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.
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