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.