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.
The Monkey House ā a place of coffee, craft beer and hangouts.
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.
Nevermind the swastika.
We got to the festival, and there was a bus, and beer and people. We waited for the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band to start playing, but they never showed
Sun set was pretty cool though.
Everyone has grapes here, Maeghan is certain they all make their own wine.
Decided to try out a walking tour of the Old Town.
When you canāt afford columns, you go for drawn-on columns.
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.
This is a street.
Oh also, there is ALOT of cats. And most are very friendly!
Traditional local salad, veggies, some meat and cheese. You are suppose to order a salad when ever you go to a restaurant and always have a salad if you are drinking. They have amazing produce here, so being vegetarian for the week was not that hard!
They found the remains of a coliseum in the main part of the city, they havenāt been able to dig it up because it goes under a ton of big buildings on the main street. Believe it or not, they only found this thing in the 60sā, before then, nobody had any idea this was here.
So they unveiled the rounded part of the ruins and you can still go into some basements of some stores and see full benches where people used to watch Gladiators fight!
A model of the ruins ā it fits 25,000 people and takes up almost all of the downtown main strip!
Back to the trap.
Cappuccino love. Questionable milk art.
Meat, meat and fries.
We think Plovdiv will be a totally different place next year. The city has almost 100% booked accommodations (hotels) already for next summer
Oli got his 6th haircut of the trip. This one, he said was a fancy one. $20 Lev
Our last stop was to the small hill of the old town for a city wide view and sunset during our walking tour.
Hey you
The remains of a roman theatre they found under a bunch of houses has been turned into an active concert hall that sits 3,000 people.
