retiredmartin

April 2024. Veliko Turnovo.

Our third and final stop on our whirlwind wizz (actually with Ryanair) round Bulgaria,

as we arrive at a bus stop 2 miles west of Veliko Tarnovo* (pop. 71,502), perhaps the Shrewsbury of Bulgaria.

Reader, I did allow Mrs RM a taxi to the centre (£2.50). One slight problem, the driver didn’t understand “centre”, we weren’t headed for a hotel, so he wasn’t sure where to drop off so he had to get his English speaking mate to talk to us on his mobile.

Panicking, I picked “Museum of Illusions“, the first thing I saw on Google that looked like it was central and didn’t involve complicated directions, a good bet. We never actually went to the Museum of Illusions, despite the taxi driver waving frantically at us to cross the road to it.

Nope, we wanted food.

So after the obligatory photo of the old town buildings tumbling down to the river Yantra,

we popped in the smart looking Shtastliveca, and grabbed a seat by the window with that view above.

Kavarma for two. a huge bowl of meaty stew with garlic bread for £15.

Very unfussy service, and the trade all seemed to be local, rather than the German tourists we’d expected.

The staff seemed delighted by Mrs RM’s request for a bottle of stout, too; possibly because it was the most expensive beer on the menu.

Like the beer, all the food we enjoyed in Bulgaria was high quality; if anything quality beat quantity, surprisingly. The Kavarma was as close as you get to a Lamb Handi and Naan round here, and even better for a lack of calorific data.

With showers promised on and off that afternoon, we got Gurko Street ticked on the way to our hotel.

A gem of a cobbled lane, the sort of street which you’d expect to be full of glitzy hotels,

but somehow wasn’t.

We didn’t pass another soul.

*Is it Tarnovo or Turnovo ? Who cares.

More and irritatingly better photos on Mrs RM’s Instagram.