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 a nice breakfast we were ready to go to the Rojen monastery. Once again. A great place. This one is much better than the Rilski monastery to go to. If you are not a regular tourist and need something a little bit different for your trip – go there. The views to the mountains are stunning

The next goal for Monday was Kovachevica. But before that we have to cross a mountain pass. Winding roads, sometimes you think that nothing is protecting you from the abyss, that starts just where the asphalt ends. Here and there you can see workers on the road – at least this is a good sign. And one and a half hours later we are in Kovachevica (Ковачевица). It’s one of the most beautiful Bulgarian villages with houses from 18-19 century, exclusively made out of stone – even the roofs. Small cobbled streets can be seen all around the village – most of them I think are not even accessible with a normal car. We even took a small hike to the end of the village. Then a good lunch there – the best fried potatoes we had on our trip.

The day was already going to its end, so we had to find a place to sleep. Since the cave Dyavolsko gyrlo (Дяволско гърло, Devil’s throat) was our next goes – why not sleep in Trigrad. One of the legends says the name of the village comes from the Thracian “Tri ibrie” (Three cities, Три града). It’s famous for the cave, I mentioned above, the Yagodinska cave, the Trigrad gorge (second longest in Bulgaria – 3 km) and the Buinovo gorge (the longest in Bulgaria – 6 km I think). It’s a bit scary the first time you go there – Extremely narrow road…. and then you see a sign “One lane road with opposite direction traffic”. Well, this makes you think and drive as slow as possible.

Anyways, to Trigrad – we found a nice family hotel, called “Triibria” (by the name of the city in Thracian). Very polite owner, nice rooms – what more do you need to have a good rest. In the morning we understood that they had a good cook too – we ordered some breakfast, which was delicious. This made us a bit sorry we didn’t stay for dinner there. Well…. next time.

So, this must be it. The third day already of our trip. I’ll continue with the next day soon.

On Saturday we started very early – I knew there’s a lot of driving this day.

Krushuna waterfalls (Крушунски водопади in Bulgarian) were the first one of our sights. They form an eco-trail from many waterfalls, each bigger and bigger than the previous. Each waterfall lays on a karst terrace, thus has an interesting color of the water.

Around some of the final and highest waterfalls there are some rock monasteries of monks-isihasts from 13-14th century. Not much is left from them, though – still you have the witness in the rock holes, and human-made carvings inside.

Next was the Devetaki cave (Деветашка пещера in Bulgarian). This cave has the biggest entry hall amongst the caves in Bulgaria. Looks like a whole football stadium, if you ask me. It was discovered around 1920 and in the communism years it was used to store the government reserve for petrol and food. Nowadays you can still see parts of the bridge that was built for this purpose (with train trails on it too) and the foundations for the petrol tanks. The cave itself is not available for direct entrance, because it’s protected by small waterfalls and the entrance in it can be done with a boat and a bit of climbing (or so I’ve heard).

After the cave we visited a small village – Kykrina (Къкрина). Famous for the inn that’s in it and the capture of Vasil Levski – the organizer and the soul of the Bulgarian revolution against Osman slavery in 19th century. In 1872, around Christmas Vasil Levski was captured by the Osman ‘police’ and on 18th of February, 1873 was hanged in the surroundings of Sofia.

Lovech (Ловеч), our next stop has a long story. The fortress above the city is the place where peace treaty between Bulgaria and Byzantium has been signed in 1187. During Otoman slavery the city has been an important trade and craft center. The places we visited and worth visiting there:

• The Lovech fortress
• The covered bridge
• The etnographic museum and the old city of Lovech

And it was getting pretty late for this day, already, so we decided we should sleep somewhere near Sofia. Dragalevtsi, a neighborhood beneath Vitosha was a nice place to sleep and dine.

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

I read about Couchsurfing on the blog of Ivan Ilarionov – itilien. He was travelling around in South America on a very tight budget and that’s why Couchsurfing was something good for him. So I thought – let’s see. And on December 1st, 2009 I became a member.

Haven’t had many experiences so far, but may I say they have been some of the best. I’ve hosted travellers at my place a couple of times – let’s say 5-6. Had many requests since then, though some of the surfers have cancelled their requests, or I had to decline due to unavailability. The stories I’ve heard, the people I have met so far, their travels, adventures around the globe, their positivity, openness…. I don’t know how to describe that – it fascinates me.

Some day I hope I’ll have the opportunity to travel like that – take a couple of months and get to know the people of a country, not just the regular, crowded tourist objects. Because this is what makes a country – it’s people.

1) I’ll start with the latest one – the Yosemite trip. ~HERE~ you can find a couple of pics from this two-day adventure with Bobi and Megi. Wonderful waterfalls, great picturesque rocks, beautiful nature. Dated June 5-6, 2010

2) The trip to the famous ’17 mile drive’ near Monterey, California. ~HERE~ is the short report from this closed circuit private property with many big houses, a great forest drive and closeness to the Pacific Ocean. Dated April 26th, 2010

3) The previous day I took my first trip to Santa Cruz over the scenic highway 1. ~HERE~ I took lots of short breaks to watch the ocean. Magnificent. Dated April 25th, 2010

4) The visit to the Danville museum of auto-history. ~HERE~ – many old good-looking cars, including my favourite there – Plymouth Fury, famous from the novell Christine, by Stephen King. Dated April 18th, 2010

5) My walk around the Mount Diablo park – ~HERE~. I got lost a little bit, taking a different trail than the one I originally wanted. In the end I had a good time around.  Dated April 17th, 2010

6) My first visit around San Francisco – a city of so many layers. ~HERE~. Rumen and Toni were so great to take me around for a whole day trip and showed me many of the famous things in San Francisco. Dated March 20th, 2010

7) The pics from the flight Amsterdam-San Francisco. ~HERE~. There are not many of them, but I stayed awake during the whole flight, watching the views, drinking Heineken (thanks KLM) and enjoying every minute of it. Date March 15th, 2010

Well, not too bad. For a newbie in US this is pretty good. I hope I’ll have some more to show till I get back to Bulgaria. Stay healthy all!

Here are some pictures from the trip: