Looking forward to reading more - Serbia is high on my to-go list.

Your have a new wheeled bag? What did you have before? I can't manage these days without wheels and it's amazing how long I can last on 13kg!
Not sure I like the sound of Belgrade....

Hi Gertie - for the last nine years I've used an Eagle Creek convertible backpack - no wheels. I still prefer a backpack for rougher travel and if there will be lots of stairs. Big advantage in keeping your hands free, but the wheelie, while heavier overall, is better on a long trek on pavement (but NOT cobbles!).

Looking forwsrd to this report!!

KW...I'll wait for you to get to Bulgaria...I have a fair amount of history therein and I will tip you on a few things....no, not ANCIENT info..only about 3 years old.(LOL)
Have a great time..

Stu

never mind. KW..at first I thought this was a "real-time as-you-go" report. Guess I'm wrong...hope it all turned out great for you.

stu

Hi Stu. Well, it started out as pretty much a real time report (see Part One), but the Bulgaria tour was not conducive to writing! Now I'm on my own again, maybe I'll get caught up.

Any way, I'm still traveling - any recent info on Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia?

I was in Sarajevo. Mostar and Kraljeva Sutjeska earlier this year in April, and before that in May 2010 when I drove up to Sarajevo from Split via Bugogno, Donji Vakuf, and Travnik (worth a visit).

If you click on my name you'll find links to my trip reports.

I'm also interested to read about Bulgaria. I've been 3 times but only ever to ski resorts. Before I go I tell myself I will take day trips to monasteries and see some of the country, but then I am unable to tear myself away from the white stuff and the mountains!

Thanks, julia_t! I just spent dinner enjoying your most recent Sarajevo report - so informative and fun to read. Looks like I need to do some planning so I could stay at the hotel you recommend.

I was expecting to spend a night or two in Mostar - do you think mid-October is late enough for the crowds to have departed?

Sep 10 - 11 - Belgrade: Second Thoughts

After lunch, and a wander through the park surrounding the fortress, I headed back into town. I took a look at the inside of the Orthodox cathedral (right after a wedding and right before a Japanese tour group) and contemplated the outside of the Patriarchal residence opposite while drinking coffee. A visit to the Palace of Princess Ljubica (not very palatial, but showing the transition from Ottoman to Western interior decor) completed my sightseeing for the day.

Dinner, alas, did not live up to lunch. I made the mistake of visiting the Skadarska area, highly touted by Lonely Planet as Belgrade's "Bohemian heartland", and "sliced straight out of Montmartre". Not on a Saturday night it isn't. On a Saturday night it's home to loud music and louder groups. Not a place for a solo traveler, as the waiters at Dva Jelena (Two Deer) made clear by ignoring me, even after I made it plain that I wasn't waiting for anyone.

I decamped to Sesir Moj (My Hat), across the street, where the hostess adopted me, although she did try to explain (she had virtually no English) that the street was different on other nights. I concluded that Belgrade was a party town, and not really my kind of place.

Sunday morning the center of town was taken over by in-line skaters holding races down the main street - no sign of hangovers there. I checked out the Ethnographic Museum (good thing it was free on Sundays, although I enjoyed the costumes downstairs), and took a look at the Parliament building, near yet another nice park. I was more interested in the used book market behind the building, where mini-vans stacked high with books had drawn quite a crowd.

In this part of town I also discovered the very photogenic Hotel Moskva, which somewhat improved my outlook. I had an enjoyable fruit drink there in the morning, and a lovely salad of baby greens, avocado and orange followed by a mixed grill for dinner. I was not reluctant, however, to leave the next morning for Novy Sad. Three nights was plenty.

The Hotel Moskva was the grande dame (Russian style) in the old days -- I hope someome gave her a loving restoration!

Lonely Planet says the Moskva "hasn't made moves to modernize", whatever that means. I didn't see the rooms, but the public areas (and toilets) looked fine, and the outside seating was comfortable. The outside of the building was in great shape.

I'm glad you found my trip report useful!

My first visit to Mostar in 2007 was mid-October.

It was still quite hot during the day but got chilly in the evenings. Too cool to eat outside.

There were crowds during the day from about 10-11am until 3-4pm, but the city was blessedly peaceful early morning and in the evening. On my subsequent visits in May 2010 and April 2011 there were very definitely many more people than in October 2007. Most were on day trips from the coast or visiting from Medjugorje.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/mostar---a-city-of-beauty-and-bullet-holes.cfm

KW...a few yars ago, I drove from Lake Ohrid into Albania. Had to buy a permit at the border , but you'll not be driving.
Permit was good for one day so we tried to take in as much as we oculd which was not a lot...headed for Shkoder and had a lunch in what looked like a roadside honky tonk on the lakeside and paid with €'s..nothing memorable other than a very fresh chopped salad. We had Croatian plates on the rental car and the Montenegran border guard had said something in Serbo Croat that we later translated into "sh-- hole"...

