First impressions of Bulgaria

We've only been in Bulgaria for a day and a half, but there are some things we've noticed already. One of the first things is that the roads are not in very good condition! We missed a pothole yesterday that would have done some serious damage. It was a crater! And this is on a major two lane road that is part of the vignette toll system with a lot of truck traffic.

Also, the roads we've been on so far have no shoulder. But there are pulloffs every few kilometers.

We got up and went for a walk in the park beside where we had overnighted.

Our overnight spot at GPS 42.174611, 26.564236

Loads of buttercups!

It was really pretty.

Getting some exercise.

There were a lot of these community exercise parks in Turkiye as well. I hope they're becoming more common in Canada and the U.S. because the last time we were in those countries even Mexico had more of them. I don't know why, but I was actually a bit surprised to see this on our first day in Bulgaria.

We went and did their nature trail.

Here is Ruth looking at the view.

And here is the view Ruth was looking at.

The trail led to this small lake.

Black-crowned night heron.

We got a little closer.

Scenery along the way.

We took another trail that led us to an abandoned building.

Piles of old boots!

More boots!

And a room full of old boots!

Very strange. We didn't go in because there was too much broken glass and stuff.

Some kind of mural inside.

No, we did not take this bridge!

Had a nice walk, and then we drove north to the small city of Sliven (pop 120,000). There, we found a big Kaufland grocery store like we haven't seen since we were in Germany. We went in and did some shopping. We had been told that Bulgaria is a really cheap country, but first impressions with grocery prices don't agree with that. Booze prices, yes, but not groceries. 

Scenery along the way.

We're headed for those mountains.

Then we drove to the outskirts where it looked like there was a small parking lot at the base of an old chair lift. The chairlift doesn't appear to be related to skiing at all, it's more of a scenic way to get to the top of the mountain. Anyhow, it looked derelict to us and it wasn't running.

We found a good overnight spot for Max, and took off on a hike.

We're headed up there!

It turned out to be a really nice afternoon.

Taking a break.

A couple of small waterfalls along the way.

Another thing we noticed. The older people here in Bulgaria don't seem as friendly. We've learned how to say hello, and good morning, and thank you in Bulgarian. We passed a few people on the trail, and we always say hello to people, but we didn't get much response! The younger people did say hello back to us though.

Ruth and the view.

Kevin and the arch rock.

As we're coming back down, I noticed that the chair lift was running! Turns out that it's still operational. Not sure that I would get on it... it looks pretty rickety! I read that there are some old abandoned hotels at the top and that during the communist years factory workers could take holidays up there. You can also drive to the top and we are contemplating doing that today.

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