Wandering around some more, we also spotted a statue for the (Communist Liberation / Victory of World War II), which has now been turned into something of a skate park. We liked it even more after learning that it had replaced a statue of Lenin in 2001. Statue of Liberty-esque, the statue represented the wisdom with the owl in one hand and peace with a wreath in the other. We then passed the golden statue of Sofia which means wisdom. We stepped into the church, which was much more impressive from the outside. In Sofia, we followed the yellow-bricked road (truly) to view the city’s main sights and impressive buildings. We couldn’t imagine how dispiriting it must be to live there when even driving past it was so depressing. Radomir, nothing rad about it.īuilt in the middle of nowhere with towering, boxy apartments that all looked like they might tumble down any moment. We stopped to take photos of Radomir which seemed the best example of a grim, nothing-to-recommend-it Communist-style town. We had to return the car to Sofia which meant a day trip back to the capital. Sightseeing can be hungry work, so we were glad to find a small restaurant open through the other side of the monastery, and warmed ourselves with a lunch that involved wine and pork. The weather and cool temperature meant we almost had the monastery to ourselves with only a few other brave tourists and the monks that live there for company. The roads leading there were windy and wet, but still spectacular with the greenery and mystical feel. We took advantage of the rental car and visited the nearby 1000-year old Orthodox Rila monastery in the mountains. But we made it out, and enjoyed a few of the mushrooms with our meal even though we could barely eat one each! We got slightly lost thrashing through the wild rose bushes and undergrowth with our enormous amount of enormous mushrooms. Looking for mushrooms the size of dinner plates was relatively simple, but not so easy to pick as they grew under trees on the steep slopes. We all piled into the Defender and joined the cousins on a four-wheel drive journey near the border of Macedonia / Serbia (we could see the tripoint marker). Our “quiet” week with the family started with a mushrooming adventure. ‘shrooms, from the tri-border area, passports required. Not too long after we were groaning with food ourselves so somewhat rolled ourselves back home.
Bulgaria gpsy orphans full#
There were rooms full of adults and children, and tables groaning with food – lots of local cheese, more sausage meat, marinated peppers, eggplant and more cheesy bits. We then got invited for a meal at their cousin’s house nearby. As it turned out we’d just missed them, so immediately headed back to Sovoylono to rendezvous and have a beer in the rain. Still no sign of the Angelovs and it started to rain quite heavily, so we retreated to the rental car and back to Kyustendil. For example, Mario mentioned that we must have been careful with our belongings in Romania, given that 60-70% of the population were gypsies and likely to steal anything! (The reality is more like 5-7% gypsy population and we had no problems in Romania). Mario and his boys were hilarious (one was an Olympic wrestler!) especially their bigoted opinions on the differences between Romania and Bulgaria. We also chatted to a few guys in shell suits that rolled out of a flash Audi. After a little aimless wandering and sampling of the local fare, a woman came to introduce herself, and her cousin, the local mayor. The local “Husheer boys”…Īmongst it all were young boys throwing fireworks into the crowds and waving their realistic-looking toy guns while the adults sat quietly drinking the local firewater, Rakia.īulgarian folk seemed much more friendly and interested in talking to foreigners than other places we’d been. Luckily the fair was very small and as Tye said, we stood out like dogs bollocks being the tallest people there and also the only ones wearing t-shirts! However still no sign of our hosts, so we settled in to watch the enthusiastic folk dancing and wailing singing (authentic this time!) on a scratchy sound system. We arranged to meet Casey and Angel at the annual fair in nearby village Sovolyano and worried it would be hard to find each other. Our destination was a small town called Kyustendil (Said: queue-stin-dil) to visit Tye’ friends, the Angelov family. As all great explorers do we headed west, towards the border of Bulgaria and Macedonia.
It was midmorning and the sun was peeking through the clouds. On our own again! After saying farewell to Shamus and Juliana, we drove off into the sunset.
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