Plovdiv and the Balkan Express

Waiting...in Plovdiv
(One of My Favorite Pictures I've Ever Taken)

Yesterday was our last day in Bulgaria.  Seeing as we had seen just about everything in Sofia, we decided to head south to Plovdiv, famous for its decorative houses and ancient ruins.  We were still a bit exhausted from the miserable train trip from Belgrade, so when our alarm went off in the morning we decided to put off waking up and catch a later train.  The train ride to Plovdiv was about 2.5 hours and it was right on the path to Istanbul, so it shortened our night train trip for that evening.

Plovdiv was a pretty neat city, although there is almost a complete lack of any English comprehension among the locals.  Plovdiv presented the most intense language barrier we've faced since Hungary.  It was especially trying when we tried to get information from the train station employees, but somehow we managed.  The part of the city near the train station is kind of crummy, but after walking to the main pedestrian street, we stumbled upon a great old town.

Kati at an Old Bulgarian House
(Now the Ethnography Museum)

We arrived in Plovdiv around 1:30 and were only spending the afternoon there, so we didn't have too much time.  First we saw the ruins of an old Roman ampitheater that's still used for cultural performances in the city. Then we saw some of the traditional Bulgarian "painted" houses.  They were really cool.  The outsides were brightly painted with some subtle designs on them, but the insides were absolutely stunning.  Each room was assigned a color and everything in the room played off of the color.  The intricate ceilings and the wall paintings were unbelievable.  We finished our tour of Plovdiv by seeing the ruins of the ancient Thracian city and making a quick stop in the oldest mosque in the Balkans.

By 5:00 we were exhausted.  Yesterday marks the first (and only) time that we've legitimately been ready to go home.  But don't worry, we're both totally enthusiastic again today, I think that after finishing 1/2 of our longest traveling section and staring straight into the other half just seemed a bit too daunting when coupled with the language barrier that unexpectedly hit us.  We quelled our temporary anti-Europe sentiments with some McDonald's.

Our night train was scheduled to leave Plovdiv at 9:08 pm.  We were at the train station, exhausted, by 7:00, passing the time reading our books.  9:08 rolled around and there was no train.  9:30...no train.  9:50...no train.  I went to check the boards to make sure we hadn't missed it.  It was still listed and, after some nifty translation work and the help of a Gypsy woman that took an uncomfortable liking to us, I realized that the board said our train was 150 minutes late!  We settled in for the long haul and broke out some cards and a bottle of Bulgarian wine.  That night we had a bottle of a Mavrud Rose, a Bulgarian specialty.  The night before we had tried Melnik, a Bulgarian grape that was supposedly Winston Churchill's favorite wine.  At 10:30 I decided to check the board again, just to make sure it wasn't delayed further.  My quest eventually led me to the information booth where the Bulgarian women flat out laughed at me...the board wasn't wrong...our train was running 300 minutes late!  5 HOURS LATE!  I felt an awful lot like Vladimir, waiting for a train carrying Godot that was never going to show up.  We just sat there, waiting, all night, unable to depart.

Our train finally arrived around 2:00 am.  Luckily, this train was much better than the one we took from Belgrade to Sofia; it had couchettes--cabins with six cots (3 on each wall).  We got a compartment to ourselves.  The conductor brought us sheets and pillows, I was so happy/exhausted that I almost cried!  The Turkish border was relatively painless, just unnecessarily long.  We bought our visas (nothing more than stickers), got our passports stamped, and after having our passports/tickets checked at least 5 times, we were on our way again.  Unfortunately, the delay hurt.  We were supposed to get into Istanbul at 8:30 and have a full day, but we finally arrived at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Luckily the couchettes were surprisingly comfortable and, despite the interruptions, having a private cabin allowed both of us to catch up on some much needed sleep.