Leaving Bulgaria 9/26-8

 Friday Sept. 26.  Bus from Varna to Veliko Tărnovo.  Visit to two major symbols of Bulgaria along the way.

We climbed up to see the Madara horseman, an 8th century  BCE.  Thracian relief cut in rock.  This horseman is a symbol of Bulgaria.

It was raining, up a slippery trail, so we left the camera on the bus.  The sculpture was surrounded by scaffolding.  It is disintegrating and the government is trying to save it with a UNESCO grant.  Here is what it looked like before the repairs began.

The horseman was a Thracian god called Heros, the hero.  It is interesting to see where he has gone.  We recognize him in St George (slaying the dragon). He also shows up as St Dimitrios. of Thessaloniki.  He is portrayed killing Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria.  This seems like an unlikely saint to be revered in Bulgaria.  But Tsar Kaloyan was taking Bulgaria from the Othodox church to Rome.  

We are told that he has even been adopted by the local Muslim population as a Muslim saint.  As a Muslim, we are told he wears a turban.  Further, in this group, his picture appears in the mosque.  

By the way, St George has been demoted off the Catholic calendar and he now is honored only on local calendars.  Lunch was peppers stuffed with rice, good.

We next visited the 4th-3rd century BCE Thracian Royal Tomb of Sveshtari.  It is unique for the sculpture.

We are now in Veliko Tărnovo the former capital of the first Bulgarian kingdom.

We ate at the hotel restaurant. To our surprise, we had a good meal:  Mixed appetizers of cheese stuffed pepper, spiced cheese, and eggplant; chicken stew; baked apples.  We are pleased to get to try Bulgarian food.  We are told by others that Road Scholar does not consider food to be an important part of the experience.

Sat. Sept 27.

Veliko Tarnovo is attractively spread out over several steep slopes.

Another dark, rainy day.  Bruce climbed up to the Tsaravets fort.  From the net, on a better day:

The church-like structure at the top was built in the mid-1980s.  Inside, the walls are frescoed with a lot of Christian images and a grouping of Bulgarian Revival figures (plus the painter).  The work is controversial:

After the fort, we went to the Museum of the National Revival where the Bulgarian constitution was adopted in 1879.  We learned more about the independence from the Ottoman Empire.

After lunch (loaf of bread), we visited the Nativity Church in Arbanassi.  The church dates to the 17th-18th centuries. ie during the Ottomans.  As a result it is a small inoffensive building.  But, inside it is covered with paintings - 1300+ figures.  

These all represent biblical or quasi-biblical stories, old, new and non-canonical.  Our recognition of Orthodox iconography is improving.  The icons follow canons so that they are recognizable.  There are only a certain number of portrayals of Mary.  The one you see the most is Mary Pointing the Way; she is pointing at the Christ child.  Previously, we would just have seen a madonna.  Also, in the crucifixion, there is a small skull under the cross.  This is the skull of Adam and, so, depicts the blood of Christ washing out the sins of man.

Our afternoon ended with a lesson on how to make yogurt. Boil milk; cool; add yogurt as starter; keep warm; eat.  To make Bulgarian  (the best) yogurt, use raw whole milk and a bit from another Bulgarian yogurt.

We took the elevator to the bottom of our hotel, which was 7 stories below the lobby.  Then we took some outdoor stair down to a new-looking restaurant.  Salad with tomato, eggs, etc.  Skewered pork kabob and potatoes and OK cake and ice cream.

Sunday, Sept 28, 2014.

About 5 hours driving today to get back to Sofia.   We stopped at an open air museum park,  Etara,  south of Gabrova.  It was set up the municipality in 1964.  It consists of reconstructed, pre-electricity buildings with a craft in each.  It is located on a mill stream and some of the tools are run by water power.

Old style eave and slate roof:

Braiding machine:

Water power:

We were in the mountains and it was quite cold.

