retiredmartin

April 2024. Veliko Tarnovo.

For anyone still reading this Bulgarian blogging and thinking “Make it stop and give us English beer“, I reckon 4 posts to go and then a return to a treat in Sheffield, where the favoured beverage is this;

Mrs RM had booked a 12:15 bus for our return from Veliko Tarnovo to Sofia, so a morning to explore Veliko’s Old Town in the dry.

Layer upon layer of medieval buildings rising up the banks of the Yantra,

cats on every corner,

and views to not one but two fortresses.

It’s startlingly gorgeous,

yet seemingly devoid of tourists, despite some smartish shops and a smattering of hotels.

Perhaps it’s the cobbles that deter visitors,

perhaps, like Bridgnorth and Bewdley once were, it’s genuinely undiscovered. Come back in a decade, it’ll probably be swarming.

We just had time to cross the bridge to the monument to the Assen Dynasty,

overlooked by the most Communist of all Communist hotels. If you can spot the dinosaur below your eyesight is holding up.

The most expensive coffee machine so far here, but then it is Lavazza. The local espresso was cheaper at 25p,

and bottom right you’ll see what I assume is an approximation of an Irish coffee, Bailey’s and all.

35p for Irish coffee, but 1.50 lev (65p) for a wee at the flashy bus station. They’ve got their priorities right, I guess.