COOL ROCKS: BULGARIA EDITION

Hannah McDonald
Jun 29, 2023
14 min read

Last Sofia Morning

Just as we get settled and comfortable, it is time to switch it up! This is our last morning waking up in Sofia, as we are about head to the Bulgarian countryside. Naturally, the morning is filled with Joelle’s run through the trusted Sofia park and those pesky travel logistics. I grew to like our little Airbnb!

Sofia → Belogradchik Fortress

It is a drive-heavy day as we set out to explore the countryside—over six hours on the road. Fortunately, Joelle got the Bluetooth working in the car so no more static-y Bulgarian radio.

The drive is beautiful—green and lush with lots of fields and mountains everywhere. Seriously, there seem to be mountains in every direction. Sunflowers also span miles—fields with specs of yellow covering hills as far as we can see. What is with all the sunflowers? Turns out, Bulgaria is one of the world’s top five sunflower exporters, behind Russia and Ukraine. We suspect they will have a big market share this year…

The main roads we drive go through fields to right through town centers, and they are lined with trucks. This seems to be a trucking route, and we feel far from Sofia. The towns are small and rural, with a few locals about their days. I have a hunch we are getting outside the realm of English being spoken by everyone.

Eventually, after what feels like hours of driving, we pass a sign that reads “Border Area.” Uhh…are we about to hit a border crossing? This is in Bulgaria, right? We are awfully close to both the Serbian and Romanian borders. Joelle double checks the Belogradchik Fortress is in fact in Bulgaria (albeit, barely), and we continue along).

Since Joelle does all the trip planning, I have no idea what we are actually going to see. She informs me they are “cool rocks.” These better be some cool rocks; this is a long drive. Ahead, some massive rocks spanning across the landscape come into focus: “Are those them?” Joelle confirms she thinks so, and my first thought is, “really?”

As we continue winding up the road, I remember the pictures Joelle showed me when she was planning: “Oohh that’s where we are going. Those did look cool.” Abruptly, we enter a town. This town comes out of nowhere; it seemingly just appeared and is much bigger than any towns we passed since Sofia. We must be close.

Belogradchik Fortress

Getting to the fortress requires driving up some steep hills and strong navigational skills from Joelle (I do not want to stop on these hills). When we go to purchase tickets, we test the waters on how much English might be around, and the woman seems to know just enough to sell us the entrance tickets and parking fee.

We enter through the front gate and see some of the few man-made walls in the fortress. Essentially, the fortress is naturally-made with the rock formations and further fortified with some man-made walls and rooms. Two of these rooms are on either side of an archway we walk through on the way to the main fortress. The rooms are dark and dingy, and a video plays to explain the history of the fortress. It is a corny video, and I cannot say I retain much. I do, however, know it is a strategically placed fortress, and there were many buildings inside that no longer stand today. You can read more information in the photo gallery.

As we continue walking, I practice my “defend the fortress” skills (could be confused for a light saber battle), and the main fortress comes into view. Wow. It is amazing, and there are no people. Rocks tower high on either side, and a stairway makes its way up between them. You will have to look at the pictures. We climb up the staircase and keep climbing until we reach the top. Standing on the rocks above, there is a fantastic view of the town and the landscape spanning out, including many more rock formations. Alone at the top, we, of course, have a little dance party (song: Party in the USA, changed to Party in Bulgaria).

There is one roughly translated story we read–The Madonna–that stands out in particular; it seems to be a version of Romeo and Juliet. There were two monasteries between the Belogradchik rocks–a convent and a nunnery. Sister Valentina was beautiful, and a young shepherd, Anton, would come at night to reveal his love to her with a wooden flute. They fell deeply in love, and soon enough, a child was born. The sinner was cursed and chased away. Anton rode on his horse to take his beloved away, but the monks went on to fight for her. God, having witnessed this unblemished love, sent storms and earthquakes, leaving the convent in ruins and everyone petrified. Monks on their way to the monastery, Lonely Madonna with a baby in her arms, and Anton on his horse waiting for his beloved all turned to stone. These stones all exist today: Madonna, The Horse Rider, The Monks, The Monastery.