Lichen:

We had lunch at the museum restaurant.  Good lentil soup, local sausage, slaw and salad.  Sweet grapes for dessert.

Final dinner at the hotel (Park Central, again).  Salad, chicken, riced potatos, choc mousse, good expresso & wine.

Tomorrow, we go to Romania.

Plovdiv to Nessebar to Varna, Sept 22-25.

Monday, Sept. 22.

Plovdiv turns out to be a fine tourist destination.  This part of Bulgaria was conquered by Philip of Macedon. This town was named Philipopolis.  The vagaries of name changes yield Plovdiv.  It has been tentatively named a “European Capital of Culture” for 2019.  

Our hotel, the Ramada Princess, was built in the 50s, with weirdly wide hallways and spacious public areas. But it is not overly pompous like contemporary structures in Armenia.

We had a walking tour this morning, tracing the Roman streets. We passed the forum.

…

… and entered what was the axis of the hippodrome.

They have been able to reconstruct the closed end of the hippodrome, which is in front of the still-functioning main mosque.

From there, one can walk up the hill to the Old Town.  The Bulgarian stuff dates from the 19th century, when the Ottoman regime was ousted.

Roman theater:

Bulgarian Revival Houses (mid 19th Century):

One of the houses has been devoted to the painting of Zlatyu Boyadzhiev. After a stroke disabled his right hand while he was in his forties, he learned to paint with the left hand.

He was hard to photograph.  From the 'net:

We had a long lunch at a restaurant that was located in one of these Old Town houses.  After lunch, we went to a lecture with two young, enterprising Plovdivians. They were working for a new foundation that was trying to encourage local artists (including the performing arts) to take a greater initiative in marketing their works. After that, we walked over to the mid-19th Century church of St. Marina.  Its iconoatasis is graced with highly detailed wood carving:

At 5, we departed for the a local Todorov winery, which produces 400,000 bottles per year.  Pretty good wine. The good wine, and the snack served therewith, allowed us to skip dinner.

***

Tuesday, Sept 23.

We, like many on the tour, liked Plovdiv and wished we had more time.  But we depart for Kazanlak.  On the way we visit a rose oil distillery (distilling is distilling) and the Roman ruins at Hisarya.  Hisarya is a mineral water town.  We drink the water which is prophylactic for the liver.  The locals fill bottles for their health (tap water is safe to drink)

We visited a replica of a Thracian tomb at Kazanlak. The original is too fragile to allow visitors. It is still pretty amazing.

We had lunch at the Magnolia Restaurant near our destination.

No, it was not a Mexican restaurant.; Mexaha means folk or traditional.  One passes the garbage tips on the way in.  We ate something like a spanokopita and fried haloumi.   Wine was served in locally made pitchers.

We are staying at the Palas Hotel in Kazanlak.

The chandelier in the lobby matches the pretention of the name.

The unpleasant weather no doubt contributed to our impression, but Kazanlak seems a bit dreary.  

The excellent local Museum is the gathering place for Thracian artifacts.  This wreath is the most spectacular item.  It was found in the tomb of King Seuthes III, about 4th Century BC.

We dined at the hotel restaurant: lamb and potatoes. Very bland. Some of our fellow travelers tell us that the food is not a strong suit with Road Scholar.

***   

Wed. Sept. 24

We drove to the Black Sea Coast and stop at Nessebar. Nessebar was an island until the 1960s; a short causeway now connects it with the mainland.

Human settlement here goes back to the paleolithic…

… and was one of the earliest Black Sea cities created by the Greeks.

This funeral stele shows a mother with the body of her baby in her lap; her right hand grasps a dove.  Our guide associated this pre-Christian dove with the later representation of the holy spirit.

The ancient Greeks collected tears from the attendees at funerals in small vessels.  

We had lunch at one of the many restaurants overlooking the water.  Beautiful view, but this one, from the other side of the peninsula, was even better.

Disappointing food, again.

