Still, it’s summer, which is good for the
joints. (But not so good for the eyeballs. I just saw my neighbour working in
the garden wearing nothing but a pair of speedos and a bumbag.)
My folks visited us last week and we made the
most of the beautiful summer weather with trips to Sofia, Veliko Tarnovo, Etar,
Dryanovo Monastery and Troyan Monastery (staying in VT for a couple of nights
as a base). You know what’s coming next, don’t you? It’s the Holiday Bore
slideshow. Pass the mini gherkins, Margo…
Being the marvellous host that I am, I dragged
my poor family around all MY favourite places in Sofia: Made in Blue for food,
the University Botanical Garden and Maxi Mania (the giant second-hand clothes
shop under the covered market). Very fun it was, too (for me).
Inside Made in Blue restaurant. Everyone else was eating in the charming garden, obviously. |
Botanical garden. |
More hot garden action. The gold dome of Alexander Nevski Cathedral shining behind. |
Etar is very sweet and worth visiting if you’re
in the Gabrovo region. It’s an open-air museum/village thing with traditional
craftspeople making and selling their wares. So, basically, more shopping. Egg mayonnaise
vol-au-vent?
You can't tell from this photo but there were a gazillion Italian tourists at Etar. |
On the way back from Etar to VT, we stopped in
at Dryanovo Monastery and Bacho Kiro cave (which are right next to each other).
It wasn’t my favourite cave in Bulgaria (we are quite the cave connoisseurs),
but definitely worth a look if you’re passing. The surrounding scenery is
beautiful. And the monk in the monastery lets you fill up your own bottles with
holy water, which is fun. Twiglet?
As one of our neighbours says, Dryanovo Monastery has 'very good energy'. |
Surrounding scenery. We saw snakes in the river. |
We took very few pictures of
VT, probably because we’ve been there a few times now. (VT old town is pretty but
we prefer Plovdiv for old-town shizzle and Sofia for, you know, civilisation.)
But I did buy a very nice green lamp and we had some ruddy good food, so it’s
all good. Here, have a slice of Viennetta.
Lastly, we went to Troyan Monastery on the way
home, mainly so I could indulge my pottery fetish in the craft museum next
door. (Have I mentioned what a good host I am? Give, give, give, that's me.) In what can only be described
as a fit of madness, I bought no pottery whatsoever.*
*Four egg cups and a serving plate. But, for
me, that’s nothing.
They're in the process of tarting up Troyan Monastery, and doing a very fine, very sympathetic job. |