Plovdiv

We had an interesting night in our lodgings, first of all the toilet flush system broke, I for some reason was blamed for it, with me supposedly being too rough when pulling the flush. The flush was like a big button on top of the cistern which you pulled up rather than the normal pushing in. David did try to fix it but we could only get the toilet to flush by lifting the cistern slightly. This worked for a while but then that also stopped but interestingly the toilet then started to flush constantly, so we had the constant sound of a filling cistern serenading us in our rooms. We soon got fed up with that, luckily the stopcock for the cold water was right by the cistern, so when we went to the loo we had to switch the water on and then after flushing leave time for the cistern to fill and then switch it off again. When we arrived at our lodgings we were shown our apartment by a man who understood very little English, but we had also spoken to his daughter on the phone as she could speak English. It just so happened that she  phoned that night so we told her about the saga with the toilet, she said she would mention it to her dad and he may pop round. He didn't! So we had two days fighting with the toilet plumbing. 

The next day we headed for Plovdiv which is the second largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia. It is a beautiful city with many old buildings with very interesting architecture and a lot of Roman ruins. Plovdiv is surrounded by 6 hills, there used to be 7 but one was destroyed when they used stones from it to make buildings. 

In what is classed as the new town there are many interesting statues and buildings. This is also where you can see the remains of a Roman coliseum, in which chariot races once took place. This meant it was very long. Unfortunately, because we had the dogs with us we could not go to the tourist centre to find out more about it but we could see the remains of one of the ends. 

The new town is also where all the main shops are. Plovdiv has been chosen to be the European city of Culture in 2019, of which they are very proud. 

There is a lovely precinct area to wander around in the new town as well as a park. Luckily for David  there were several geocaches in the area, which helped to keep him out of mischief although it did earn us some dodgy looks from passer bys as he ferreted around benches, scrutinised bins and stroked railings! Thankfully we did find some, so he went back to our lodgings with a smile on his face. 

The dogs behaved very well and Monty seemed to enjoy city life. 

If you look closely at the seating in this area you will see the seats look like big buttons. A geocache was under one which was right beside an elderly gentleman, He didn't say anything but you could tell he thought we were behaving  a bit odd. 

This is some of the Roman remains. 

We then wandered up to the old town, which has lots of little cobbled lanes and very interesting old timber framed 19th century  buildings. By now though we were getting very  hot and tired and being extra careful not to over tire Monty we headed back to the car. 

The photo below shows art work on the gable end of one of the buildings. 

We would definitely go back to Plovdiv , as it is a beautiful city with so much to explore, unfortunately we were a bit limited because we had the dogs with us. 

A wee break away - Batak

Once we were back from our trip to Croatia we were basically biding time waiting for Monty the pup to be old enough to travel. We spent the time doing housework, DIY and gardening at our daughter's house, a real busmans holiday ! We did however manage to fit in a few day trips and even had an overnight stay close to Batak,  in which we also visited Plovdiv. 

Batak was recommended to us by a friend who told us all about its amazing history. It was the scene  of an horrific massacre, with the Turks basically killing all the men, women and children who were in the village at the time. Out of an estimated population of 8 to 9 thousand only twelve to fifteen hundred survived. 

This is the church in which bodies were found piled three to four feet deep outside , inside the church were more bodies which the Turks had tried to burn. 

Nowadays,  you can still see evidence of the burned beams inside and there are also four big casket type containers inside which contain skulls from the victims. 

The  centre of Batak has recently been done up and in theory should be nice to walk around , with wide open streets and pedestrian precincts lined with cafes with outside seating. However, although we tried three different places, we could not buy food only drinks were being served, even at an hotel.  So we ended up in a supermarket and buying good old crackers and cheese, which is what me and David have resorted to many times on our travels. 

This is a nice wooden carving carved out of a tree trunk showing a bear and wild boars both of which are still present in the woods of Bulgaria. There were also many statues lining the precinct area. 

The main thing that stood out for me in this town though were  the stray dogs milling around, some just seeking a friendly face while others were foraging in bins for much needed food. 

The Batak Dam. 

There are many reservoirs and  dams in the Batak area and we actually stayed on the shores of one of these. We had rented an apartment for the three of us , as our daughter came too,  along  with the dogs, Stella and Monty. We had problems finding our lodgings so stopped outside a house where an elderly man was sat enjoying the sun. Armed with my iPad which showed the lodgings details I approached the man, who quickly called out someone's name. Another man appeared from inside the house clutching a bowl of soup and once he had figured out I spoke English , took out his phone and called someone. The next thing I knew was I was speaking to his son who could speak English. After a brief conversation with the phone being passed between me, the man and his son I was basically pointed along the road a little bit. In fact the man actually got in the car and showed us right to the door then walked back. I must say , most Bulgarians are very helpful and indeed are very eager to help even when it is not really wanted, to the point of it being forced on you but it is done so nicely and genuinely that you don't like to complain. 