Nessebar is actually better known for its 5 old churches than for its ancient artifacts.  This one is the most impressive:

Icon from St Stefan church:

St Stefan had wonderfully preserved murals.  St Stefan was the first Christian martyr.  We were told that every town in Bulgaria should have a St Stefan church.  Our guide Martin was superb.

We went from Nessebar to Varna, about 1.5 hours driving, over some hills to another part of the same coast.  We are staying 2 nights here. Laundry prices more reasonable than elsewhere. Bruce took a long walk through town.

Dinner at the hotel restaurant. Blah meal, again: Unpopular salad,  "chicken cordon bleu", rice, chocolate cake.

*****

Thurs, Sept. 25.  We spent the morning at the local Varna Archaeological Museum.   We passed the Cathedral, built in 1914, on the way:

It has a great collection.  We were shown around by the Museum's Curator and former Director. No photos allowed. From the 'net, the most famous exhibit is a Thracian grave, presumably royal.

This fine experience was marred as we left the Museum.  One of our group fell on an unmarked step and tore some ligaments in her foot.   We expect her to drop out.

We passed up the opportunity to see another Roman bath ruin.  

Later, we had a discussion withfour young Bulgarian women, three finishing high school and one in graduate school.  They all study economics.  

A very good dinner at Nun Restaurant:  Good, but largely forgotten.

Sofia, Rila Sept 18-21

Thurs.  Sept 18.

Leaving London early today, we ran into difficulty at the security check.  We have more than the allowed liquids and we misplaced the proof that they were prescription meds.  First time we’d been asked.  

We have come to Sofia a day before the tour begins.  After settling into the Park Central Hotel, we had a couple of hours to take in a site.  We chose the City Art Gallery which, according to the blurb on the map, has over 3000 Bulgarian paintings.  It turned out to be a small gallery, taken up with an exhibit of Bulgarian artists with a connection to the theater, from 1904 to 2014.  Turns out Bulgarians saw a lot a Shakespeare; there were photos and drawings depicting scenery, costumes and performances.

The non-theater paintings were competent, but not what we think of as museum quality.

We ordered a glass of wine at a cafe on Vitosha Blvd, the main shopping street.  It was awful.

We had dinner in the hotel lobby.  A meat and cheese starter platter, wine, fresh rolls.  Good choice.

***

Friday, Sept 19.  [Scotland voted yesterday to remain part of the UK].

Today’s touring was a bit disappointing.  The Ethnographic Museum and the Art Museum were both devoted to temporary exhibits (turn of the century Bulgaria, Michelangelo sketches,modern photos).  Those were sparse and of little interest.   The antique market had some (fake?) Soviet memorabilia of sale, but no antiques.

The Natural History Museum is not on the handout map nor otherwise publicized.  We came upon it by chance.  The ground floor was devoted to minerals and it was a treat.  The specimens came from 90 countries, but former Soviet sphere countries dominated and many of those were new to us.

Salt crystals from Poland:

Graphic granite from Bulgaria:

Astrophyllite from Russia:

The rest of the museum was stuffed animals.

We had an unremarkable lunch at a Spanish-style tapas restaurant.

At 5, we met our tour group for the orientation.  Seems like a pretty nice group.  There are 20 of us.  A majority of the participants are regular Road Scholar customers, many of long standing.  Dinner at the hotel was very bland salad, pork, veggies.  Good cappuccino.

View from our hotel window:  

In fairness,  I zoomed in for that shot.

