Plovdiv, Bulgaria - Thessaloniki, Greece
We had our free continental breakfast and were on our way. We tried to find a statue of Phillip II that was supposed to be around, but we couldn't and we gave up. Leaving Plovdiv was as convoluted as coming in, and just as we thought we were free we saw a police check stop. As we came by the police officer pointed at us and indicated that we should pull off the road. We did. Before I go on I should tell you another story. One of my co-workers worked in Albania for a time, and he said that if you get pulled over you should pretend you don't understand what the police are saying and then they will get fed up with you and leave you alone. That is exactly what happended! Though... we really didn't understand what the officer was talking about. "Vignette," said the officer, "vignette." Right... I gave him my international driving permit... tried to show him every bit of documentation we had... "Road tax!" he said in English. Ok... road tax... now what? Yeah... frik. The other police were like "wtf, these people have no idea what's going on, let them go," in Bulgarian of course. Our cop was very stern looking, and he tried again and again "vignette, vignette, vignette!" Ok... Stern... agitated looking... frustrated... the officer handed me my paperwork and pointed back to the road. With that, we were free to go.
Market at the Monastary
Gate to the Bachkovo Monastary
From there we headed to the Bachkovo Monastary which is somewhere on Bulgaria. Somewhere in the mountains... Anyways, we found it without too much difficulty, and it was incredible. I have no photos of the inside, as they were prohibited, but it was spectacular. The monastary is still in use and the frescos inside are without equal. After investigating the inside we looked around the ground. We wandered up a hill, passed another churchy thing, an orchard, and then found a set of small waterfalls. Gorgeous.
Water En Route
Fountain at the Monastary
The Grounds
At the Monastary
Churchey Building
The Gates
Up
Into the Woods
Orchard
The Face
Waterfalls
One Fall
Two Falls
Falls Everywhere
The Village
The Restaurant
En route again, and with our first UNESCO under our belt, we pushed on through the mountains. By this point we were starting to question the GPS's directions, but it was all we had. A few hours later we saw a sign for a cave and we bolted off the main highway to see if we could catch it before it closed. The road we took was carved into the side ofa rock wall and was only one lane wide. There was a bit of creative driving involved but we did eventually make it to the cave. We had missed the last cave tour by 15 minutes but we decided to go for a walk anyway since we had been in the car for hours. Further up the road we found the exit of the cave, and then we found something else... a Thracian Cave Dwelling. Intriqued we climbed a set of stairs carved into a hill and then found the dwelling. The guide only spoke Bulgarian, with a few words of english, so as we wandered the small cave she pointed out specific paragraphs on a piece of paper that was written in English. Thus we did get an explaination of the cave. Better than that actually. She was very excited to give us the tour and she was very thorough. She showed us all of the bits of the cave, and when she picked up some shards of a few thousand year old pottery, indicating we should touch it, who were we to refuse? This was our experience in Eastern Europe... there were things everywhere, things you could touch, things you could use... things that belonged in a museum... like that pottery. Wow.
Thracian Settlement
Inside the Cave
Indy?!
Pottery
Teeth
Cups
Leaving the Thracian Cave Settlement
Bridge
Sketchy Cave Road 1
Sketchy Cave Road 2
Leaving the cave we bought some tourist goodies, like a cup of fresh raspberries, the second largest pyrite nugget I have ever seen (it was the first when I bought it... but we saw another bigger one later :( ). Back through the road, and back into the hands of the GPS God.
Turns out, the GPS God is fickle, and somewhere along the line I must have offended him. Five hours into a five hour drive we were just crossing the border into Greece. We were on a major highway for a bit and then the GPS told us to turn on a dinky little road. Its directions were suspect, but it had gotten us through so far so off we went onto the dinky road, and then up we went over a mountain... switchbacks... oh so many... so many that by the time we got to the top of the mountain we had to stop. I was the driver, and I was sick. My dear passenger also wasn't doing so well... Yeah... officially the GPS is messed. The issue is that on the map the road we were on was listed at 90 km/h. The issue with that is that we could only go about 20 km/h and still stay on the road. Oh well, at least the view was spectacular.
Lost in Greece
Wrath of the GPS God
Still Lost...
Lost... Feat. Better View...
360 of Greece
Greek Mountains
Greek Sunset
By the time we reached Thessaloniki it was late, and we had been in the car for hours more than anticipated. The GPS brought us downtown, which was of course, hoppin'. So many cars. So many people. Again with the stress of insane driving... we lapped our hotel a few times, saw a parking sign, and then made it into a parkade. Thank goodness. We negotiated a deal for two days, and we dragged our suitcases to the hotel.
Arrival in Thessaloniki
Looong day. Looooong. Into the hotel, and into bed...
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