It’s a good sign when you like a country in the winter AND the summer. We entered Bulgaria for the first time last November from Romania. Although they are neighboring countries, Romania and Bulgaria could not feel more different. Bulgaria has a distinct Mediterranean and Roman influence, the food is fresh and delicious (sorry Romania), and the language is unidentifiable (well, at least until Mandy started teaching herself Cyrillic!) This country has been high on our bucket list since we lived in Prague, and while this visit to the charming cities of Ruse, Veliko Tărnovo and Sofia was just a taste, it has definitely confirmed our desire to return…with warmer temperatures:)

Ruse is a medium-sized city that sits on the mighty Danube River and has managed to collect a fair amount of neoclassical and baroque pieces of Vienna that may have floated right down the Danube. In fact, the nickname for Ruse is fittingly “Little Vienna.” In this picture is Ruse’s central fountain with the municipal court building in the background.

A view of our second stop through Bulgaria, the hill top town of Veliko Tărnovo, taken from the highest point in the fortress. The surrounding landscape is gorgeous… laced with canyons in every direction, and topped with mountains and forests. You can tell in the sunshine it would be breathtaking.

Third stop…Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral in Sofia…Wow…this gold-domed gem was quite a site. The building of this cathedral was connected to Bulgaria’s liberation from the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1879.

Starting off with Pyce? Urrr, Ruse or…Rousse…? Oh, we were already so confused buying tickets from Romania to Northern Bulgaria’s Danube. Although “Pyce” seems readable as it uses Latin letters, the Bulgarian language is actually in Cyrillic. In ninth century, Saints Cyril and Methodius from Greece wanted to spread Christianity to the Slavs and since there was no standard of writing Slavic languages, the brothers created an alphabet loosely based on Greek which evolved into modern Cyrillic. (Methodius clearly got gypped as it was only named after Cyril.) But why does Bulgaria use this alphabet? Some Bulgarians say it’s because Latin didn’t have all the right sounds but it didn’t keep Czechia, Poland, Croatia etc from doing so? Regardless, although we had already encountered Cyrillic in Ukraine, Mandy was deeply intrigued by the spelling of Pyce and decided to start dissecting the alphabet one day. It became like a fascinating secret decoder game! P=R, Y=oo, C=S and E=eh. Before long she became obsessed with trying to read things everywhere. Maybe she could make sense of this undecipherable string of gibberish!

We were very lucky in Ruse to have a fantastic Airbnb hostess, Valentina, who actually gave us a walking tour of the town when we arrived to this quite chilly city. She was born and raised there and was quite happy to call it home. We understood why immediately. Although it was a “city” with a population of 150k, it had a very small town vibe, little noise, few cars and traffic, pedestrian walkways and just felt like somewhere you’d like to live…homey and cozy. As a city on the Danube where riverboat cruises depart and up and coming on the tourist circuit, we’re intrigued. Oh, and the property values started at about 20k€ for a modern two bedroom place…

Valentina also provided us a wonderful place to stay in Ruse for $20/night. A chic one bedroom, albeit pepto pink, studio apartment. She even dropped us some morning goodies including a banista cheese pastry and a surprising Bulgarian morning drink called Boza, pictured here. Looked like apple juice, tasted like um…liquid blue cheese bread? Ugh…we weren’t impressed but it’s supposed to be healthy so we chocked it down for the ‘cultural experience’. It’s apparently made of a combination of boiled then fermented wheat, rye or millet.

Fortunately, boza was not representative for Bulgarian cuisine. All in all, it was fantastic and the best food we’ve had since Georgia. Pictured here is a sampling of the roasted vegetables, creamy garlicky cheese dips, flaky to-die-for breads with cheese inside, and more we had in Bulgaria…an absolute fresh ingredients and vegetarian delight. Oh, and the price?! The restaurant meals at bottom were $11.77 and $15.30, including wine/beer.

One of the best day trips from Ruse is the Ivanovo Cave Monosteries. We easily found a train to Ivanovo figuring we could just walk from the station. It’s a small town, right? Turns out, the churches were about an hour walk from town with seemingly no buses or taxis available to take us there. So, in our normal style, we decided to grab some thorny sticks (yes, in case we ran into another malicious sheep dog pack), and set out in the lovely countryside. After about 45-minutes of walking through fields, we saw a glimpse of the cave monastery! But, alas there was a minor obstacle of a ravine and a wicked-looking patch of scrub brush to get through before we made it there. Frustratingly, within a stone’s-throw-to-the-Monastery location is the closest we would get to our destination. It looked amazing… but Ah, well, you win some and lose some. At least we had a tasty meal compiled together at the mini market!

Once returning to the metropolis of Ivanovo, we went through the process of discovering how to buy a train ticket in small-town Bulgaria. Attempting to get the ticket window’s attendant, Mandy felt like Alice in Wonderland knocking on the minuscule door. The little door swung open and… A man barked in an Oz-like boom something that sounded like “what do you want?” Fortunately, “two Ruse” tickets was easy enough to communicate. Mandy walked away from the window victoriously without having to drink any size adjusting potions.

The next day, our host drove us to the train station(!) and helped make sure we got tickets to the train and we hopped on the next one bound for Veliko Tărnovo. The trains were efficient and cheap ($7.50 for both of us for a two-hour journey). We were grateful, as it had been awhile since we’d experienced this!

We arrived to the “backpacker favorite” town of Veliko Tărnovo and checked into our Airbnb apartment. We splurged and spent $24 a night and were smack in the heart of Old Town with a terrace view of the Tsaravets fortress. It had a kitchen, bath and two single beds. Yes, we are separable…

Because we had a view of the Fortress, we even got to be enamored by the “Sound and Light Show” which they showed each night at 21:00. The show is about 40 minutes long and loosely tells the story of the fall of the Bulgarian Empire. It was much more mesmerizing than we ever anticipated! And what a view from our room where we could BYOB for the whole show!

