After about a week in Istanbul, my friend Eric and I made our way towards Bulgaria. The “easiest” way for us to get there was to book an 8 hour bus journey from Istanbul to Varna (which of course took 10 hours). It was actually a fairly pleasant ride since the bus had tv sets in each seat just like an international flight and even had a stewardess! I’ve never been on a bus like that!

We made it to Varna, on the black sea coast, late in the evening and then went and picked up our rental car early the next morning. One note for those curious about renting cars in foreign countries; it is indeed possible to rent a car without an international drivers license or even your passport with you, because that is exactly what I did. I completely forgot to bring both of those with me when we went to pick up the car, but the friendly Bulgarian lady at the rental desk let it slide 🙂  It’s definitely beneficial to always put on a smile and be polite!

Our first stop in Varna was the so called “Stone Forest”, which is more or less what you’d expect it to be. It’s essentially a bunch of oddly shaped vertical stone formations out in the middle of nowhere. These formations were likely made by the forces of erosion (wind and water mostly) carried out over an extraordinarly long amount of time. It was a very unique place, though it did remind me a bit of Moeraki, New Zealand, which also had some incredible stone formations (those were spheres though).

From the stone forest we cruised on over to the Varna battlefield, the site of a massive 1444 battle between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition of European forces. The battle wouldn’t turn out so great for the Europeans though. Their leader, 20 year old Vladislav III, King of Poland and Hungary, decided to try to turn the battle in his favor by leading a contingent of 500 of his best troops in a direct assault on Ottoman Sultan Murad II’s position, only to have his head promptly and unceremoniously removed from his body by the Sultan’s forces. Mind you, the Ottomans had around 60,000 troops at the battle, so not sure what ol’ Vladislav was thinking running at the Sultan with only 500. Perhaps he should have let his main army do the fighting. Needless to say, this battle marked a major turning point in European history. The battle shook the faith of many in Europe, since a “heathen” Muslim army was able to fairly easily dispatch a large christian army put together by a grand coalition of European nations. In fact, the Pope himself had called for this attack on the Ottomans, which of course calls into question the claim of Papal infallibility 🙂 The battle also directly led to the downfall of Constantinople 10 years later, as the Ottomans had consolidated their grip on Eastern Europe following the battle  which completely isolated the Byzantine capital from the rest of Europe. I always find it very interesting to see historical places in person, especially ones that hold such little known significance!

From Varna, we cruised westward through the countryside of Bulgaria, towards Veliko Tarnovo, a town which was once the capital of the 2nd Bulgarian Empire. It was an interesting experience driving through the countryside in Bulgaria, because unlike most of Europe, which is quite densely populated, Bulgaria is profoundly empty. Unless you are in one of the major cities (Sophia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas), it is unlikely you will come across much of anything. Sure, there are small villages here and there, but that’s about it. Bulgaria seemed to be mostly large open spaces, filled mostly with forests, fields, and mountains. It felt more like we were driving through some sort of soviet era Montana than through a country that is a member of the European Union. It was still a beautiful place, just an unexpected beauty.

Once we managed to wind our way up the ridiculously steep and skinny cobblestone streets to our Air BnB in Veliko Tarnovo, we were finally able to appreciate the layout of the town. While it certainly isn’t the best place to drive around, Veliko Tarnovo is an absolutely wonderful town. It sits in an amazing location, tucked up on the mountain hillsides overlooking a winding river.  The river winds its way in a complete U shape, meaning the town looks sort of like an amphitheater, with everyone looking towards the center of that U.  Tsaravets Fortress, the citadel of the 2nd Bulgarian Empire also dominates the town. It was built on a peninsula of land created by the winding river around 1180. We spent a few hours wandering through this sprawling medieval fortress while also enjoying the views of the Bulgarian countryside.

On top of the wonderful setting, Veliko Tarnovo also has tons of charm. There are loads of little restaurants where you can dine on traditional Bulgarian food (who knew Bulgarians loved salads so much?) and there are also lots of little shops tucked away along the cobblestone streets selling a little bit of everything. One of my favorites things though were the tiny little stairways that wound their way up and down the hill in between the houses. They make for a quick way for pedestrians to access streets on different levels. Walking these stairways we would pass by little gardens, housecats sunning themselves on roofs, and clotheslines full of yesterday’s laundry. It was a neat little insight into normal life. Suffice to say, Veliko Tarnovo was my favorite place in Bulgaria!

From there we got back into our little red car and continued westward towards the capital, Sophia. We spent the evening walking around the center of the capital, seeing some of the main sights (big cathedral, large pedestrian street, smaller cathedral, yadda, yadda, yadda). To be honest, Sophia didn’t strike me as a super interesting place.

Thankfully, we spent our final day in Bulgaria visiting the Rila Monastery instead of Sophia. Built in the 10th century, Rila Monastery is a really neat building complex way up in the foothills of the Rila mountains. It took us several hours to get there, but it was well worth it. The scenery along the way was beautiful, with lots of open valleys and mountains in the backdrop. The monstery itself also has a very unique architectural syle, quite unlike any religious structure I’ve seen. Oh, and our trip to Rila Monastery also happened to coincide on my birthday. I made sure to eat some cherry cheesecake when we got back to Sophia!

And last but not least, a cool road trip video put together by Eric: