Veliko Tarnovo (or just Tarnovo for short) is a beautiful city. When you visit, you’ll understand why the New Bulgarians (British) are buying up property left and right here. The houses and buildings of the city are packed onto the land in such a way that they seem to form the hills themselves. Most of the suburban sections of the city are composed of old concrete apartment blocks but the main old town is historic and authentic without any disneylandesque sheen. Wonderful!
I’ve spent a good deal of my time here walking around the old town. After seeing the fortress the main sights in the area are monasteries and churches that seem to be everywhere in Bulgaria. I’m not a big House of God person. I enjoy large churches for their sheer size and Baroque decorations and I visit Mosques for their wonderful atmosphere but in Tarnovo I reached my limit early in my stay. Thus, I spent a significant amount of time walking around the city, taking photos and taking it easy (cooking, reading, hanging out) at the hostel.
I’ve met some really interesting people here at the hostel. I’ll don’t really write a lot about the interesting people I meet while traveling since it seems that everyone is interesting when you’re on the road. Even so, I’ll introduce you to two people here: Ichiro and Wayne. I like both of these guys a lot and they’re representative of some of the more colorful characters you’ll meet while hostel hopping.
When I met Ichiro, he was dressed in a traditional Japanese robe and had some type of white powder covering his body. I thought he had a skin condition. I became a bit intrigued when I saw that he has a friar’s halo shaved into his hair. It turns out, he’s a traditional Japanese dancer. At 43 (I think), his travel experience is incredible. He’s walked from Ireland to Istanbul (with the help of 2 ferries) and for the last 10 years of his life, he’s lived on the road, supporting himself by traveling from town to town performing the traditional Japanese Dragon dance. He’s toured every inhabited continent. As for the friar’s doo, his hair is shaved to resemble the Kappa, a mythical creature that lives in lakes and emerges from the water to get people to party. Seriously, the Kappa’s job is to convince people to get drunk. Put that culture in your pipe and smoke it.
Wayne is an American traveler living in Columbia. He’s a nut for word associations, etymology and 2012. I can’t really sum him up in a paragraph but he travels the world and tells his story to willing travelers and gives them a message: Just Be. Simply be. Without ego, without shame, you want to exist in the moment. His website is a work in progress and while I don’t agree with much of what he’s saying, I love his message and the amount of work he’s willing to put into learning more.
http://www.circusoflife.com
I left my book on the bus from Sofia but just happened to stumble upon a secondhand bookstore a few blocks away from the hostel. I’m now wrapped up in Malcolm Bradbury 1981 story of Dr. Petworth’s cultural visit to Slaka, the fictional Soviet Satellite state that seems to be vaguely modeled after Bulgaria. It’s a delightful read, full or ruminations on travel and movement through strange places and customs.
Unlike Dr. Petworth I still can’t understand a lick of the Cyrillic alphabet.
On Saturday, I leeched onto a student’s birthday party and made the trip out to a Bulgarian superclub. This was a first rate cultural experience. While we had a lot of fun dancing and hanging out I don’t think a lot of our Bulgarian counterparts had a good time. The club was huge so I took some time away from our group to explore the club and people watch. What I saw literally made me laugh out loud. I'd say that 80-90 percent of the people there were trying to look so cool that they were forgetting to have a good time. Frowns, stiff posture, and dismissive glances were everywhere. We still had a blast and managed to pull a few locals into our fun. Note: if you’re positive and trying to have fun, even if you’re a bit shy and nervous on the inside, you’re no only going to pull yourself into a positive and fun headspace but you’ll also pull those around you into it as well. If you just want to act standoffish and too cool for everyone, well, you’re gonna end up boring yourself and all those around you.
Other notes:
There’s a lot of hiking around Veliko Tarnovo but it isn’t spectacular, mostly trails through the hills to other towns and monasteries.
One of my favorite moments happened only a few minutes after I arrived. Since Veliko Tarnovo is a tourist town, if you’re walking down the street with a backpack, you’ll be accosted by old ladies who own guesthouses. They’ll use every trick they can to get you to stay with them. They’ll tell you that your hostel is closed or that it’s noisy. My favorite woman kept up with me for five minutes of walking and got more and more worked up with every step. By the time I left her, she was shouting that Hostel Mostel is “UNNATURAL PLACE TO STAY! 10 PEOPLE IN ROOM! GOD DIDN’T WANT IT THAT WAY! WHY YOU STAY THERE! YOU STAY IN GYPSY TOWN! YOU STAY WITH THE GYPSEYS!” When I saw her the next day, she wouldn’t even talk to me. She simply shook her head and gave me the stink eye.
I stayed in Veliko Tarnovo a day too long. I should have listened to my internal travel barometer. By now I think I’m a bit more attuned to when it’s time to leave a place and when I should stay longer. By Sunday morning I was itching to go but I didn’t make the jump. I ended up wasting another day kicking around the town instead of getting somewhere fresh and new.
I got a few suggestions to go to Sozopol. It’s a bit out of the way but we’ll see if I get there.
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