Belogradchik Fortress is definitely worth the trip out here, if you have the time.

Radkov’s Waterfall

With a later start to the day and a long drive, it is already 4:30pm. The caves we considered visiting close at 5:00pm, so it is too late for those. We should go to more than one place considering how far we drove (although that one place is awesome and definitely worth it). Joelle found a nearby waterfall on a map. On the way, we stop for gas, where I confirm we are outside the everyone-speaks-English realm, although it is still easy to get gas (an attendant fills the tank for us!).

The turn for the waterfall is onto a dirt road, and Joelle and I immediately realize our little car (which we name Suzie) will not make it up the ruts. In almost-true Bulgarian style, I park us off the side of the road, basically in a tree (true Bulgarian style would be leaving it in the middle of the road).

We walk up the road and spot a trail, which presumably leads down to the waterfall. It is muddy with lots of trash, and we guess the water might flow this high when the river is full. We end up at the top of the waterfall, and despite seeing people at the bottom, we cannot figure out how to (safely) get to the bottom. After all the waterfalls we saw in Iceland last summer, it is tough to compete, so we chose not to risk an unsafe path down and head back to Suzie.

Belogradchik Fortress → Pleven

Joelle is driving this leg—woohoo! Time for her to learn to drive like a Bulgarian (or at least how to survive driving amid Bulgarians). Me navigating and her driving is definitely new for us…I miss a turn on the navigation, and she tries to turn around in the middle of the road before bailing (valid…a car was coming). Nonetheless, we settle into our new roles.

These roads continue to seem like a truck route, and we are following five consecutive and identical “truck heads” (what I am calling trucks without their trailers. It is comical watching them round the turns. Are the trucks friends?

Hummus House

Uninterested in finding a grocery store, grocery shopping, and then cooking, we opt to eat out tonight. I search “Pleven Restaurants” on Google Maps, not optimistic we will find a fully vegan restaurant but hopeful we will find one with a vegan option or two. “Hummus House” is one of the first restaurants to pop-up, and I am intrigued. We like hummus. I scroll through pictures and reviews, and it looks promising, although I am having a hard time deciphering the menu. Looks promising—let’s give it a try!

Guided by Google Maps, we spot the restaurant and need to find the dreaded parking. Joelle is driving and finds a side street with potential. There is a gap between other cars, so she pulls into the spot. She asks me, “can I park here?” I reply, “sure,” not really knowing. As I get out of the car, I notice we are most definitely parking in front of someone’s driveway, despite mostly being behind a tree. Oh well, hopefully it is fine.

Initially entering the restaurant, we are confused as to what is happening. There is a group of women to our right, having a girls night. To our left are a couple of small groups with young kids. No one jumps out as working here, so we awkwardly stand and skim the menu we see on a table. A waitress (and probably one of the owners) emerges and has us sit. The menu looks yummy (and huge) with 100% vegan options, and there is a case full of desserts—Hannah-friendly desserts.

We settle on some traditional Bulgarian-style potatoes for an appetizer, a falafel sandwich, and a quinoa-veggie-falafel dish. For dessert, a hazelnut protein bar. Everything is delicious, and it was only $20–an appetizer, two meals, and dessert. Woah. And, as it turns out, our waitress spent a summer working in Ouray, Colorado.

Our lovely dinner was slightly tainted by our stress for all the things that could go wrong the remainder of the evening, particularly considering it is already 9:30pm. Will our car be booted? We have seen many. Will we find our way into the apartment? It is awfully late to try to message our host if we encounter issues?

Communist Era Housing

Having seen countless communist-era apartment blocks, we realize we are staying in one tonight in Pleven. We pull into the parking lot (our car was not booted) and enter the code on the door, given to us by our Airbnb host. It doesn’t work…hmm. It doesn’t work again…hmm. Is this the right building? We enter the address in Google Maps and wander a bit. Nope, it’s the one next door. We enter the code on this door, and it buzzes open.