Stella is enjoying the view from our balcony. We were given an upstairs room which I thought was odd seeing as we had dogs but I was to learn that this seemed to be the norm, with us always  being given upstairs rooms,  even in places which only had lifts. 

Plitvice Lakes - Croatia

Very early the next morning we set off for the Plitvice lakes so we could beat the crowds and try to make the most of the day. You can buy either one or two day tickets into the park but we only had the one day before we were setting off again. So, in our heads we thought if you can buy a two day ticket there must be enough to do for two days, so we better go early and get as many hours as we can. As it turned out we had ample time in the one day and we did the second longest walk around the park, so I am so glad we didn't go for a two day ticket. 

Driving to the park we inadvertently missed car park number one which is lower down the hill and ended up higher up at car park number two. Which actually turned out to be a very good starting point for touring the lakes although when we got there the car park was mobbed. There were people milling around and queues to get into the car park. As we drove through the car park, passing people who had already parked and got out of their cars, I realised that so many were in very sporty Lycra outfits and were doing strange warm up movements. A bit extreme , I thought but also what am I letting myself in for? I also felt slightly under or over dressed, not sure which, but casual walking gear and sandals was not cutting it with this crowd. Getting out of the car we threaded our way through the people to the ticket booth where there was a large poster advertising that a marathon race was being run there that day. Typical the day we chose  not only had lots of runners but also family members supporting them , although to be fair once we were out of the car park we didn't see any runners until we were heading back to the car. 

Walking out of car park two you need to cross a bridge and walk down to the entrance of the park. At this point there is a board which has a list of walks you can choose to do, telling you how long on average it would take to complete it. You then continue on to catch a little boat which takes you across one of the lakes to where you can either walk around that area, or catch a bigger boat to take you to the lakes in the lower area. As we were doing one of the longer walks we decided to explore the upper part first. 

The park is absolutely stunning and turning around every corner there were amazing sights to see. The water was so clear with lots of fish, there were also dragonflies and frogs around. 

To start of with we were basically alone but as time passed and bus loads started to arrive we gradually began to be caught up with crowds. 

 A lot of up and down hill walking is involved but it is worth the effort . There were several people there walking the dogs which seemed a bit strange they are definitely more dog friendly in mainland Europe. We often saw dogs in tourist attractions and restaurants on our travels, which in Britain would mainly be frowned upon. 

The lizard in this picture ran right in front of us. 

At some points there were just holes in the ground where the water had worn away the soil making large plug holes for the water to run through. 

There was water cascading and waterfalls everywhere. 

We climbed these big steps which led up to a cave. 

This is the tallest waterfall in the park. 

We had a great day there and went home hot and weary from our exertions. On the way we decided to treat ourselves to an ice cream, a wee treat as they say. Arriving at our lodgings we passed the elderly couple who run it, who seem to spend the day sitting on their porch watching the world go by. We were in our room for about ten minutes when we had a knock at the door, the lady owner was there with two ice cream sundaes for us, which was absolutely lovely and went down a treat but I must admit we didn't really need it after our earlier ice cream. 

Rastoke - Croatia

We took longer than we planned to get to our lodgings in Croatia as we were being careful with our wonky tyre although to be honest you wouldn't know that it's size was slightly different. Our lodgings in Croatia were  a few kilometres from the Plitvice Lakes and belonged to an elderly couple who spoke little English. They were very welcoming though and knew enough to get you settled in. The room was absolutely gorgeous and they had complimentary beer and wine in the fridge as well as tea making facilities, although it was only fruit tea available. The couple seemed to sit all the time on the porch so every time you walked in and out of the building you felt obliged to say hello, there wasn't much more we could say! 

As we drove towards our lodgings we passed through a lovely area called Rastoke which is also known as the little lakes, after we had settled into our room we decided to go back and have a look as it was too late that day to go to the Plitvice lakes. 

Rastoke is absolutely stunning, so beautiful it looks like a film set, too nice to just be a normal town that has evolved over time. It is full of lakes and waterfalls, with quaint old fashioned mills dotted around which originally took advantage of the churning water from the waterfalls to power the mills. A lot of these mills are now tourist lodgings but some are still working. 

It was a lovely evening to wander around. Parking near the falls is metered up till 6 o'clock at night but there are places within walking distance where you can park for free. 

While we were there David decided to look for a geocache which was on a lamp post on a bridge which went over a river. It was easily found being close to a religious figure at the side of the road. 

It was a magnetic geocache which was stuck to the underside of a  metal plate on the lamp post. As David grabbed hold of it , it slipped out of his hand plunged down into a tree, bounced and landed in the water and floated away , never to be seen again. Oops! That was not supposed to be happen.  Secretly, I thought it was quite funny, but now we had a dilemma, the geocache was no longer there for other people to find. Luckily, and I know you will find this strange, David had spare magnetic geocache tubs in the car, so he managed to replace it, saving the day. Hooray! 