I found newly independent Montenegro to be one of the most colorful parts of the former Yugoalavia. Near Podgorica(tsa), the aformentioned Shkoder Jezero(Lake0 is quite attractive, even had quite a boating fleet with some sizeable yachts! But my more in-depth experience with the cuntry came during Tito time.

Suggest you treat yourself to the grand old Europa Hotel in Sarajevo. We once stayed there in the 80's a a rate of less than $30! right before the '84 winter olympics. Hear it has been repaired and completely renovated.
Stu

Meant to say the "Macedonian border guard".

Hi Stu - I'm currently in Ohrid - nice and quiet at this time of year! Plan to head for Korca on Wednesday - am negotiating car and driver as I want to go via Sv. Naum. Then Gjirokastra and Saranda by bus.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuarttower/ScenesOfOldYugolavia1980SAndCroatia2004?authkey=Gv1sRgCKq1odTr3IKLHA#

You mentioned Mostar, KW...dunno if you've ever seen my scanned pix of Mostar and Sarajevo pre-war...also some digital and scanned of Croatia. The magazine article and pic of the bridge bombed out is a frightenng classic...

...continuing happy travels...I recall Ohrid with its flower gardens and the glistening mountain-ringed lake..you're going to be doing some significant travel in Alb...Sveti Naum we saw when crossing into the country...fascinating...Saranda on the Adriatic looks like a long bus ride from Ohrid. We skipped right through Tirane, but I don't think you'll miss much by heading south instead...we were surpised by the road system, not bad....but whenever we got off the main highways, some of the country roads are poorly maintained. I know nothing of Albania's bus system. But you'll find out and tell all! Seems like you and I are among the few to enter Albania...I once noticed a some other Fodorits who ventured forth.
stu

Sep 12-15 - Novi Sad vs. Subotica

Reading the guidebooks it was clear that any self-respecting Art Nouveau fan should visit Subotica, just on the Serbian side of the Hungarian border. My first thought was to fly into Budapest and take the train south, but since I was already visiting Budapest to fly home, I flew to Belgrade and took the train north instead. To keep the journeys shorter I decided to sleep in Novi Sad, Serbia's second city, and day trip to Subotica.  

The sleeping part went well: I stayed at the Voyager B&B (http://www.voyagerns.co.rs/ ), which got me a huge bed-sitting room, with sofa, desk, wifi and TV, a second small bedroom and a good-sized bathroom, along with friendly staff, for just 49 euros/night. The first thing said staff did was register me with the police, at which point I realized that the Art Home B&B in Belgrade had not done so. Hadn't the guidebooks stressed the importance of registration?

My train to Subotica, a comfortable intercity bound for Prague, was boarded by police (not immigration officials) who came through checking IDs. They were happy with my one registration slip, but two young women seated nearby were hauled off because they hadn't been registered. When they eventually returned they had each been fined 50 euros (reduced from an initial demand for 300 euros each). Since the Art Home B&B had made a point of asking for payment in cash, I can only conclude that they were pulling a tax dodge by not registering me. A place to avoid!!!

Feeling lucky to have stopped in Novi Sad instead of going straight through from Belgrade, I got off the train in Subotica, crossed a rather tired park, and found myself facing the first of several wonderful buildings. It's true: if you like Art Nouveau you have to visit Subotica. You especially have to get there in time for the 12:00 tour of the interior of the town hall, during which you can marvel at the fact that they still hold meetings in the museum-worthy council chambers. I ate lunch in the Caffe Boss, in the courtyard of the building across from the train station, and considered making a return visit on  my way to Budapest...

Cafe culture was as much a fixture of the scene in Novi Sad as in Belgrade, but the people seemed friendlier - I was especially impressed by a very helpful young man in the T.I., and by the woman who closed her Bureau de Change to help me track down an elusive travel agency. All those cafes didn't make it any easier to find somewhere for lunch, however. The patrons seemed only to drink, not eat. I did find one that also served pizza, and since I was suffering from both sore feet and a cold, I ate dinner each night round the corner from my B&B at Paprika.

Novi Sad is famous for the Exit festival, a multi-day music extravaganza I was happy to miss, and for the Petrovardin Citadel, where it's held. North of Belgrade, Serbia is decidedly flat, and the citadel was built in the 1700s on one of the few outcroppings of high ground, overlooking the Danube. I went up near dusk, as the remarkably high daytime temperatures cooled a little, and admired the views and the extensive remains.

Besides the citadel I checked out the cathedral, a church or two, and the museum (three good Roman helmets) but it was really too hot for extensive sightseeing. I had hoped to visit the monasteries in the Fruska Gora region, but the only affordable tours went on the weekend. Instead I took pills from a local pharmacy for my cold (mostly paracetamol) and enjoyed the AC in my comfortable digs.

Any signs, thursdaysd, of development of the citadel? A few years ago I helped a friend, who works in international tourism development, with a feasibility study for upscale boutique hotels in the Balkans. We looked at the Petrovardin citadel as a possible site; I think there was already one small independent hotel there. In the end investor interest faded with the declining economic outlook. I wonder if anyone else jumped on the idea?

