautiful sight, combined with seaside.

After Sozopol, it was time to visit its seaside rival – Nesebar (Несебър) or Mesembria, as it was known in the ancient times. Nesebar is one of the Bulgarian UNESCO objects – the whole old city is under the ‘World Heritage’ protection. There are many churches from 5-6 Century on, that are greatly preserved, and of course – a lot of houses from 18-19th century. The city walls are partially preserved too – with all their fortifications and towers… I think this might be the thing, why Nesebar is called “Dubrovnik of Bulgaria”.

After that it was time for what we couldn’t visit the day before – the Devil’s throat cave. Legends say that here Orpheus dropped to the kingdom of the death to save his beloved Eurydice. Outside it looks like nothing special, until you go in – there are I think about 15 waterfalls, the biggest of which is 42 meters. The roar of them is scary. You have to climb to get out of the cave, to the natural entrance of it, where the water goes inside. Many people have been trying to throw objects in it, even live animals in ancient times – none of which have been found. Near the entrance there’s a memorial plate to the two divers, which entered the cave to search for its exit in the 70s – again, they did not exit.

The village we visited a month ago with Andre and Clara – Shiroka lyka (Широка лъка) was a must this time too. A small old village, one of the centers of bagpipe music in Bulgaria. There we even saw a bus of students from Ruse on a 5 day trip around Bulgaria. Such tourism is important for young people, I think – they need to know their country at least.

Something we missed the last time was the natural phenomena Wonder bridges (Chudnite mostove, Чудните мостове). A great place, high in the Rodopi mountains, huge piece of art by nature. These are the leftovers of a big ancient cave, in which there has been a river flowing. With time parts of the cave walls thinned and broke, and this formed the Wonder bridges that we know nowadays.

In the afternoon another stop of our trip around Bulgaria was Bachkovo monastery (Бачковски манастир). It was founded in 11th century by two Georgian brothers. During the years it has been robbed and ruined many times by the Osman armies. In present it’s the second biggest monastery complex in Bulgaria, after the Rila monastery.

Last stop in this long day was Asenova fortress (Asenova krepost, Асенова крепост). It has been a fortress even in Thracian times, then it has been used by Byzantines, for security in the Aegean region. It has been even conquered by the crusaders of the 4th Crusade. It has been called after the Bulgarian king Ivan Asen II, who does a lot of repairs and fortifications of it. Ruined and conquered by the Osman armies in 1410.

After the long day we had, we found a beautiful hotel in the center of Nova Zagora city.

Well, let’s see – 6 day autotrip with about 2000 km. around Bulgaria

The route was something like that

1. Day 1 – Ruse, Sofia, Rila monastery, Sandanski (where we slept because Melnik was fully reserved for the night)
2. Day 2 – Sandanski, Petrich (Rupite), Samuilova fortress, Melnik, Rozhen monastery, Pazardzhik (where we slept in an awful hotel, named with the great name Elbrus)
3. Day 3 – Pazardzhik, via a small curvy road with some dams, Trigrad gorge and the two caves nearby (Yagodinska cave, Dyavolsko gyrlo cave), Shiroka lyka (where we almost got to see the  traditional Bulgarian kukeri festival – something like westerners Helloween ), Bachkovo monastery
4. Day 4 – Bachkovo monastery, Asenova fortress (which was closed due to the snowstorm that started previous night), Plovdiv (the old city and the Amphitheater), Panagyurishte (where we initially intended to sleep, but didn’t find appealing), Strelcha (where we stumbled on a Thracian tomb and took a look at), Koprivshtitsa
5. Day 5 – Koprivshtitsa, Klisura, Sopot, Karlovo, Kalofer, Koprivshtitsa – all revival Bulgarian cities. And we decided to stay in Koprivshtitsa because the hotel we were staying was so great, and the city itself is lovely.
6. Day 6 (Final) – Koprivshtitsa, Kazanlyk (where we saw the Unesco thracian tomb), The ‘Hainboaz’ mountain pass (due to Shipka pass being closed from sliding trucks and snow), Veliko Tyrnovo, Ruse

In other words – 6 great days with all kinds of weather, but mostly funny. I’ll allow myself to post a link to the Picasa Web Galleries again…. ~HERE~

Edit: I’m uploading a map of the trip:

Basically we will repeat the 2009 Rodopi trip and 2009 again South Bulgaria-Greece trip partly – visiting Rila monastery, Melnik pyramids, Rozhen monastery, Plovdiv the old city, Asenova fortress, Bachkovo monastery, Trigrad gorge, Dyavolsko gyrlo cave, Yagodinska cave.

Of course with some slight addition – after all the will be a whole six day trip around Bulgaria – not 3 or 4 day as before. We are planning to see Koprivshtitza, Tyrnovo, Shipka, Gabrovo, Tryavna again.

I just hope the weather will be OK – the spring is not exactly visible in this part of the world It’s still minus something, extremely cold, and some great north wind is expected, according to the forecast

Well – whatever it is…. I’m sure we’ll have fun. The old Audi is ready, my fellow travelers are ready, the map is drawn, the trip outlines are put. What’s left – well, a couple hours more.

Приятен път (or Nice travel) to wish it in Bulgarian

Friends – please use the contact page. Write your questions, I’d try to help everyone. So far I’ve helped tourists from Belgium, USA, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey with ideas, contacts, etc.  I know that information in English or any other language except Bulgarian  is a bit hard to find sometimes. And I’ll do whatever I can to make your vacation, travel, hike around Bulgaria better settled.

So – if you need information on Bulgaria, Bulgarian mountains, travelling in Bulgaria, hiking around, or just information on the country itself: feel free to use the Contact page, or drop me a few lines at alex (_AT_) technobeast.net (the spaces, underscores, AT and brackets should be substituted with the @ sign, I hope you know that)

Good luck

Alex

A short photo walk from my three day trip to Rila. This one has been good, considering my physics and form. Haven’t had knee pain during the trip. Lovely weather and stunning views from the mountains around. This one was definitely a good hike.

This is a short photo story of our trip last month.