Sometime in early February, Taylor and I decided we wanted to go somewhere for his four-day in March. We put the dates we wanted into RyanAir and said we will go to whichever city has the cheapest airfare! London and Plovdiv both came up for about €50 roundtrip so we did some quick googling. After we found out Plovdiv was in Bulgaria we looked up things to do and places to stay and decided that was the city for us! We found an apartment through Airbnb located right in the heart of the city next to the Old Town.
After a few weeks of anticipation our trip was finally here. Last friday we flew across Germany into Eastern Europe. Our apartment host picked us up at the tiny airport and into Plovdiv we went!
Our flight arrived late Friday night so we began our adventure Saturday morning into one of the oldest cities in Europe. Just a few minute walk from where we were staying was a long pedestrian walkway with shops and restaurants. We grabbed some lunch and some good ole' Bulgarian beer and then made our way into Old Town.
We strolled up to a church where immediately a Bulgarian man started to talk to us and tell us the history and encouraged us to go inside. We walked through the small but pretty church and when we left the guy was waiting for us outside. He said he wanted to take us up to the Roman Amphitheater and right then Taylor knew he was a "tour guide" while I thought he was just being friendly and helpful. Either way, we followed him since that was the main thing we wanted to see.
We walked up to the 2nd century Roman Theatre and got really excited. The theatre was completely empty so we were able to walk around with our new Bulgarian friend while he gave us the lowdown and became our personal photographer.
By this time we were ready to ditch our friend and get on with wandering by ourselves so we told him thank you for showing us around. He smiled and then typed into his phone some numbers and showed Taylor where it just had the number 50 on it. Taylor immediately said, "I am not giving you 50 Bulgarian Lev." The guy said, "Okay, 20?" so Taylor handed him a 20 Lev (about 10 dollars) and he took off quickly. Turns out, Taylor was right! He was a "tour guide" who I am sure does this often; He knew everyone, and everyone knew him. It was absolutely worth it though! He showed us everything we wanted to see and also gave us some good information!
After walking around for a few hours we grabbed some beers and made our way into the city center again. We sat on some steps and people watched for a while before heading back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.
While doing some research for Plovdiv I found a restaurant called Megdana that serves traditional Bulgarian dishes and has live Bulgarian dancing. It was about a 20 minute walk form the apartment but with my fantastic navigating skills we got there easily. Heads up, don't ever have Taylor try to direct you anywhere in a new city.
When we got there at 7pm it was pretty empty so we were excited to get a good table and see the show. Instead, they lead us up the stairs to the corner and sat us down where we couldn't see anything. Apparently, the dancing didn't start till 9pm and I am assuming everyone else made reservations. Oh well! We still enjoyed a nice dinner including a Bulgarian cheesy bread appetizer, a chicken and vegetable plate for me and Taylor ordered the Master's Magic plate that had pork, veal and chicken! All for 25 Bulgarian Lev (about 14 Dollars)!
The next day we wanted to go into other parts of the city away from Old Town. We had a ton of fun exploring new restaurants, churches, shops and even tested our luck at a local casino!
By Monday when we left we felt like we had seen everything we wanted to while also getting a good vibe of the city.
This has to be one of my favorite trips and cities so far! It was a completely new experience compared to the western side of Europe. While the city was run down and fairly poor, we felt completely safe. The history is the oldest we have seen and the Bulgarians were extra friendly! I don't necessarily think the city is for everyone but we highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get over to Eastern Europe!