Naturally, we also wanted to visit Tsaravets up close and personal as well. This inescapable icon of Veliko Tărnovo was first built by the Byzantines between the 5th and 7th centuries and was later used by the Thracians and Romans as a defensive position. It has the remnants more than 400 houses, 18 churches, the royal palace, and an execution rock.

On top of the palace ruins, a mighty Bulgarian flag.

At the top lies the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Ascension of God. The modernist frescoes inside were the most thought provoking, dark and somewhat disturbing juxtaposition of images we’d ever seen in a church. They depict conventional Christian subjects, as well as tragic moments of the Second Bulgarian Empire, including ones of war, torture, death and pain. Although not “peaceful” in any way, perhaps more truthful in their depictions? We really enjoyed the contrasts.

A collaged magazine clipping-looking image is the main altar to the church!

The streets, alleys, terraced buildings, and architecture made us feel the pull of the Mediterranean. But, dang, look at those pesky snow clouds!?

The Yantra River winds its way gracefully through the town, creating two full horseshoe bends.

Mandy cuddles up with a fully bearded gentleman (not to worry Greg, he is lacking an arm) at the appropriately named…Hipster Cafe.

The well-designed cozy, Hipster cafe had a Portland-Esque ambience, a friendly bartender and was a perfect place to escape inside as we watched the first snowflakes float from the sky.

Mandy’s delicious red wine was $2, but Greg’s craft beer was a whopping $3.50. Clearly the profit margin is a good one for beer in Bulgaria…good to note.

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Cute overload! Agh! Can’t stand it.

There are even kitties everywhere. This clowder (Yes, google says this is the name for a group of House cats) likes to hang out at the bakery near our place every morning. We can see why!

Another great pub we grabbed some drinks in. We did this a lot that time of year…

More charm.

After four days in VT, (as the cool British expats call it), we went to the capital on the best bus, from the cleanest and most organized bus station we’d been in since Sweden. And when we got to Sofia, you could actually take the metro FROM the bus station to our new place. We were overwhelmed by the ease of this after our less-than-easy recent transport experiences.

Arriving to our Airbnb in Sofia, we got our tiny-home needs met as we stepped into the apartment of what obviously seemed to be…an elf. Check out the narrow staircase, teeny kitchen and low ceilings. This “trendy experience” would probably go for $90+ a night in Portland ? For us, the Elf House was $19.

Appropriately, upon arrival, we also happily holed ourselves up here because the snow was coming which was a good excuse to stay in. (Yes, sometimes this is needed!)

The next day, fortunately the sun was mostly shining which allowed us to do a whirlwind tour of Sofia before departing Bulgaria. We loved what we saw…massive green spaces, thought-provoking statues, funky art, tactful graffiti, street vendors and a gentle vibe. For a big city of 1.2 million, it was relatively quiet, peaceful and inviting. Our favorite city in awhile, where we’d definitely like to spend more time.

In Knyazheska Garden

Walking into the Serdica metro station in Sofia is something very unique. Instead of the usual billboards and media onslaught, you walk into nearly 2000-year-old Roman ruins that were discovered only a few feet underground when excavating for the metro 60 years ago. The contrast between modern and ancient is fascinating.

An early church circa 4th Century was also unveiled in the Serdica excavation. This is what remained of the altar of the church and some frescoes also remarkably remain.

Next to the Serdica Complex is the Banya Banshi Mosque completed in 1576 during the years the Ottomans had control of the city (which lasted five centuries!) Its name means “many baths” because it was actually built over natural thermal spas and you can even see the steam rising from vents near the mosque walls. It is the only one still used by the Muslim community in Sofia today, although 70 of them existed at one time.

Street Scene

Sofia’s Central Market…always one of our favorite stops! Unfortunately compared to other European cities, this one was a little bit lacking in offerings although the building had huge potential.

Which of these things is not like the others?

Argh, nuts. It’s already time to move on…

This said, although we did spend 11 days at the Black Sea Coast, we’re bypassing a post on it and wrapping up Bulgaria. This reason is simple… at the coast, we worked, planned, ran errands, relaxed, went to a yoga retreat and paused the sightseeing a bit before we embark on a big fall with lots of adventure. Can’t wait to take you all along with us!

Bulgaria Wrap-up

Time Spent: 42 days

Money Spent: $1071.53 or $35/day (not including 12-day free housesit)

Budget Travel Meter*: $

The upsides of Bulgaria

• Access to good, cheap produce
• Inexpensive groceries
• Inexpensive real estate
• Friendly and welcoming people
• Ease and price of public transportation
• Local cuisine + vegetarian friendly
• Association with EU countries
• Good water
• Good internet
• Range of terrains
• Expat community
• Interest in beer
• Tourism websites are spectacular

The downsides of Bulgaria

• Cold, snowy winters
• Overdevelopment on coast
• Difficult language + Cyrillic alphabet
• Finding reliable bus schedules (train was easier)

Would we go back? Yes, without a doubt. Maybe forever?

Budget Travel Meter* The Budget Meter gauges how hard it was for us to stick to our $50/day budget. We’re factoring our Budget Meter by our daily food consumption options.

• $ – Eating-out up to twice a day and ordering whatever the hell we want, with dessert!
• $$—Eating-out once a day in a restaurant of our choice
• $$$—Eating-out once a day, on cheap pizza or local street food meals, usually involving copious amounts of filling bread
• $$$$—Eating-in every meal, healthy/fresh & in-season produce options
• $$$$$—Eating powdered soup & potatoes for every meal.