The ups and downs of Bulgaria

The old town of Plovdiv with its steep cobbled streets.

WE left the bustling mayhem of Istanbul behind, and our bus trip to Plovdiv in Bulgaria took seven hours. The border crossing into Bulgaria was very interesting. We showed our passports to four different officials over a distance of less than 100 metres.

The bus trip was cheap and comfortable, and the service was good but the roads were not . . . they certainly deteriorated after we left Turkey.

When we arrived in Plovdiv, our landlord was waiting at the bus stop for us. We had three rooms and everything we needed. There was a fruit bowl on the table, groceries in the cupboard and as the forecast was for rain he brought us an umbrella in case we needed it.

Once settled in we collected some of the local currency and shopped at a real supermarket. It was quite an experience after the bazaar-type shopping of Istanbul. We had been told that the cost of living here was significantly less than Turkey, but even then we were pleasantly surprised at how far our money went.

Plovdiv is reputed to be the seventh oldest city in the world. We spent our first full day here looking at old buildings and excavated ruins that predate the Roman occupation of the area by many centuries. We acquired an enthusiastic local guide for the afternoon who was very informative.

We had been deluding ourselves that we had left the steep streets and the uneven cobblestones in Istanbul but the old part of Plovdiv was just as tricky to negotiate on foot.

That night it rained heavily and it continued all the next day so we were well rested and ready for the next leg of our journey to Burgas.

The day started well. The train was really comfortable, everything was running according to expectations, the world had been rinsed by the rain, so out comes the backpacker to sing a bit as you do on a great day.

A small girl on the train took a fancy to us and just loved our music. She didn’t understand a word of English and we didn’t understand a word of Bulgarian, but we became best friends for life.

Cramming into the busBut the day lost its shine somewhat when we found out that because of major alterations at the Burgas railway station we had to abandon our very good train and cram into a not-so-comfortable bus for the next hour and a half.

To call the roads substandard would be to malign substandard roads but after such a sunny start to the day, our spirits remained high.

However the following day, the unhelpful attitude of some of the local people began to get to us. And everywhere we went we saw a lack of maintenance and partially-completed projects slowly falling into disrepair.

Our motel was a beauty, commissioned in 2014, but not yet complete. I am sure in a very short time it will fall into the same condition as its neighbours.

In all our travels we have never found it so hard to communicate with the local population. It wasn’t so much the lack of a common language as the lack of desire to help. They were not anti-English — it just seemed the effort required to help was all too much.

We had a few problems finding our way from Burgas to Bucharest. We went to the train station where the woman at the information desk tried to help but had no idea where we wanted to go. The first reaction at the bus station when we asked ‘Do you understand English?’ was a blunt ‘No’ and then we were completely ignored.

We did find a woman there whose English was very limited but she wanted to help so we were able to work out that at 7.30 on Monday morning, we could catch a bus that would take us to Ruse.

We decided to take this option and work out the bit between Ruse and Bucharest when we got there — it seemed to involve a taxi or an overnight stay, but at least it would help us escape from Burgas.

We spent the rest of the day in the Sea Garden which extends along the beach of the Black Sea for quite a distance. It was Saturday and a lovely summer day — most of the town was closed and there were families galore out enjoying the sun.

It was a really lovely park so Burgas redeemed itself. Such are the ups and downs of travel.