Rousse and Vidin, Bulgaria

September 29, 2016

I discovered I skipped Rousse in my entries, so this covers the 29th and 30th of September.

We docked in Veliko Tarnovo with a day trip to Arbanosi.  Veliko Tarnovo was under Ottoman rule for 480 years until an uprising in 1876 which was followed by the Russo-Turkish war (1877-1878). During the war, Russia freed Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.  Bulgaria fell under communists like the rest of the region and was part of the "revolution" that ultimately freed Eastern Europe from Communist domination in the early 90's.

Arbonosi is a quaint little town that reminded me of Stratford on the Avon with the old stone houses and thatch roofs.  Since this area is prone to earth quakes, the stone houses are built with wooden beams placed in varying intervals within the stone walls to absorb movement from quakes.

We toured a local home that had been converted to a museum.  It had several bedrooms, kitchen and living area and was a modern home with an inside bathroom.  The bathroom consisted of a whole in the floor with a shute that went into a hole in the ground.  Our guide described each of the rooms and that many of the bedrooms were shared with multiple children sharing a bed.  Since having many chiildren was important the parents had a private room, but once a child was born, the mother and child stayed in the mother/child room undisturbed for 40 days to allow the baby to acclimate to its new life.  On day 41 the child was introduced to the rest of the family.

We left the house and walked to the Church of the Nativity of Christ.  The church remained very simple on the outside, a reaction to Ottoman rule, but the inside was amazing.  They had restored all but one corner of the churches elaborate "icons" just to show what it looked like before and after restoration.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I found a couple pictures online that I've included just to show how amazing it was inside.  As part of our visit, we had a group do a series of chants that would have been done in the church.  It was quite beautiful but one man in particular was an amazing bass.  He began and ended most chants.

We finished with a walk over to a local hotel where we had lunch.  We started with a cucumber and tomato salad topped with grated cheese - similar to a farmer's cheese.  Then we had a soup that was nice but not quite sure what it was.  We also had this pile of bread that was just amazing.  Soup was followed by a stew that was reminiscent of a Hungarian Goulash but made with chicken and little more tomatoee.  Desert was this amazing yogurt with honey. I think they served wine with lunch, but I stayed with water.

The fun part of lunch was the entertainment - yet another wonderful folk group of muscians and dancers.  It was really fun.

We finished up lunch, then walked back to our buses for the ride back to the boat.  Afternoon tea, leisure time with friends and finished with dinner and dancing in the lounge.  Fun fun day.

September 30, 2016

It is the last day of September and we are spending the morning sailing.  We are headed to Vidin, Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is famous for its roses.  Apparently Bulgaria produces 60% of the roses used for oils, hand creams, perfumes, etc.  Before the day was done, I had purchased my fair share of rose products and beautiful tapestries.  But when the sales lady said “buy 5, get one free”, of course I did.  Then when she said “buy 10 and get 2 free”, how could I resist.  But I was really pleased with what I got and it was all hand made so even better.

We went by coach into the hills to visit the Belogradchik rock formation.  By its description I thought it might be similar to Garden of the Gods, but the rock is lime stone with iron in it, so it is much darker and because of the iron our guide said it was a natural lightening rod.  The Romans built walls around and within the rock formation to create Baba vida Fortress.  142 steps to the top plus two more ladders.  It makes you wonder how they got all the rocks up there to build it.

The walls were later retrofitted to accommodate “modern” weapons by creating gun turrets in the walls for rifles.  The area was beautiful and the view of the city below was quite lovely.
After spending time on the rocks we went back down to town where I shopped until Mr. Visa dropped.

Interesting part of our “road trips” is we always have a break that includes refreshments.  This one was coffee or tea and nice little cookies, one made with Feta cheese and one kind of like a Russian tea cookie.  Both were nice but to my surprise, the Feta pastry was the best.

We finished up shopping and returned to the boat for a day of sailing.  Tomorrow we go through the Iron Gates, the largest lock on the Danube.