From Sliven, we decided to take a half day trip up to the “architecturally significant” village of Kotel, (our personally branded “cute” towns), which is folded into yet another of Bulgaria’s mountain ranges…the Eastern Balkans. Kotel is one of the many villages the red hiking trail meanders which offers the opportunity to traverse Bulgaria’s entire length, offering clean mountain air, forested hills and striking architecture.
It’s growing a bit in popularity with local travelers, but still quite off the radar for international tourists. We didn’t see any other tourists during our time (on a Thursday), but did notice several restaurants and hotels that would make it a nice place to overnight.
When we first arrived, in our case by bus, we headed northwest until encountering the inviting cobblestone lanes, which always have a way of leading to the cute stuff, aka the Galata Quarter. We arrived to find a quite traditional feel which we’d already grown to crave in our last month’s exploration slow down. Although the healing is necessary, our feet remain incessantly itchy.
Sveta Troitsa Orthodox Church, dating from 1836, which is when the Bulgarians were asserting their religious identity under Ottoman rule.
The beautiful wooden houses of Kotel are one of the most distinctive features and key representatives of the Bulgarian National Revival architecture of the 18th and 19th Centuries. In fact, the entire town was a center for education and resistance during this period.
The quite enticing and brightly splotched exterior of the tourist information center. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to linger because we had two hours to get back for the last bus of the day.
Kotel was the birthplace of several key figures in the Bulgarian Revival, including revolutionary and writer Georgi Rakovski, whose handlebar ‘stache you’ll see plastered all over town.
Where you can enter the historic quarter. The textile museum, which unfortunately we didn’t have time for either. (Technically we could have made time, but a beer seemed like a better idea…lol).
Grabbing our first beer in a very long time together! And yes, I could sit without pain. And obviously walk just fine too! 🙂
Wandering into the historic quarter…
Above the door of one house, this sign seemed quite curious…almost like a pictograph style of language. Some of the characters are definitely Cyrillic, but others look more like bunny rabbits.
Continuing our explorations…
And like everywhere in Bulgaria, there were options to refill your water bottle.
Few kitties in this town, but the doe-eyed pups were quite comfortable to eat the kibble we provided. What a sweet girl. Wish we could adopt all of them!
The Main Street of Kotel and a very different looking Orthodox Church.
One of the main square areas, as well as streets of the “modern” part of Kotel.
Flower art
To get to Kotel from Sliven, there were only two mini-buses that would allow for a same day return. One was at 6:20 a.m., and the other at noon. You can guess which one we picked. Inside offered a typical Bulgarian mini-bus experience…cigarette smoke embedded seats, meager airflow (even though it “sounded” like there was A/C), and a quite hefty bus fare of 8 Leva per ticket/each way, resulting in about $19 for us round trip for a 1.5 hour journey. This is why we continue to prefer the trains!
When we got to the station in Kotel, we looked at the board for a return to Sliven, which seemed to offer ample options (Sliven is the first one listed on the schedule.) However, when we confirmed with the bus station attendant, she said the only return bus that day would be at 15:30. Eek! Glad we asked!!
