šø ā Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Homesickness has a strange way of kicking you in the gut when you donāt need the stress. But Olivier has been struggling moving from place to place and feeling the need to be home in his own bed.
We had 3 weeks of this limbo time before we are on a schedule again to visit friends and family in the Netherlands and some planned road trips. However, that isnāt until the end of September.
So we decided a last minute trip to Plovdiv, Europeās Culture Capital of 2019 to spend a few days and figure out where we go next and to relaxā¦ we need a bit of a break.
So we didnāt actually see that much in Plovdiv but did binge watch a lot Netflix (we watched the entire series of āThe Staircase!ā). But from our days out and about, here are some of the things that stood out and things we learned.
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We had heard that there was a beer festival on one of the hills so went on a walk to go and find it. The city is filled with communist-era structures and art that is run down which makes it very interesting to walk through and see what has been abandoned.
Plovdiv is the 2019 Culture Capital of Europe which means they are one of two cities the European Union selects to host a variety of concerts, festivals and events to boost tourism and help an up and coming city develop. But man, what this meant for us was that almost every street you walked on was falling apart or being reconstructed. We will forever remember this place as the land of renovation.
Worse than a Montreal summer.
This is a city that is around 7,000 -8,000 years oldā¦ its seen the Romans, its seen medieval conquerors, and its now living itās modern day life. Further, each of these empires built their life on top of the previous oneā¦ so Plovdiv will probably never have a metro system because it is covered in buried ruins!
The crazy part isā¦ they keep finding these ruins from ancient timesā¦ and leave them out on the street, or on the sideā¦ and people just.. hang out on them, or vandalize them.. It was really curious to see the remains of these times just left behind.
Next, we get on a long bus ride to Istanbul!
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