Bulgaria: Velika Tarnovo and Arbanasi

July 30, 2015

We survived 41C in Bulgaria today.  Barely.

Image credit http://www.hotels-europe.com/info-countries/bulgaria/map.htm

Brief history of Bulgaria: It was first settled by a tribal society called the Thracians in about 400 BC. The Romans conquered Bulgaria in 100 AD. In 200 AD, the Bulgar people settled in the area, and this is where Bulgaria gets its name. The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic Central Asian tribe. The Ottoman Turks ruled Bulgaria from the 14^th to the 19^th century. The Russians declared war on Turkey in 1877, which helped lead to Bulgaria's independence in 1908. Bulgaria joined Germany in World War I because they were promised territory. Bulgaria was also on the losing side of WWII, but avoided open conflict. Bulgaria did not send their Jewish people to concentration camps. After WWII, Russian troops entered Bulgaria and communism took over. Communist leader Todor Zhikov ruled Bulgaria from 1954 until 1989 when he was deposed. How was he deposed?  His own party did not like him, so one day they put an announcement on the radio that he had "resigned".  The country has since moved towards democracy and a market economy. Today the population of Bulgaria is 7.3 million.

In Bulgaria, the locals shake their heads for yes and nod for no.

The ship did NOT go far last night; in fact, we are parked exactly on the opposite side of the river that we got on.  We got on in Romania and are now in Bulgaria.  

Frankie and Annette have to meet with the chef and maitre'd every morning after breakfast to look at the day's menus and choose what is safe for them to eat.

It was ANOTHER 2 and a half hour bus ride to our destination, Veliko Tarnovo. Veliko Tarnovo was named Turnovgrad until 1966, and was at one time the capital of Bulgaria. The houses are set on a steep gorge and seem to be stacked on top of each other. The city was destroyed in an earthquake in 1911, but has been restored.

We started in nearby Arbanassi where the oldest church is the Nativity Church. The entire interior is covered with painted frescos, 3600 paintings.  The paintings are 5-600 years old. You can't tell where the wall ends and the ceiling begins.

Then a tour through some old family's home, the only thing we can say is that they TRIED to make this an interesting day.....  They were really pushing their rose oil as a cure-all for everything from migraines to kidney stones.  

To indicate how old the Tsaravets Fortress is, it was rebuilt in the 8th century. It was destroyed in a Turkish invasion in 1393.  The fortress is surrounded with 3,000 feet of stone walls. Some of the walls are over 11 feet thick and over 36 feet high.

After lunch (there's only a LITTLE gluten in the soup, that's okay?), we were given time to stroll the Old Town along Samovodskata Charshia (Rakovski St.).  Frankie searched high and low for the souvenir plate she had seen online, and we finally found Dimitri who makes them by hand.  He uses designs found in shards of pottery from the fortress.  He bakes it several times at 1000C.

At the end of the tour, someone on our bus said he had been chased because he bought a coke and was about to walk back to the bus with it.  They made him pour the coke into a water bottle because they didn't want him to keep the glass bottle. 

We spent dinner (2 hour affairs) and the evening on the ship.  We are rather exclusive, chasing away people who want to sit at our table so that members of our group can sit there.  We feel like a little family now.  We are SOOO glad we did the pre-extension and not the ones at the end like lots of people are doing.

Ship Stats:  The Viking Embla is called a longship because it is 38 feet wide and 443 feet long.  There are 190 passengers and 50 crew.  It was built in 2012.  Our room is teeny tiny, but is has a balcony.

Bulgaria's graffiti does not seem to be as creative as Romanian graffiti: