2022 World Tour – Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Hello from Plovdiv, my 50th stop on the trip. The next few stops are all within Bulgaria so I’ll abbreviate the story to just the highlights of the city.
I need to get to Sofia on the western side of Bulgaria to meet up with my Barcelona-AirBnB-share friend Vanille. Looking at the map, it’s a little long to go all in one bus trip and Plovdiv is about halfway, so it seems like a good place to stop for a few days along the journey.
Plovdiv and its iconic hills have been inhabited for 8,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuously settled cities in the world. The Ancient Thracians were in control for a couple of thousand years before the Romans took over and constructed a multitude of buildings that are still being dug up today. I was pleasantly surprised by the extent of the Roman influence here and the results of the local excavations.
I rolled down to the nearby bus station in Burgas and watched in awe at the chaos of the buses pulling in and out, trying to park in a slot and the people milling around almost being run over. I should be used to this by now but I’m constantly amazed at the disorganization. Oh well. Around my time of departure a driver of an unmarked bus was shouting Plovdiv, so that’s me. The bus started out nearly empty but we picked up people in Sliven and Stara Zagora and were practically full by the time we reached Plovdiv at 6pm. I rolled over broken sidewalks for 5 minutes to the booking address to find that it’s an empty lot. Then I realized I chose the address of my hotel back in Burgas, and there’s an identical street name and number here! The right location turned out to be a short bus ride away and I arrived safely.
It was an unhosted apartment with a security code lockbox for the keys. It’s probably the biggest place I’ve stayed in so far, with the master bedroom to the left, the middle room is a living room with big couches, a big fridge and a small TV and the right room is a bedroom with two bunkbeds, washing machine and small kitchen. The bathroom is Thai style, all tiled with a shower head on the wall and everything gets wet as you shower. I went to a nearby Italian place for dinner but had to pay cash as they don’t take cards. I’m hoping this isn’t a pattern here.
In the morning I woke to the noise and smell of fresh asphalt as they’re paving the road next to my window, flashing back to my excitement as a kid whenever road work was happening. I made a list of things to see around the city and started walking.
Almost directly across the road I came upon the Small Basilica. As you can see from the pictures, they’ve built a building covering the excavation of pre-Roman, Roman and Christian layers of churches at the site. I walked further down the street to the Bishop’s Basilica, same thing but much larger scale, with very impressive archeology and a raised glass floor that you walk along to see the excavation below. Up until the 1970s the site was covered by a road! Next was the Roman Forum adjacent to the post office. The site is actually two separate digs because it’s so big they just uncovered two of the main locations. From there I walked north through a pedestrian walking area to the Roman Stadium, where they unearthed one curved end of a track-and-field shaped stadium. Next was the now-abandoned Mevlevihane or the Dervish Monastery, then to the Old Town which is not a typical old town I’ve encountered before – it has really no shops and restaurants, it’s just a very small area designated as a cultural heritage area with art museums, galleries and churches. I tried to go to Nebet Tepe, an ancient fortress, but it’s closed with a construction barricade. I hobbled down really uneven cobblestone streets to the Roman Theater, which was closed for the day because there’s a concert there tonight at 8pm! Just my luck, but I got some decent pictures through the metal wall. Last site was the Clock Tower, situated on a hill with good views of parts of the city.
Is it worth a visit? If you’re into Roman history and archeology, this is a hidden gem!
Next Stop: Sofia, Bulgaria