According to LP there's a large hotel called Leopold I in the citadel - 60 rooms, recently renovated, and expensive. I didn't notice the hotel but I did notice a restaurant, and a few shops. Didn't investigate the shops, not my thing, but I think there was art work as well as souvenirs. Plenty of space for more.

The hotel is bigger than what was there before -- not sure if it's an expansion or the competition. But the decor is definitely not my cup of tea!

Sep 15-16 - On to Sofia, via Nis

I had ridden the bus from Belgrade to Novi Sad, and the train on to Subotica, in reasonable comfort, but I made the mistake of taking a local train back from Subotica. Knowing it had a four digit number had given me concern, but the timing was much better than the later three digit train. My bad, although it had airplane-type seating, it had no AC, and without AC you're actually better off in the really old-fashioned compartment-style carriages, where you can get a cross-draft. 

So I was pleased to settle into a modern coach for the long haul from Novi Sad to Nis, where I had decided to break the trek to Sofia. But no sooner had we reached the main highway than we had a flat tire. We limped to the nearest service station, where it took only the announced twenty minutes to put on the spare, and where the passengers had access to toilets, coffee, snacks and shade, but we were clearly traveling below normal speed, and were switched to a much older coach in Belgrade.

My seat-mate was a woman about my own age, who made a point of telling me that she was really Hungarian, rather than Serbian. The country south of Belgrade was much hillier than the flat plain to the north, with plenty of woodland, and I was in reasonably good shape when we finally reached Nis. But the bus station had no services to speak of, I didn't have a map of the town, and eventually I took an expensive taxi to the Hotel DuoD. 

Situated in the heart of the cafe district, on a pedestrian-only cobbled street, above its eponymous restaurant, it was much quieter than I feared, but the under-floor AC was hopeless. It didn't cut the humidity, it didn't really cool the room in the afternoon, and it was very cold to walk on at night. I can't imagine it works much better as a heating system in the winter, either. Still, I had a comfortable, if old-fashioned, room, where I slept well.

After I checked in I went off to investigate the fortress, where I found another very helpful T.I. before succumbing to a starvation attack. The fancy Hamam restaurant inside the fortress walls provided a tasty but very tough goulash, although it had more oil than broth. Then I followed the T.I. lady's instructions and took a bus to the train station, where I bought a ticket for the mid-day train to Sofia (and Istanbul) as the buses either left in the middle of the night or arrived in Sofia after 10:00 pm. The train was supposed to get in around 6:00 pm....

I decided not to trek to the other side of town to see the remains of the gruesome Tower of Skulls, a relic of the Turkish victory at the battle of Cegar in 1809. I did admire a couple of statues, and once again appreciated the parks and trees that seem to be a feature of Serbian towns. Dinner, which I ate in my hotel's restaurant (there wasn't much to choose between the ones lining Kopitareva), featured good chicken and fries, but veggies that managed to be undercooked and burnt at the same time! I consoled myself with a reasonably cheap glass of Cointreau.

I needed consolation rather more the next afternoon, as the international train to Istanbul put me forcibly in mind of the train ride I had suffered through from Istanbul to Sofia back in 1974, when the Turkish-Greek war over Cyprus closed Istanbul airport, and the tourists were crowded into carriages added to the back of the Orient Express - fifteen hours sitting up with no restaurant car and abysmal toilets.   

I would not have been surprised to find that the two carriages headed for Sofia dated from 1974, although this time I only had to share a compartment with two people - a couple of Swedish backpackers. At the Serbian border the engine disappeared, leaving us sitting in the sun for what felt like hours. After we finally crossed into Bulgaria it was to embark on another long wait, for no apparent reason, as checking passports took very little time, and the ineffectual search for contraband not much longer. (I'll have more to say about that later.)

All that sitting around, steaming in the heat, meant that I arried in Sofia in darkness after all. The Swedes had been told they would be moved to a different train, with better carriages (they had paid for couchettes) in Sofia, and with the other Istanbul passengers disappeared in a rush. I trekked upstairs to the main hall where I found a functioning ATM and not much else besides a series of taxi touts. I had intended to take a tram to my hotel, but after one of the touts pointed out the route to the trams - down a dark underpass - and I recalled warnings about the station district after dark, I took the helpful tout's taxi instead.

It was the next morning, when I discovered I was too late for breakfast, before I realized that we had arrived even later than I had thought, as there was an hour's time change between Serbia and Bulgaria. I spent one night in the Hotel Niky, thinking the tour hotel too expensive, and my room was really only acceptable for one night. The hotel restaurant, on the other hand, with a stream running through the middle and plenty of happy-looking locals, was fine. I appreciated my first taste of Bulgarian wine, too.

Status

I'm now in Tirana, having traveled Ohrid - Sv. Naum - Korca (by car), Korca - Gjirokaster (by car), Gjirokaster - Saranda (by minibus) and Saranda - Tirana (by slow bus). I'm heading to Shkodra (by minibus) tomorrow, before going over the border to Montenegro and what sounds like a very nice place for a rest. I need one!