Unexpected toiletry item:

***

Friday, Sept 20

Here is a crude history of Bulgaria.  The area was inhabited at least from the Neolithic.  It was known as Thrace when mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as an ally of Troy.  In the 7th century BCE, there was Greek colonization.  Philip of Macedon failed but Thrace was conquered by Alexander the Great around 355 BCE.   In 45 CE, it became a Roman province.  The Bulgarians converted to Christianity in 865, with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church established in 870.  From 893-927 was the First Bulgarian Kingdom.  From 927 to 1018, Bulgaria was under Byzantine rule.  In 1155, the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was established. It came under Ottoman rule in 1393.  The treaty of San Stefano in 1878 reestablished the Bulgarian State, which involved many many different governments.  There were two Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913 ( the first national catastrophe):  Balkans against  the Ottomans won by the Balkans and Bulgaria against the rest of the Balkans won by the rest of the Balkans. Bulgaria was allied with Germany in the First and Second World War (the former is the second national catastrophe).   In 1946, the Communists came into power.  In 1953, the Bulgarian Church was restored as a Patriarchy.  1989 saw the fall of the Soviet Union  and the communist regime and the beginning of the current politically chaotic country.

City tour.  Our first use of the bluetooth hearing devices.  We liked them.

Bulgarian honor guard at the President’s residence.

Mosque:

Our local guide was in bad shape and he panted through blurbs that could have been better prepared.  His field is medieval history he was ok on that subject.  He did not seem adequately prepared for the rest.

There were many extraordinary items in the Archaeology Museum:

Handle of an urn:

cup:

Rhyton and detail:

The Museum is housed in  re-purposed, 16th Century mosque:

The mosque decorations were painted over after the Turks were pushed out.  Peeling paint revealed the art work.  Sections have been opened while they powers decide what to do:

Aleksandar Stamboliyski was the Prime Minister during the reign of Boris III.  He was a great reformer, but he grew impatient with parliamentary processes.  He abolished the political parties and became quite autocratic.  In 1923, he was assassinated.  Hence the slash to his sculpture.

We a very bland lunch (veal and steamed veggies).  We may ask about the future fare.

The St. Alexander Nevsky cathedral was built in the early 20th century.   Nevsky is revered as the leader who defeated the armies of the Latin Kingdom Crusaders in 1205.

Finally, we were taken to the Boyana Church, about 6 miles outside of town and a bit up in the hills.  The Church is very small.  Access is limited to 8 visitors at a time for 10 minutes.

The church is famed for its 13th cty frescoes.  Sample from the ‘net:

A lovely wooded park was established around the church in 1907.  Several redwoods were planted.  They have grown:

Dinner was at Mr. Pizza.  It turned out to be pretty good.  Greek salad, stuffed pepper, stuffed chicken breast, choc mousse.

*****

Sun 21 Sept.

2 hours on the bus to the Rila Monastery.  There has been a monastery on this site since the 11th Century.  The present building went up in the 19th century, after the Ottoman rule was overthrown.  The brick church in the courtyard goes back to the 16th or 17th Century.

There was much colorful painting on the exterior of the church.  This scene shows the hazards of fortune-telling.  The devils are celebrating with a Bulgarian ring dance.

This illustrates the forty days after death while the fate of your soul is weighed.  Two days per panel:  Each person is represented by a guardian angel with a devil presenting its case.  It is necessary to get through all stages to reach paradise.

Courtyard from the entrance:

Ioan Rilski, or John of Rila, is the patron saint of Bulgaria.  He was a hermit whose followers or students established the monastery.  He died in 946.  He performed miracles while alive and continued after death.  Also, he wrote a testament of moral instructio to the Bulgarians.   His body was dug up uncorrupted and sweet smelling, typical of saints.  His relics traveled Bulgaria and Hungary for 500 years until he was settled at the monastery.

We had greasy bean soup, fresh trout, fresh yogurt and jam, and rose petal liqueur.

Two more hours of driving to Samakov, a small town (30,000) that used to have a metals industry.and now provides services for a nearby ski resort.  Like all town of any size here, it has a House of Culture:

It also has a mosque.  They used the same design the used for churches, with a minerat added.

Two more hours and we are in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city (330,000).  We are settled into the Ramada Princess.  We face a crisis as they want $8 to wash a pair of underpants.

Dinner in the hotel restaurant.  Salad with feta, beef Stroganoff, apple pie.  We bought a bottle of wine, about $12.  We’ve had worse.