Our 90 days outside the Schengen Zone was drawing to an end, meaning we could enter Greece for the next part of our adventure. But we still had three days to fill in. Getting from the Romanian capital down to Greece's second-biggest city, through Bulgaria, seemed to be easy enough. But there were some hurdles we hadn't anticipated.
We finished up spending a couple of very cold days in two bleak cities in the north of Bulgaria. We at least managed to get our wish for some snow, but were reminded that you should be careful what you wish for. Click on the picture below to join us for a glimpse of a couple of towns that haven't moved on much from the Cold War.
Ruse and Pleven, Bulgaria
January 2023
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2 Comments
The photos for Pleven and Ruse look more tolerable than I expected from the narrative. I was thinking the unloved tourist towns in this part of the world might be filled with 1950’s Soviet style grey apartment blocks that we see in the movies. The towns seemed more architecturally interesting than that? As an aside, I loved the couple of photos of the Danube in Ruse. My parents come from a town on the Danube called Apatin 800 km upstream. I’ve been there a couple of times and, whilst the river at that point isn’t a tourist dream either, its size and scale is imposing. I’ve stood on the river bank a couple of times reflecting on where the water was going – now I know – it’s through a small town in Bulgaria with an angry pharmacist who only accepts cash!
🙂 The narrative reflects being at the tail end of some bad weather and a couple of bad train and bus trips. The cities aren’t to blame for those! But in both places the streets beyond the picturesque central squares are lined with very drab houses, and broken roads and footpaths. The pedestrians also look perpetually unhappy. It would be interesting to see Ruse and Pleven in summer. Maybe the locals would look happier in the sunshine?
The Danube is one reason to visit in Summer. Not far downstream from Ruse, it turns northward and winds through Romania, finally reaching the Black Sea near the Ukraine border. The last part of its travel opens out to a huge wetlands area that teems with birdlife, and is one of Romania’s biggest tourist attractions.