My journal is up-to-date, but obviously my writing is way behind! And I've been wasting my time on Fodors arguing that walking away from baggage claim with someone else's bag is not a "S... happens" accident, beyond the perpetrator's control, but a preventable mistake for which one should feel some responsibility. Given the people who have apparently done this, or feel it's entirely excusable, I'll be standing even closer to the start of the carousel after my next flight. Arriving to find my bag missing is one of my travel nightmares, even though all the valuables are in my (heavy!) carry-on.

Sep 17-18 - Tour time in Sofia

My hopes of being able to check in at the tour hotel, the rather upmarket Crystal Palace, were dashed, but they did record my passport details and hold my bag. Having missed breakfast, I set off down Sofia's yellow brick road (yes, it's real, although a bit on the pale side) looking for food more than sights. I did appreciate my first look at the main cathedral, and at the Russian Orthodox church, and was interested to see that a large and lively children's fair was sponsored by an Amercian friendship organization.

After good mushroom soup and a not good sandwich at the Bulgaria cafe I returned to the hotel to find the new person on the front desk had no record of me, and took a good quarter of an hour to decide I really was supposed to stay there. Then I had to get them to fix the AC.

At the start of tour meeting I found that we had 22 people on the tour - fewer than my last Rick Steves' tour, but more than I had hoped. All were well-traveled - one was a travel agent - and I got on really well with a couple of the other singles. However, I was surprised to find several extreme right-wingers in the mix - previous tours had been rather more left of center, and I found it annoying that a number of people clearly thought that "no photo" notices didn't apply to them. 

The tour leader, Lyuba, had prepared welcome packets for us, with background information on Bulgaria, each day's itinerary, and a page on the Cyrillic alphabet. That was well beyond what any previous leader had done, and she was to prove a very engaged and informative guide. I had already been coping with the Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia, but since I'd used it on previous trips to Russia and Ukraine I wasn't having too much difficulty. Once you realize that "pectopah" means "restaurant" you're off to a good start.

That first evening we retraced my route from earlier in the day, on the way to dinner, and the next morning we set off on a more extensive and very ecumenical walking tour, taking in the Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral, the Russian church, a mosque, and a synagogue, along with a number of official buildings and source of spring water popular with locals.

I really wanted to see the Boyana church, not included on the tour, and after a quick lunch in a nearby market, I set off with one of the other singles (from Scotland!). Unfortunately, we got "taken" by our taxi driver - I wanted to negotiate the rate, but my companion was happy with the meter, which turned out to be rigged.  However, the church, and the nearby Museum of History, were absolutely worth the trip. The frescoes in the church were painted in the mid 13th century, and their custodian was eager to point out that they predated Giotto, while showing the same realism. I found one of St. John of Rilla, whose monastery we would visit the next day, particularly arresting.

Visitors only get ten minutes in the church, and we were very lucky to be able to go right in - the day before the wait had been very long. We also had the museum pretty much to ourselves, and I had a nice time admiring the Thracian gold, as well as the building itself, an interesting holdover from the Soviet era.

So glad you're back, thursdays -- hope Montenegro will give you some respite and a chance to catch up! Looking forward to hearing more about Bulgaria! When I lived in Sofia (in the late 70's: the bad old Zhivkov days) only Nevski cathedral and the small Russian church were open -- but any kind of worship was actively discouraged.

Still reading. Do watch your luggage!

Sep 19 - Roughing It In Rila

As with the proverbial curate's egg, on a tour I expect some good and some bad. This tour had started well: my roommate was very quiet - I practically had to drag her out for coffee - but that was much better than the opposite; the tour guide was interesting and engaged; the initial walking tour had gone well, and the Q and A session with a local economist the second evening had been open and lively - although he had skipped my smuggling question. But I had doubts about day three.

We were going up to Rila monastery, an iconic complex I very much wanted to see, but we were spending the night in the monastery, rather than in the nearby hotel, and there were rumors there would be no hot water. I had not initially thought that too much of a problem, but now I learned that we wouldn't check into our next hotel until 6:30 in the evening...  Then there was the visit to the Roma Community in Dupnitsa.

I'm really not fond of these "visit the local village" events. I vividly remember my first, on a misbegotten OAT tour, where we were expected to hand out candy to the kids in a Lao village. I hate feeling like I'm in a human zoo. This one was certainly better than my experience with OAT: Lyuba seemed to have a good relationship with the local contact, and we had another Q and A session with her. The chicken soup and salads served for lunch were good, but I wasn't particulary impressed with the children's dance, and was saddened by the dated machines in the computer center. (USAID money stopped when Bulgaria joined the EU, and the Peace Corps volunteer who had been working with the community left.) This was a settled Roma community, we didn't meet any others.

My outlook wasn't improved by a lunch-time discovery that some of the group thought that only property-owners should be able to vote - did they want to go back to the 17th century, or was that the 18th? Several centuries of progress seemed to be in jeopardy. I felt better when we reached Rila monastery, however, it was just as beautiful as I had hoped. And there was actual hot water! (Well, warm.) But the beds were a disaster - I should have followed my first thought and put the mattress pad on the floor. Whatever passed for springs sagged so much I woke up every time I tried to turn over.

