Two hours after leaving the Rock Monastery, we arrive in the little town of Arbanasi, perched on a high plateau above Veliko Turnovo. The town has a medieval history with many monuments and churches, plus 17 and 18C architecture. But it has turned into quite a tourist town now, with hotels and restaurants on every little cobblestone street. We’re here simply for the view – which is amazing looking across the valley at Veliko Turnovo with the Balkan mountain range in the distance. We can see the Monastery of St. Nicolay the Miracle worker below us, across a ridge, and Tsarevets way up high in the distance. We can only imagine how this must have looked before the influx of tourists (especially if we keep looking to the left, avoiding the construction site of some big new luxury hotel on the right). It’s a lovely little rest stop after so much driving.

Retracing our steps, we drive back down the hillside, through a little residential community at the bottom before crossing the Yanta river to arrive at Tsarevets. Here, Rodica walks us up to the main entrance, across the drawbridge and up into the Second Bulgarian Empire’s main fortress. She gives us a brief overview of area, what to see, where the “rock of execution” is located (the point above the river where they would take prisoners and traitors and push them to their death, then gives us an hour to explore. And we’re off!

It’s a huge complex with impressive stone walls and bulwarks, originating in 12C, although inhabitants of the area have been recorded as early as 2BC with a city settlement in 4AD. It was once one of the most important fortresses in Bulgaria, with many Kings inhabiting the Royal Palace and aristocrats living within the citadel walls. Sadly, only about 20% of the original buildings and outposts remain after a vicious 3 month Ottoman siege in 1393 that culminated in the burning of the fortress.

We make our way up the wide stone path, marveling at the massively thick stone walls lining the hills around the fortress. After climbing for a bit, we reach the Patriarchate, a complex that includes teh Cathedral of the Ascension of the Lord, which was built on top of the a Roman basilica. This too was destroyed in the siege, but it was rebuilt in 1981 and painted with haunting modernist frescoes in 1985. The paintings are a striking contrast to the old medieval architecture, but totally captivating (as you’ll see from all the photos we took!).

Outside after our fresco-palooza, we wander around the church, spying the Royal Palace complex off in the distance and marveling at the gorgeous landscape and long views you can get from every angle. It is no wonder this became the major fortress of the Second Kingdom.

It is pushing on 2pm and we are all now ready for lunch. Meeting back at the van, we drive a few minutes into the center of Veliko Turnovo to find some food. Rodica gives us a couple of options, but tells us she is going to one of her favorite traditional Bulgarian restaurants, Shtastlivca, so of course, most all of us join her there! It’s a sweet little restaurant that is perched on the edge of a steep slope with huge picture windows looking out across the valley. Lovely atmosphere and excellent traditional food. We tuck into a basket of garlic and cheese bread (so bad, but so good – we shared with the rest of the table, FYI), a huge skewer of grilled lamb kabob for Ed and a pesto and sun dried tomato stuffed chicken breast for me. All were excellently prepared and a totally filling meal (for that late in the day!).

Now it is time, you guessed it, for shopping! Well, actually, it isn’t that bad of a thing. We’ve got about 30 minutes to wander the cute little narrow main road of Veliko Turnovo, where there are delightful little shops full of pottery (yes, I took pictures for future reference!) and of course the Souvenir shop full of Rose oil products. This was the main draw for all the ladies on the tour. The rose if the National flower of Bulgaria and they use it for and in everything – think candy, food, make up, perfume, healing oil…..the list goes on and on….but suffice it to say, there are tons of products to look at, try and buy. We even bought a few souvenirs to take home with us – including rose candy – of course, how could we not?

Back at the van, we all pile in for the long ride back to Bucharest. It’s a little after 4pm and if we are lucky, and don’t hit too much of a back up at the border crossing, Rodica thinks we may be able to be back by 7:30. Phew. Time to sleep. Well, maybe not! We still have lots of history and cultural lessons to learn like:

• There are typically 4 priests per church and you have to pay each priest for every event, such as a wedding, a funeral or communion
• Romanians are very superstitious and believe in the supernatural
  • Werewolf legends come from when Dacians used to wear wolf skins with heads to keep them warm, but they scared the heck out of the conquistadors who called them “wear” wolves….hence werewolf
  • Strigoi – Orthodox believe in the Strigoi which is a ghoul that steals souls and haunts you
    • On the last day of November, St. Andrew’s holiday, everyone puts salt all around the house and garlic on the window sills (why garlic you ask? Because garlic changes the taste of blood of course!) and food in the courtyard to keep the Strigoi away from the house and the souls inside
  • Night of the Demons – June, 24th, men don’t go outside because the Iele, a demon that takes the shape of a woman, is out there and if a man sees Iele, he will lose his voice (Rodica got goose bumps just talking about it!)
• Romanians didn’t have clocks, they were introduced by King Carol
• The Intercontinental hotel was built by Ceausescu because Nixon complained about accommodations in Bucharest (more on that in tomorrow’s blog post)

That, and a sweet (literally) rose candy, along with one bathroom break before the border crossing kept us quite entertained on our long drive back to the city. And as a bonus for the long drive, as we were making our way past the Parliament building, we were treated to the lighted fountains display! A lovely way to end our very long, but totally excellent day trip to Bulgaria!