After making our way through the entry, we open the door to the elevator. I press the button for our floor and suddenly the elevator lurches, shooting upward. No door closed on the elevator cabin, and the doors on the floors are quickly passing, dizzying. We reach our floor and suddenly the elevator drops down, quickly descending past all the floors as our stomachs flip. Uhhh…what just happened? Maybe we need to press the red button for it to stop on our floor? I press the button for our floor again, and the elevator takes off upward. I carefully watch the numbers on the doors to track the floor we are on (despite the dizziness), and I push the red button to stop the elevator once we reach our floor. I push to open the door. It won’t open. I push again. Nothing. I push the button for our floor again. Nothing. I push the elevator door again. Nothing. Nope, this is not okay. Afraid we are stuck in a communist-era elevator, I turn away, highly stressed, and sit on the floor in the corner of the elevator, trying not to panic. Joelle takes a turn pushing buttons, and after a few moments, she successfully frees us from the elevator. Turns out the red button is not needed. You just need to be quick to open the door once you arrive on your floor. Somehow, Joelle managed to capture this elevator fiasco on video.

We now have instructions to get the key for the apartment from the lockbox next to the door. The key is easily found, but opening the door, that’s another story. We cannot get the key into the lock. After several minutes of wiggling and jiggling, we successfully open the door, deciding we will be leaving and entering the apartment as little as possible.

Morning in Pleven

Joelle explored Pleven this morning on a run and says she found a good park. Today’s agenda includes three stops to continue exploring outside the city (and less driving than yesterday).

Krushuna Falls

Our first stop is Krushuna Falls, another national park, although you would not know it given the number of available parking spots in the early afternoon. After paying for $1.50 each for a ticket and entering the gate, we see tents to our right, filled with touristy souvenirs, and a pool. The pool looks very nice considering the heat, and the touristy souvenir tents lack tourists—seems odd. As we continue up the road, we see the infrastructure for what you would expect to see a busy summer spot, but it is eerily quiet.

We take the trail to the left that goes up the hill and start climbing. Eventually, we find a rock overhang and a small creek. It is beautiful, despite the mosquitos feeding on us. We continue along the trail, following a sign that reads “Mysterious Waterfall,” until we see another sign reading something along the lines of “Danger, Path Closed.” The sign is off to the side, seemingly indicating the boundary (like a ski boundary), and the trail ahead seems perfectly fine and open. So, we take the trail, and end up at the top of the waterfall. Continuing along the trail, we pop-up on some other trails. Behind us we notice another sign that reads something along the lines of “Danger, Path Closed.” Oops, maybe that was a closed path.

We honestly have no idea where we are in the woods (quite mysterious), so we just pick a trail and a direction. We must have picked well because we end up at another little waterfall. It runs over a hollow dome that opens on the bottom and is covered in all sorts of plants that slow and soften its path to the ground. While pretty, Joelle, having seen pictures, knows we still have not found “the waterfalls”—the main attraction. Another group of visitors tries asking us for directions, looking at their map, and we are no help. But, we head off to continue exploring.

On the way back down, I lead the way when I suddenly hear Joelle say in a calm but commanding voice, “Hannah. Hannah… just keep walking.” That can only mean one thing…snake. Supposedly it is a small one, but I do not stick around to find out.

Back where we started, we head down the other trail, one that goes up along the base of the hill. We run into a small waterfall with more of a river and what seems like it could be a little—emphasis on little—swimming hole (no one is swimming). This seems more along the lines of “the waterfalls” Joelle found in her research. We stop for some pictures then continue up the trail when suddenly “the waterfalls” come into view. Water pours over stacks of rock, with lots of little waterfalls forming a cool big waterfall. We see another layer of it up above, too, as we continue along the trail. It is a neat spot, and the water looks beautiful (swimming not allowed). The trail proceeds next to the other side of the river, so we walk down that way, having crossed the river when looking at the waterfalls earlier. Another group asks us for directions. This seems to be the kind of place you just need to walk around to explore. The map is not much help. We trust there must be a place to cross back over the river, seeing as a group came from that direction, and continue down. Sure enough, there is, amid more un-used infrastructure (including many restaurant tables) for lots of people (who certainly are not here).

Devetashka Cave

Our next stop is Devetashka Cave—a large cave, home to many bats and, once upon a time, humans. Again, the parking lot has few cars, and we purchase tickets from a small building that appears to be someone’s home, with a bed and bathroom. The path to the cave is, again, lined with tents selling touristy souvenirs. What is lacking? Tourists. The place is nearly empty.