A hero in Serbia

As we are staying in Bulgaria longer than we expected, while we wait for the puppy to be old enough to travel we decided to have a few days away in Croatia. A few years ago we went to Dubrovnik which was lovely, during that trip we heard about the Plitvice Lakes which are supposed to be amazing and a place we had on our wish  list to visit, so decided to take the opportunity to go. 

Actually getting there from Bulgaria meant travelling through Serbia. We had initially decided to avoid driving through Serbia on our travels as we had heard so many horror stories, but it was the quickest way to go and we found it to be really nice, the people were very helpful, the roads very scenic and the immigration border so easy that we are now going to travel back home that way. 

The journey was so long we stayed over one night in a hotel just outside Belgrade, very close to Mount Avala which we decided to explore. 

On the way up the hill there is a memorial to Soviet generals who had flown over to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Belgrade being liberated from the Germans. However, their plane crashed on the hillside so a memorial was made for them. There is an interesting sculpture there and stunning views but typically at that point my IPad wouldn't take photos as it said I didn't have enough memory. Once we were back in the car we carried on up the hill while I frantically tried deleting things so I could get some photos. 

At the top of the hill there is a car park which strangely is guarded by a sphinx. There are also some stalls there selling souvenirs. 

We got out of the car and went looking for the tomb of the unknown soldier. This was very impressive, placed high up on a structure made out of black stone. The black stone actually showed some sign of damage probably caused when the nearby television tower was bombed by the Croatians. 

The drive was beautiful with many tunnels cutting through the mountainside. At one stage there were thirteen tunnels in a row. 

 Early the next morning we set off on the road once more. The road we were driving on had lots of tolls, we have come through a variety of toll roads on our travels, some countries have machines you put money into at the toll booth, others you pay cash before you go on, in Serbia you get a ticket as you go onto the road from a machine then as you leave it you hand your ticket to an assistant in the booth and they work out how much you owe. 

We had been through several of these booths and were going alongside another booth when we 

suddenly heard a huge bang and the car rocked. Turns out we had gone too close to the kerb , hit a 

 sharp bit and the tyre basically popped, it looked like it had been shredded. Well, we thought we were well and truly snookered, stuck in the middle of nowhere with only three tyres. The car we have doesn't have a spare tyre,  you get a can with some liquid foam type of stuff in it (is that technical 

enough for you) which is supposed to fix a flat tyre until you can get it sorted. Well, I tell you that can 

was going to be no good with that tyre. 

I did ask David why he had gone so close to the booth and he said it was so I could reach the machine, goodness knows how short he thinks my arms are! In his defence it was harder for him to gauge how close we are  as the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car for their booths. The annoying thing is we had gone through so many already with no problems. 

Anyway,  we drove a little bit clear of the booths to examine the damage and have a little freak out moment. Thinking we were well and truly stuck, David set off to see if we could get some help while I eyed up the land, considering whether  we were going to have to pitch our tent, which was in the boot of the car. 

David quickly reappeared with two guys. The first one he spoke to had looked at him like he was an 

alien, thinking he sort of sounds like he is speaking English but not quite. So guy number one told him to wait while he got someone else, he came back with the second guy who was also Serbian, he realised as soon as David spoke that he was Scottish. He was actually quite excited that we were Scottish as he hadn't spoken to anyone from Scotland before, I tell you he understood us very well. 

He said that a lot of people burst their tyres there, looked at the tyre then offered to drive David to a garage to see if we could get a new one. The problem was that basically we were in the middle of the 

countryside, the nearest garage was in a village so had a limited range of tyres and it was Saturday 

and most places were either totally shut on a Saturday or shut early and wouldn't open again until Monday. With fingers crossed I watched David disappear with the man, clutching the tyre which he had removed from the car and I sat on the verge to wait. It seemed ages before they returned by that time I had visualised the best place to put the tent, scared off two street dogs and people watched 

everyone going through the tolls. There was one car that stopped to use the not very nice looking loos 

and the amount of people who clambered out was incredible, it was like a comedy sketch. 

Thankfully,  when David did eventually reappear he had another tyre, however it was slightly smaller than the other three we already had but it was better than nothing. Rather cautiously we set off on the road with me in particular constantly thinking , does the car sound funny, is it moving funny but no, we not only got to Croatia we also managed to get back to Bulgaria where we managed to get a new tyre. 

So it goes to show, you can find heroes anywhere, that Serbian man who helped us at the toll booth saved the day and he wouldn't even take any money for his help, or the petrol used. Although to David's disgust he seemed to know a lot about Hearts football club, not good when David is a Hibee!