The next morning Lyuba took us on a very good tour of the museum, church and tower. We were on our own for lunch, and fortunately I had taken Lyuba's advice to make a sandwich at breakfast, as there didn't seem to be much else going.

Sep 20-21: Plodding Round Plovdiv

The five hour drive from Rila to Plovdiv, our next stop (two nights, this time), was broken by a welcome visit to a winery. Not that I was particularly interested in the tour - seen one lot of stainless casks and oak barrels, don't need to see any more - but I was enthusiastic about the tasting. The Bulgarian wine I had been drinking with dinner had certainly been palatable, and I was interested to try some more.

The stop was at the Bessa Valley Wine Cellar (http://www.bessavalley.com/ ), and the wine was supplemented by bread, cheese and sausages. While I found the rose, as usual, too light for my taste, I enjoyed a quite good red blend and a rather better reserve Cab/Syrah, which we got to taste from the barrel, a first for me.

I was less enthused by the tour hotel in Plovdiv (Dedeman Trimontium Princess). The interesting part of town, the old part, is up a hill at one end of town. We were staying in what looked like a Soviet-era behemoth (albeit renovated), at the other end. As with the Sofia hotel, this one was much bigger, and more main-stream, than those I usually choose, and those I expect on a Rick Steves tour. It really seems that he's left the back door days behind.

The next morning's walking tour was my first encounter with what became my biggest problem with this itinerary: a very long morning, pushing lunch unrealistically late, and leaving a short free afternoon. I would have much preferred a shorter tour in the morning, and then another tour in the afternoon. Not only could I not handle a late lunch after an early breakfast, I found my concentration failing after two or three hours. This day we had started at 9:00, and Lyuba was still taking the group round a house museum at 1:00 pm, at which point I abandoned the group in search of lunch. 

Since starvation was threatening, I didn't have long to find somewhere, and nowhere I saw in the old town seemed to be open. I did find a remarkably cheap falafel place down near the hotel, but then didn't feel inclined to trek back up the hill to visit any more museums. Fortunately we had visited the ethnographic museum as well as one house museum, but most of the morning seemed to have been devoted to walking around, and checking out the decidedly underwhelming Roman theater.

I spent rather more on ice cream and coffee that afternoon than I had on lunch, and took advantage of the hotel's wifi to update my blog and check my credit card bills. Not very exciting, but it was raining. Dinner, chicken stuffed with mushrooms at Philopopolus, with a few of the other tour members, was a definite improvement on the afternoon.

Am still enjoying each installment, thursdaysd. Travel in Bulgaria still has its challenges! But I trust that the lovely people there have not changed too much?

Hi skibumette - challenges were due to long distances and Lyuba's ideas about lunchtime! People and scenery were fine.

I am reading your trip report with interest as we are headed to Croatia in June 2012 and intend to go to Budapest via Dubrovnik,Mostar, Sarajevo,and Pec.

Katyt - see if the cruise ship schedule is still on the Dubrovnik Port Authority web site, and try to pick a day with only one or two ships in port.

All - I realize I forgot to mention that being at Rila after the other tour groups and assorted day trippers had gone was a real privilege. We got to wander round the buildings and admire the many frescoes without fighting crowds, to attend the services if we wanted to, and to appreciate the peace and quiet and soaring hills that make it a great site for a monastery. RS needs to make a donation to the monastery for better beds, though!

That last comment sent me scurrying to google maps to find out if Rila was a cruise ship destination!! Rereading, I see that there are two separate comments there. One of my biggest fears when visiting somewhere is being swamped with cruise ships. When I was in Dubrovnik there were 5 monster cruise ships there. The little town can't cope.

Yes,we are planning to miss as many cruise ships as possible,unfortunately I just read that Princess Cruises are stopping in Korcula starting in 2012.
I always enjoy your trip reports and looking forward to the next installment.

Sep 22 - Tombs and Tourism

As I have said before (ad nauseam, probably), I'm not a beach person, but although I'd already visited the Black Sea twice, I was moderately interested in seeing it again. At Yalta I had thought the water dirty but the town interesting, while at Batumi in Georgia the pebble beach and the temperature had reminded me of England and of summers shivering beside the Channel. However, the Black Sea resorts were Bulgaria's biggest mainstream tourist attraction. That might not be a good thing.

Also not good was the distance to the coast from anywhere else of interest. According to the schedule Lyuba had provided, we would leave Plovdiv at 8:00 and not check into our hotel in Nessebar until 18:00. True, that did include visits to one museum (in Kazanluk) and two tombs (Kazanluk and Kosmata). Given that I would eat breakfast at 7:15, I was relieved to see that lunch (sandwiches provided by the Plovdiv hotel) was scheduled for 12-ish. (I'm sorry to keep harping on meal times, but with borderline hypoglycemia a starvation attack is a serious matter, and I'd just had a near miss the day before.)

