Day 38: Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Getting Medieval

Old Town in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. 

Like many cities I've encountered, Plovdiv is divided into an Old Town and a New Town. The Old Town is smaller, cobblestoned, more cramped, and more charming. The New Town is flashier, more vibrant, and more hip. I spent the morning exploring Old Town and its narrow streets and quaint little buildings. The baroque architecture is very well preserved, and the entire Old Town is practically a walkable museum. It's exactly what I was trying to find after leaving the Middle East.

Let's see how many pictures of narrow cobblestone streets I can take.

Having satisfied my tranquil village fix, I ambled into the New Town to admire trendy Bulgarian life. It's amazing how quick a country can be to latch onto western material culture. The entire pedestrian street was lined with shops selling clothes, jewelry, gadgets, etc. Bulgarian women dressed to kill with humongous aviator glasses perused the store windows, along with their lap dogs in tow. 

Plovdiv's pedestrian street.

Once I was convinced that I was uglying up the pedestrian street, I set out to hike up the "Hill of the Liberators," i.e. an enormous monument on top of a hill dedicated to the Soviet liberation of Bulgaria from the Germans. Along the way, I encountered reminders of Bulgaria's lurid past. I saw casinos, sex shops, and what I can only call Soviet Bloc architecture. I guess this is the story of much of Eastern Europe, old history co-existing with a contemporary history and wrestling with modern values. 

My hostel was full of... interesting characters. There was a Canadian girl who was biking around the world. She had started in Bangkok and wound up in Plovdiv over two years later. She was nice but a little bit, uh, off. Also, she took way too long to tell stories. The amount of time it took for her to describe her trip from Bangkok to Plovdiv was about as long as the amount of time it took her to bike it. There was also an American who had been staying at the hostel for over a month, had paid all the fees, but refused to stay in rooms. He insisted on sleeping in common outside areas, wearing boxers, never leaving, and just smoking all day. I asked him where he was from. His answer, after an extended pause, was to look at the pebbles on the ground and ask me, "What is your opinion of stones?"