Hey guys, since I’ve last talked to you Anna-Maria and I have spent a couple days in Plovdiv and made our way to Veliko Tarnovo.

On Monday morning, we got up and checked out of the Hunter’s Residence Lodge and made the 20 minute drive to the bottom terminal of a ski lift that takes you to the top of a mountain where you can hike the 7 Rila Lakes. The lift itself was an experience, as it was very steep and over 2 kilometres long. At the top, I was feeling a little bit low energy and there was a restaurant with WiFi, so I was happy to hang out there while Anna Maria got her hiking fix for about an hour. But the ride up and down the mountain on the lift was worth it either way.

After the lift up and down, it was time to get on the road to Plovdiv – Bulgaria’s second largest city. Enroute was some nice scenery and a McDonald’s that we just couldn’t pass up. It was only about the 3rd or 4th time I’ve had fast food since June and it hit the spot.

Upon arrival to Plovdiv, we located the Airbnb that Anna Maria had found us which would be home for the next two nights. We had a lot of laundry that needed to be done, so she mostly picked it because it offered a washing machine, but we were pleased to find that it was also a really nice apartment on the 7th floor of the building and that it had a great view out over the city.

When we got up on Tuesday, we made the 20 minute walk into the city center to meet up with the free walking tour Plovdiv that left from the municipal building at 11am. The tour was really informative and our guide, Elijah, was a smart and funny fellow.

The last stop in the walking tour was the ancient theater, also built by the Romans, where we heard that there was going to be a showing of the musical “Mama Mia” later that evening. I’m not a huge fan of musicals, but Anna Maria got pretty excited about the idea of seeing a show in the ancient theater. So, needless to say, we bought tickets. We went home and rested up for a bit and then set out for dinner at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant that Elijah had recommended before heading the the theater in time for the 8pm show.

This morning, we got up and checked out of the Airbnb and took the short drive from Plovdiv into the mountains to see the combination of the Asenovgrad fortress and Bachkovo Monastery, which are only about 10 minutes from each other. They were pretty cool to see, particularly the fortress.

After checking out the monastery, we looked at some of the souvenir stands outside the place and had lunch at a cool little restaurant there that had its own waterfall.

After lunch, we got on the road for the 3 hour drive to Veliko Tarnovo, where we had a hotel booked for this evening. We got into town to late to see anything tonight, but tomorrow there are some sights we want to see in this area. The drive here was full of nice scenery and the hotel Anna Maria picked had a nice pool and sauna that we took full advantage of this evening.

Tomorrow we are going to see a few things in this area and then we will be headed 3 hours away to the capital city of Sofia for two nights. After that, we have to high tail it back to Skopje for Anna Maria’s flight home on Sunday.

Talk to you guys again soon!