The Thracian gold in the museum was beautiful, but the tomb was much smaller than I expected - I had been thinking of the big beehive-shaped tomb I had visited at Mycenae. This was a similar shape, but the ceiling frescoes were the real interest. We had to wear white coats and remain silent, and got just two minutes in the tomb.

At this point Lyuba decided we should postpone lunch and go look at the other tomb first. Since I could feel starvation setting in I had to insist on getting my sandwich while the others visited the tomb. I hated to do it, but I would have hated a full-blown attack more. Lyuba insisted that I visited the tomb while the others ate (on the bus, it was too cold to picnic), and this one was bigger, but without frescoes. I'm afraid I found the gold more impressive...

Red wine and grapes were handed round after lunch, and we made a mid-afternoon stop at a Burger King - a rather nice Burger King, with good toilets. Still, it was a relief to arrive at Nessebar, where I was pleased to find that my room came with a neat balcony with a view of the water. The relief was short-lived, however. I should have read Lonely Planet with more care - this was tourist central with a vengeance. Once upon a time Nessebar was, I feel sure, a small, charming fishing village. Now it was wall-to-wall souvenir shops and cafes. Even without wall-to-wall tourists it was exactly the kind of place I hope to avoid. 

Dinner, with two other singles, confirmed my bad impression. We had tried to find a place recommended in Lonely Planet, but were having enough difficulty in the dark that instead we picked the one restaurant near the water that seemed to have customers. Usually that's a good sign, but this turned out to be the kind of place that doesn't expect repeat customers. My schnitzel was fine, but on one side of me was a nuked steak, and on the other a serving of skate that was mostly bone or cartilege or whatever it is that the fish uses to stiffen its wing-like fins. It's true that skate usually consists of a lot of inedible stuff, but portions are supposed to be big enough to make up for it.

The bad news? We were at Nessebar for two nights. The good news was that at least we weren't at Sunny Beach, a major resort complex we could see across the bay. Lyuba told us that it attracted young, partying Europeans in droves, but that the prices had been driven so slow the system might not be sustainable.

I like the sounds of the red wine and grapes, not sure about the rest of the trip!

Sep 23-24 - Black Sea Overkill

The morning of our full day in Nessebar our tour of the town took in the museum and several churches, giving us some idea of what the place might have been like before the souvenir shops and hotels took over. I was starting to work on plans for my next country, Macedonia, and was pleased when Lyuba ate lunch with me and gave me some contacts and suggestions. (Although I did take her claim that Albanian and Macedonian men, unlike Bulgarians, could be dangerous to solo women travellers with a grain (or two) of salt.)

After an afternoon stroll with my camera I joined one of the singles on her balcony where we shared wine (the local merlot easily beat the local chardonnay), and she filled me in on the gossip from the west coast. I had thought that Rick Steves' divorce might have been his ex-wife's idea - maybe she had tired of having a husband who spent every summer in Europe? But no, it was the same old story - middle-aged man falls for much younger woman.

Next we had a short drive, via the mega-resort area of Sunny Beach, to Varna, still on the Black Sea coast. If I had to do it over, I would skip the Black Sea altogether, saving a lot of driving, but three nights was certainly at least one too many. It occurs to me that I've been writing as much about the tour as about Bulgaria, underlining one of the probems I have with tours. I have a tendency to let details - the quality of the guide, the minutiae of the itinerary, the foibles of my fellow tourists - overshadow the country I've come to see. In the case of Bulgaria, a place with a long history and plenty of good scenery, that would be a real pity.

The early history of Bulgaria is that of the Thracians, and the only reason I had actually wanted to visit Varna was to see the Thracian gold in the city's museum: the oldest gold artifacts in the world (fifth century B.C.E.). (See http://www.amvarna.com/eindex.php?lang=2&lid=2&slid=&slid=1 ) While the Thracians seem to have been good warriors, like their neighbors the Greeks they were unable to hold off Philip of Macedon, or the Romans. After the Roman Empire fell, there was a mass influx of Slavs to the area, and a series of wars between the peoples who became Bulgarian and the Byzantine Empire. While the Bulgarians enjoyed periodic success aginst the Byzantines, they lost decisively to the Ottomans.

After I left the museum, where Lyuba was still explaining the details of a series of icons to a dwindling audience, I visited the nearby Orthodox cathedral. Bulgarian Orthodox, that is. The Eastern Orthodox church is much less monolithic than the Roman Catholic church, although it hardly matches the fragmentation of the Protestants, but all the divides seem to be along  national lines: Russian, Greek, Georgian, Armenian, Serbian, etc. etc. I don't know how that relates to the Ottoman habit of identifying people by their religion rather than their ethnicity, but it can't have helped in the recent Balkan wars.

The Bulgarian capital, however, is notable for having an Orthodox church (two if you count the Russian church), a (beautifully restored) synagogue and a mosque within easy walking distance of each other. And while the occupied Balkan peoples periodically attempted to get rid of the Ottomans, at least under them, as under earlier Islamic empires, there was a measure of religious toleration for the other "people of the book". You had to pay higher taxes, there were limits on the height of your church or synagogue, you even saw your eldest son taken to Istanbul to be a janissary, but at least you didn't have to worry about being hauled off to be tortured and burned to death because a neighbor had denounced you as a heretic or a witch, or that your part of town would be invaded by a murderous mob inflamed by libels about your religious practices. 