The temperature suddenly drops and bats fly above us. We have reached the cave. It is very large with seven holes in the rock above bringing in light, and a stream running through one side of the cave. The sounds of bats and birds fill the space as they fly above, seemingly in a pattern Joelle notices. She says it feels like a time loop, watching the birds that look the same fly to the same spot on the ground from the same direction, stop on the ground for a minute or two, then fly off to exactly the same place in the cave ceiling over and over again. In the middle of the cave, there is a man-made stone wall with a tunnel going through to the other side. On the other side, there are three large circles where people have made lots of small rock piles and the crumbled bases of columns running down the middle. What is all of this? What used to be here? We have no idea.

Lovech Covered Bridge

Our last stop of the day is a bridge with buildings on it in Lovech. I have not seen pictures and have no idea what to picture when Joelle describes it to me on the way. But, as we drive through town, sure enough. A bridge with buildings on it comes into view.

We park and walk along the bridge ahead of it to get a good view. It is neat, and I wonder what they do with those buildings. So, we walk around and find the entrance to the bridge, where you can walk across, through the buildings. Turns out, they put lots of tourist shops and the tourist information center in it…classic.

We walk down the river to cross a bridge below, so we can see the Covered Bridge from another angle. From here, a few cute buildings on the river bank can be seen with it.

Hisarya Medieval Fortress of Lovech

When coming into town, we notice what appears to be a fortress on the hill overlooking the town. This becomes our unexpected fourth stop. We are here, so we might as well go see it!

We find it on Google Maps and have Google-Siri start guiding us. Google’s several attempts to send us straight up the mountain in random places indicate to us that it does not know how to get there. It seems to be trying to get us into the fortress itself, not to the fortress parking lot. If the fortress is any good it will have defenses against Google’s route, will it not?

Taking matters into our own hands, we backtrack to approach from the other side of the fortress. Soon, I see a road that goes up, and I decide that must be the direction. We need to go up the hill after all. Google then tells us to make a right, which I do. The road is narrow, with a steep drop off on the right. I hope a car is not going to come from the other direction because there literally would be nothing to do—no room for two-way traffic and no room to pull over. Then, we see lots of people walking. Oh my goodness. This must be a pedestrian street. What have we done? I contemplate reversing out, while Joelle assures me the only option is to keep driving forward. So, I do. Before hitting a cobblestone section of the road that goes steeply up, I park on the “side” of the road by some other cars. I guess it is not pedestrian? We see another car drive to after we park so I suppose not. We are walking from here.

Many locals enjoy an evening in the courtyard outside the fortress, overlooking the city. We purchase some tickets, and make our way into the fortress. I still do not know much about this one, but they are cool ruins and a good view of the city. We see residences, churches (five in total), the tower, and a stage where I image they do events now (and where Joelle does a performance today—not sure why I was the only one in the audience…).

Hummus House (part 2)

With our added fortress stop, it is late again. The Hummus House was delicious and we certainly are not grocery shopping and cooking, so we head back there for dinner, parking at our apartment complex and walking this time. Our waitress welcomes us back, and we look for something new to try. We start with a hummus platter with three different types of hummus—classic, carrot, and eggplant. It may very well be the best hummus I have ever had—delicious.

For dinner, we try the lentil patties and veggie pizza. The patties arrive first—yummy—and while we are eating those, our waitress asks if we want beans and corn on our pizza. Sure? What kind of pizza is this… When it arrives, our pizza is topped with tofu, falafel, beans, corn, onion, vegan cheese, tomato, mushrooms, and…pickles. Yes, pickles. Minus the pickles, it is pretty good.

We order dessert to go, and while we wait, we chat with our waitress. She tells us about the Bulgarian education system, teaching, and the documentaries she has watched about the U.S., and she recommends a place for us to visit in Sofia tomorrow: The International Park of the Children of the World.

With that, we walk back to the apartment, successfully unlock the door, and get some rest for our last day in Bulgaria.

COOL ROCKS: BULGARIA EDITION

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