Bulgaria – Shake Your Head For ‘Yes’ and Nod for ‘No’

Like my title indicated, that’s how the Bulgarians do it!

Bulgaria is situated in the Balkan area of southeastern Europe. It borders Romania to the north (just across the Danube River); Serbia and Macedonia to the west; and Greece and Turkey to the south. Its eastern border is formed by the Black Sea.

Bulgaria like Romania and other eastern European countries used to be part of the USSR. As we drove around the city of Vidin we still saw many apartment buildings built during the communist (our guide referred to it as Socialism) regime. These building, from the outside, looked very inferior in construction and paint or concrete appeared to need repairs.

This country like most of the European countries has a very interesting and chaotic history due to the numerous conquerors that came and went. The last was the Ottoman Empire as evidenced by many of the houses’ and buildings’ architecture.

As we drove through the countryside, our tour guide pointed at many of the abandoned factories that used to “employ” Bulgarians during the communist era. Presently, the country is mostly dependent on agriculture and is famous for its yogurt and dairy products and other crops like wheat, quinoa that they export. Tonight, we drank a Bulgarian Merlot that tasted better than many of the Merlots we’ve consumed in the US.

We drove an hour to get to Belogradchik Rocks. These rocks are supposed to have formations that bear the names like, “Adam and Eve”, “The Bear”, “The Madonna”, etc which were all formed millions of years ago; however, we were all disappointed as the snow was falling like crazy and just distorted any rock formations that we were supposed to see.

After a brief coffee and pit stop. off we went to Babini Vidini Kuli fortress or simply known as Baba Vida – the best preserved medieval fortifications in all of Bulgaria.

When we reached Baba Vida fortress it snowed more and when many of our fellow cruisers saw how steep the climb is to reach the other levels of the fortress and they begged off to go back to the bus. But I wouldn’t miss this opportunity!

IMG_2655 (1).jpg

The ascent was a slow process since you have to hold on to the rail and many of the cruisers were not wearing shoes appropriate for snow not to mention that some of them may not have been physically prepared for such climb.

There was a stray mixed St. Bernard’s dog who the guide said was the village dog. He went up the ascent with us and sat in a higher level and just watched us pass by probably thinking, “suckers!” On our way back down the dog just flew by us and went sliding and running at the same time while everyone cheered him on! For me, that was the highlight of the tour.

The rails were wooden and was probably very sturdy and safe when they were new but there were several that were shaky and ready to break and the only thing keeping them together was a duct tape!

After the somewhat disappointing tours (we blame it on Mother Nature) we went back to the ship for a late lunch. At least lunch was excellent. I was so famished I ordered hamburger and got a plate of spaghetti in the buffet line.

At 3:30 pm we had a visit from the local dance group whose ages ranged from 8 to 18 and wowed everyone with their talents showing off their traditional dances. Just like yesterday, many of us danced with them.