Bulgaria Continued

Roman Ampıtheatre, Plovdiv

Well since this is now my last day in Bulgaria I now feel a little more qualified about writing about the happenings here.

There seems to be many similarities in someways here to Romania. In terms of they have a lot of the same brand shops, their road system works the same. I have to say it is nice being at a crossing and knowing how long you have to wait and how long you have to cross. Additionally the country also loves their monuments and statues. Sadly another similarity I have noticed is that a lot of the old buildings and monuments have graffiti all over them or are not well maintained. It is something that does surprise me a little.
Now what else is there that I have noticed...

• Well the main one is the written language here. It is completely impossible to decipher the written language as it looks like wingdings at times. This has made it confusing when trying to find things. In the last three years however a lot more English signs have been created on buildings and also streets signs to make it easier for us travellers to understand. This is apparently connected with the country joining the EU and also trying to get the Winter Olympics.

• There is a lot of sexualised advertising here compared to Romania and Hungary. There are Billboards advertising sex shops and sexualised graphics trying to promote products. While I like to think of myself as not being prudish it is surprising considering how religious the country is.
  


• Talking about religion. It is strange for my to see coming from such a non religious country to see people from all walks of life come into churches to quickly pray. At times there are groups of girls who will come in together while shopping and light a few candles, pray to a few mytars and then leave again.\


• The food here as was in Romania influenced a lot my the Italian's so there is pizza and pasta on a lot of menu's. Thankfully here there has also been a Greek influence which means a lot of salads for me to chose from. This has been great as I was getting tired of basing my meals on bread and my body had been missing veggies. It is still missing fruit however as it is still hard to find fresh fruit here. Overall the food here is good and most of it is organic as the country is not developed enough to use pesticides. This has meant that I am enjoying veges like beetroot which I have never liked before at home. It is hard at times though as the country loves their cheese and put it on everything without even pointing it out on the menu.
  Food here in general is very cheap to eat out. I managed to have accidentally of course for less than NZ$10 a large size veggie pizza, a 500ml beer and a large salad. At times I have managed to have a whole meal for under NZ$5 without trying too hard.


• The country has a lot of sports shops, they appear to be everywhere. The strange thing is though apart from when up in Bunsko near the mountains you never see anyone doing exercise about from walking the streets. People are also not dressed in sport gear. Am thinking people must exercise in secrete or something, I don't know.


• There continues to be shoe shops galore here. Eastern Europe appears to have a thing for fashionable shoes. If only my baggage weight was not an issues I would so be having a field day in all the shops as many of them are so different from home. I must say though I am impressed how the women here are able to walk so well on the uneven cobbled stone paths.


• As mentioned earlier I went tramping in the Pirin Mt's. I think a lot of the views are equally as good as those in NZ which i think is saying something. It was amassing how you would just turn a corner and there right in front of you was a clear large lake with Mt tops being reflected in the water. What I do have to say about NZ tracks however is they are well marked. Here you have markers that just suddenly stop with no indication. This caused as to get slightly lost and thankfully with the help of a local guide who happened to be wondering past we were able to get back on track after going through some rubbish at the back of a hotel and through some thistle bushes.

One of the many lakes on Mt Pirin