Bulgaria. Beautiful on the inside.
I've now been in Bulgaria 11 days. Starting in Ruse I got a glimpse of Bulgaria's interior, which was promising, and then the sea drew me to it and I headed to one of the least touristy areas along the Black Sea coast, Balchik. I love the sea. The astrologers among you will say it's because my star sign is Cancer. Can't say I hold with all that, I just love water. I'm less enamoured of sand. I could be wearing a hazmat suit and that stuff would still get in places it shouldn't, but the sea, I love it ❤️❤️❤️
Anyway, Ruse and Balchik = so far so good, but from there, Varna, Nessebar and Burgas (to a lesser degree) really didn't float my boat (groan...) and were only salvaged by having Shalini with me. I've heard many people say how beautiful Bulgaria is and so I'll admit I've been a bit disappointed up to now, as even the scenery in between the resorts and taking into account the fact that it's winter, there's not been an awful lot to shout about. Turns out, that's because Bulgaria is beautiful on the inside! 
Statues commemorating people and events...
Some odd looking man advertising a gym...
And from there I headed for dinner. I went to a local Bulgarian restaurant and had a dish that translated to 'mishmash' according to the menu!
It was delicious! There are two popular cheeses out here: white and yellow! White is a bit like a bland feta that works really well in baked dishes as it doesn't melt and takes on the flavours of the things it's cooked with. Yellow cheese is a bit like cheddar and melts, so tends to top baked food, if mozzarella isn't used. This dish was tomatoes, peppers, white cheese, onion, garlic and egg, topped with yellow cheese and baked on a lava dish! It was really good.
My Cyrillic is now to the level that I could read this without any translation assistance! Cyrillic is very similar to Greek so my A level maths has come in useful yet again (remember how it saved us in Greece as well Joanne?!). I must admit I'd been struggling to remember which letter(s) the X was equivalent to until I realised it's chi (I thought of the Chi squared test here), and so now I either substitute a c or ch and words mostly makes sense. I couldn't translate a menu but I can tell the names of places now which is incredibly useful!!
The view through the rosarium was beautiful too with the snow-capped mountains in the background...
The Museum of Roses is located here and my ISIC card came in useful again with the student entry fee being 2LEVA vs 6LEVA for an adult. It may only be £1 vs £3 but on a £15 a day budget this soon adds up!
The museum was fascinating! I am also a massive fan of all things rose. Well maybe not all things, I'm not a fan of roses that look pretty and have no scent, for me it's all about their perfume and however beautiful they look, something is missing if there's no scent, but it did mean that a museum about them was always likely to appeal to me! My most interesting fact from the museum is that it takes 8,500 kg of rose petals (3-3,500kg of Rose Damascena and 5,000 kg from Rose Alba) to make 1kg of rose oil. 
The replica has been painted to show what the what the tomb looks like inside and describes how the paintings can be interpreted as a funeral process and on display were a number of items from the original tomb. This is a picture of the ceiling.
From here, I went to the Magnolia restaurant (it's all flowers round here!) and had another traditional meal. Baking food in earthenware pots is popular in Bulgaria and I had Thracian Cheese, which was similar to last night's meal with the addition of flat sausage and ham.
Flat sausage seems to come in a number of different forms. It can be like spam, chorizo or pepperoni. I've discovered that you're never quite sure which one you'll get. This time thankfully it was chorizo! I'd ordered fried potatoes to go with it. The last time I ordered chips, I got something I would call fried potatoes. This time, I ordered fried potatoes... and got chips, which they brought as my starter!!
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?!?!
The crates are the standard size and along with the door give a sense of scale.
Yesterday I made my way inland, getting the bus from Burgas to Stara Zagora. Hadn't originally planned to come here, but I realised that I wasn't going to be able to fill my remaining days with the places I intend to visit and I didn't have enough days available to make it worth heading into Macedonia (which would have been my back-up country), so with a bit of research Stara Zagora seemed like a good addition to the itinerary. It's big enough to spend an afternoon in (which I did yesterday after I arrived) and it's only a 45 minute drive from Kazanlak for me to spend the day there (which I did today).
My sightseeing in Stara Zagora took in the usual places: church (with the standard cables for the buses!)...
Eski Mosque...
Cathedral...
Today, I went to Kazanlak for the day. Bulgaria is known for its rose oil production and Kazanlak is in the heart of Rose Valley. The Kazanlak rose has been cultivated mainly for its oil and during harvesting there are all manner of events and festivals. There aren't so many things to do in the winter but a visit to the town will fill a day.
I took the bus over and got my first view of the Balkan Mountains.
On arrival, my plan had been to go up to the Museum of Roses but of course, I always get distracted by churches and statues...
And so eventually ended up at the rosarium.
As expected the roses had virtually all been pruned right back but there were a few odd buds and flowers still holding on...
I had to smile when I saw one of the first books on display: David Austin!! Now there's a name synonymous with roses!
On display there were also a number of accounting books from the early rose traders - the writing is so beautiful, to me these are works of art in and of themselves!
Also at Kazanlak is an original and replica Thracian Tomb. The original is UNESCO protected and has been dated to the 3rd century BC.
It was really interesting, aided again by another 4 LEVA student discount (again 6 vs 2)!
The original and replica tombs were based in a park that was elevated relative to the rest of Kazanlak so had some really lovely views...
From here I made my way back to the bus station where I saw these three!
Whilst away, I have made a number of observations. One is that many Eastern European women have very beautiful nails. They're often painted (more so than I ever recall in the UK) and look really pretty. Another is that Bulgaria has the longest leeks I've ever seen! The first time I saw them I thought they were an anomaly. But it's clear from the number I've seen since, this is a standard length. Look at these babies!!
I can't believe I just have three main destinations left before I fly back to the UK. Tomorrow I go to Plovdiv. I'm really looking forward to going here. It's a popular choice and apparently has lots to do. I'm hoping it doesn't stick to the usual Sunday hours and closed on Monday deal, given my poor planning has put me there on those two days!!
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