Most people, of course, go to the coast for the golden beaches, not the Thracian gold, and certainly not the churches. I have miles of sandy beaches a two hour drive from my house in North Carolina, which I visit maybe every third year for a couple of days. Once I found that there were no cafes overlooking the beaches I lost interest in them, and I found Varna pretty unexciting, too.

After Varna we had another long drive back across country. While I enjoyed the views, the best part of the longer drives was the descriptions Lyuba gave us of her life under Communism, and during the transition - "when democracy came", as she put it. She started out as a construction engineer, but was one of the first to lose her job when the system changed. We may like to think of democracy as a panacea, but for those who lived through the fall of Communism, in Russia, in Bulgaria, in other former Soviet republics, life suddenly became very difficult indeed, with starvation sometimes a distinct possibility. Even now, a couple of decades later, the transition is not complete. The economics expert who talked with us in Sofia was open about the problem of corruption, which extends to the judiciary. It takes more than elections to create a fully functioning democracy.

Enjoyed your comments -- especially noting that there is now a functioning synagogue and a mosque in Sofia...something we would never have seen in the 70's. (Even Orthodox churches, with the exception of Nevski cathedral and the little Russian church, were locked up tight.)

Your comments on democracy are spot on. The "old" Bulgaria was a case study in the power of controlling information: there was no internet, no access to Western AM/FM radio, only State-run TV, travel to the West (even Greece) was not permitted -- so people didn't know what else was out there and for the most part accepted the limitations of the system they had. When the Wall came down and the Soviet Bloc fragmented, Bulgarians got a taste of what they had been missing. But it can be very tough learning how to navigate in a totally new system.

Slight digression on Sarajevo

Depending on how you look at it, my timing was one day off, or spot on. Thursday I walked past the US embassy in Sarajevo - not because I wanted to visit it, but it was on my route, despite having been moved further out the center. Anyway, Friday I left on an early train for Pecs, in Hungary, where this morning I read that a man had tried to shoot up the embassy on Friday!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BOSNIA_SHOOTING_SPREE?SITE=NCBER&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

"Timing is everything" -- in this case, I'd say your timing was perfect!!

Sep 25-26 - On To Veliko Tarnovo

We broke the drive from Varna to Veliko Tarnovo at a couple of popular tourist spots. I’m afraid that the first, the Madara Horse Rock Cliff, wasn’t as impressive as I’d expected from the descriptions. Of course, producing a large sculpture half-way up a cliff is a difficult feat, but time has not dealt too kindly with the horse, rider and accompanying dog. On the way up from the road to the view point we stopped to listen to a local bag piper. I’m sure any Scots reading this will accuse me of heresy, but I really don’t care for bag pipes. I’m virtually tone deaf, and bag pipes – and for that matter violins – are just rather unpleasant noises to me.

Since we weren’t due at our next stop, Arbanassi, until 13:30 I had fixed a sandwich from the breakfast buffet which I ate on the bus, but when we arrived I immediately headed for the nearest cafe with one of the other singles. We had a very nice meal, with a very interesting view. Arbanassi is on tourist itineraries for its old churches and houses, but clearly there’s been plenty of new building, and one traditional style house just below our terrace boasted a lovely big swimming pool.

Once again, we weren’t allowed to take photos of the frescoes in the churches, but no such restriction was in force at the house we visited. Traditional Ottoman rooms, furnished with low built-in benches along the walls, are chiefly distinguished by their carpets and the carving on the ceilings. Getting to see the kitchen as well as the main rooms was a definite plus here.

Veliko Tarnovo was everything I had hoped Nessebar and Varna would be. True, there were a number of tourist shops, but they were mostly confined to one street, and plenty of interesting buildings were scattered round the rest of the town. Our hotel, too, was more the kind of place I expected on a Rick Steves’ tour – small and cute and family run. My roommate and I even lucked into a suite, with two bathrooms and a balcony!

The town was built on hills, and its castle occupied the highest of them. The group was scheduled to visit the castle, but instead of starting the morning walk there, when the day was cooler and the light better, Lyuba started down on the souvenir street, with a pottery demo. Now, as with the winery tour, and several other demos that often show up tours, I put pottery demos firmly on the “don’t need to see that again” list. Eventually I got tired of hanging around, and checking out the other shops, and took off on my own.

I wandered off in the general direction of the castle, stopping in a church with an impressive chandelier on the way. Then I settled in with a cup of coffee to enjoy the excellent views from the foot of the path to the castle, expecting that the group would show up soon. When 11:15 came and went with no group, and I had finished my coffee, I looked at the sun, I looked at the steep path up to the castle, I reread Lonely Planet’s not very inspiring description of the renovated remnants up the hill, and I decided the view from below was good enough. (I later learned that the group didn’t get there until much later, having taken in several other demos, aka shopping previews, first. Bit of a surprise, as the tours are advertised as not for shoppers.)

