Hello Bulgaria

Day 122 - June 15th

At Saker Hills campsite, situated just across the Bulgarian Turkish border, we met Matt who has lived here for thirteen years in this very quiet village.  He built his campsite and has never left.  George the goat herder lives on one side and a gypsy family lives on the other, who today are harvesting their tobacco in the field.  When Matt arrived here he said the locals thought he was mad.  A group of older women in the village used to bring a bench and sit there watching him build the house as if they were watching daily tv.  They also didn’t understand what camping was and were incredulous that people would come and stay in their cars in a field – and pay for it.  When Matt finally opened the site, these people did actually arrive to stay in their cars and pay.  Shocked, the old ladies grabbed their benches and were never seen there watching again.  He assumes they realised that he wasn’t actually mad.

He also told me a great story about his parents discovering this area for the first time.  They took a wrong turn and ended up in a small, seemingly desolate Bulgarian village.  They parked up in the village square by the church but in the morning woke up to find chairs and tables being set up all around them.  They were worried that they had parked where a big party was being held for the day but when they asked, the local Mayor shook their hand and gave a semi hug saying ‘we are welcoming you to our village, this is your party!’.  They subsequently bought a holiday house there and have visited there yearly ever since.

I met Margaret whilst washing up this morning.  Her and her husband Baz are from the UK and live in their campervan, travelling all year and mostly in Greece.  They have been doing this for 15 years and only go back to the UK for a month to renew their MOT.  It has given me and Kelty an idea for retirement.

Kelty and Taran went to swim at the local pool just behind the truck stop.  It is an oasis of loud music and yellow beer branded parasols, populated by large bellied serious sun darkened men, sporting gold chains and tight trunks and drinking beer, and smoking cigarettes.  They are good for a splash with the kids and the tattooed girls but soon return to the table and the fags and the women on the loungers in pink bikinis.  Taran and Kelty threw their football around for an hour a little daunted on land but happy in the water with the pounding music playing and the chunky kids having a laugh.  Then their chips with cheese were delivered to the plastic table under the yellow parasol.  Delicious!

And then we went on our way to Plovdiv, one of the oldest towns in Europe and situated on six hills. 

Cherry buying on the way - it took a lot to get these two to smile

This historical town has been recommended by everyone we have asked, a hidden gem.  And they were right.  It is the European Capital of Culture this year, which was hard to notice amongst its sleepy, pretty winding cobbled streets except for when we stumbled across an enormous Roman amphitheatre where they were preparing for a performance of Orpheus.  Around the corner a Bulgarian rock band were doing a sound check in the square.  We wondered how the two were going to get along later as clearly the place was going to come more alive at night.   But we had to leave to get to our campsite by Lake Batak an hour on from there.  

Lake Batak was stunning.  A Bulgarian picture postcard.  We saw a scattering of wild campers on the shore and so we detoured but once at the side of the lake I got a strange feeling about it.  It didn't feel right so we went on to the campsite which Taran wasn't happy about.  The owner Christo confirmed my instinct and said that our gleaming white campervan with UK reg would be 'fresh meat' for the fisherman.  He said they' wouldn't kill us but they would probably after dark try and steal our bikes and maybe more.' I wasn't sure whether he was showing the Bulgarian prejudice towards 'the poor and the gypsies' which we heard from the last campsite as well but it was a nice feeling to be safe for the night and we parked up amongst lots of weekending, partying and friendly Bulgarians in a very picturesque place.