Bulgaria
In late 1980s the Communist tyranny in Bulgaria began to crumble.
Bulgaria is a relatively poor country and it suffered badly in the recession of 2009. However, Bulgaria recovered and today the economy is growing steadily. Tourism is a rapidly growing industry in Bulgaria. Tourists are attracted by the architecture and beaches. Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007. Today the population of Bulgaria is 7.1 million.
Flag of Bulgaria
We had two wonderful weeks travelling around Bulgaria with Anissa and Pete two great friends from Australia. We first had a relaxing few days in Golden Sands Beach. Varna was our first stop. It is a very nice city, clean fresh with lots of good restaurants, nice beach and beach bars, if we go back to Bulgaria we would stay here rather than Golden Sands Beach.
Golden Sands Beach with Pete and Anissa
Varna Cathedral
Aladzha Monastery
We continued our trip down to the ancient city of Nessebar, and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, The small city exists in two parts separated by a narrow man-made isthmus with the ancient part of the settlement on the peninsula, and the more modern section on the mainland side. The older part bears evidence of occupation by a variety of different civilizations over the course of time. It really is a very quaint city which we really enjoyed.
Nessebar
We then travelled across county to Plovidiv the oldest city in Europe, the main street is nice and there is a nice Garden in the centre of town but otherwise we did not find it very impressive. Being the oldest city in Europe we had high expectations.
Roman Theatre in Plovdiv
Gardens in Plovidiv
From here we drove on to Sofia the Capital of Bulgaria, Sofia is a nice city and has some impressive government buildings and churches.
Sofia Catheral
It was nice to get out to the Rila National Park to visiting the famous Rila Monastery founded in the 10th century, the Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria’s most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments, The monastery is named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila (876 – 946 AD), and houses around 60 monks. We also hiked to the Seven Rila Lakes, they are a group of glacial lakes, situated in the northwestern Rila Mountains in Bulgaria. The lakes are situated between 2,100 and 2,500 metres elevation above sea level. Both the lakes and Monastery are very impressive and worthy of a visit.
Rila Mountain lifts up to the start of the seven Lakes
It was a very misty day but this is one of the lakes we could see
Martin found a friend
Rila Monastery
Driving around Bulgaria was nearly as bad as driving around Turkey the drivers are crazy here. Martin did a very good job of keeping us safe.
Shame our friends could not continue our journey onto Cyprus.