The bus back to town showed up just as I was about to leave, and deposited me almost opposite the restaurant where I ate lunch. I spent part of the afternoon checking out the newer part of town, and part on the net. Dinner had to be early, as we left the hotel at 7:00 for a folk dance performance. As these things go, it was pretty good, although I would have preferred more dancing and less singing, especially as the singing was, naturally, not in English.

We had already had one birthday in the group, today there was another, and a beautifully decorated cake, complete with fizzing sparkler, was wheeled out on the stage after the performance – and after most of the group had been persuaded to go up and dance (assuming step-step-kick counts as dancing). Back at the hotel Lyuba demonstrated how to fix a noodle and syrup dish using noodles from one of the morning demonstrations, and we got to share the cake, which was almost too pretty to eat.

KW...you sure are good at bringing back pleasant and fascinating memories. During Iron Curtain days, I traveled (with difficulty especially in finding petrol and food!) over a good chunk of Bulgaria and even more of Romania. You may be interested in knowing that VT (once known only as Tarnovo) has found it's way (c.1890's) into my newest historical novel.

At any rate....your TR is perfectly detailed and should give those interested an honest insight into the "new Bulgaria"..my most recent visit was in 2005. Thank you for taking the time, and a big wish for more happy travels.

Stu

Hi Stu,

Glad you're enjoying the TR. Lots of Balkans coming up on the next thread.

Cool about the book - what's the title and when is it due out?

If you haven't been to southern Hungary lately you should put it on the list. Lots of good renovations, and brand new small hotels in Pecs and Szeged. I'm not liking Kecskemet quite as much, but the buildings are less my style and the town is bigger.

Status: Clearly, writing on the road did not go well on this trip. It proved difficult on the tour, and then I caught a bug of some kind in Albania, and even after the cold symptoms cleared up, the cough didn't, and I needed to devote any available energy to travel rather than writing. Now I'm home, and an antibiotic has improved matters some, so I'm going to try to finish up. And plan the next trip...

Sept 27, 2011: Slowly Back to Sofia

We left Veliko Tarnovo at 9:00, but we arrived in Sofia at 17:15, with no time for for any last minute activities. Fortunately, I had asked Lyuba on day one whether I would have time to buy a bus ticket when we got back to Sofia, and she had told me not to worry, one of her colleagues would take care of it. Well, I didn’t worry, until around the Black Sea stage, when I learned that a four day holiday might interfere. (The Rick Steves people seem oddly clueless when it comes to scheduling tours around holidays.) Luckily, the trainee guide who met us back in Sofia had been able to buy the ticket, that day.

So, what did we do on the way? Another village visit. I have to say, some of the group – the extroverts, perhaps – thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Others, not so much. My sympathies lay entirely with the young boy at the high school, giving us the evil eye as we filed past. In his place I’d have done the same, assuming I hadn’t managed to disappear entirely.

The kindergarten kids greeted us with a song, after which we toured their empty classrooms. The school had been built during the Communist era, and impressed us. The main rooms were bright and well-lit, and darker side rooms held rows of cots for naps. One of the teachers took at least as many photos of us as we did of the school. The high school seemed older and shabbier, with outdated equipment. (As an ex-techie I was interested to see the dual-alphabet keyboards in the computer room.)

After a Q and A session with the village secretary (the mayor had just stepped down to run for re-election), we settled in on benches behind one of the houses for lunch. We were served the foods usually prepared for wedding feasts: potato salad, beef soup and bean soup, with the local fire water, rakija, for those who wanted it. We were entertained by a trio of musicians and a young, award-winning singer, and they sounded pretty good even to me. After lunch Lyuba and one of the women in the group dressed up in local costume, an opportunity for cultural exchange I was happy to pass up.

When we finally arrived back in Sofia we heard that the area round the Parliament Building should be avoided as there had been demonstrations against the Roma, the Roma king’s son had apparently murdered someone (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/anti-roma-demonstrations-spread-across-bulgaria.html?_r=1 )

Our farewell meal at the Architects’ Club round the corner from the Crystal Palace should have been a highlight, but we were separated into small groups and the food was surprisingly bad. Drinks afterwards in the hotel lobby, where we said goodbye to Lyuba and our charming driver with small gifts (wine for the driver and noise makers for Lyuba) went better.

Next morning I shared a final meal with a few of the group and said a fond farewell to my particular friends. But when my taxi eventually arrived, and I was driven off to the bus station to start the next leg of the trip, I experienced a rush of delight at my recovered freedom. On to Skopje!

Glad you are still posting your trip report - I hoped you hadn't given up on it, and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Hi julia_t - pleased you're still reading! The saga (including Bosnia) continues here: http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/the-b-trip-part-three-western-balkans.cfm

Your honest description of the RS tour certainly doesn't inspire me to sign up for his or any other tour. While I realize the practicality for many travelers - especially in edgier locales, your exclamation: "I experienced a rush of delight at my recovered freedom." sure sums it up for me.

Ian