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

Bulgaria

Well it seems a little superfical to be doing this blog so early into my time in the country, but I have the time and guess I can add and modify it later on.

I am currently in a town called Teolovo Vernova. While it appears to be a small town, it has a population of over 80,000. The town is all set against a cliff with streets going alongside it. The architecture is very different from Romania as the houses are no longer as colouful and are made of different materials. While it is a long way off Greece it kind of has that feel.

So what have I noticed so far:

• People still like to wear the colour yellow... am guessing this must be a Eastern European thing.
  Shops and food joints open late in the day. It was too early to have bruch this morning at 10:30am. At this point in time we were only able to have an alcohol drink or a coffee.
• Ice cream comes in flavours you just dont have at home and are very fancy though they are sold at the side of the street. The price is determined by the wieght of your order and not the scoop number.
• There are a lot of houses on the market here. While the prices are in Euro's they are still a lot cheaper here than at home (Mish maybe we could look at a house here :) )
• People appear to dress more modern here and less trashy than in Romania. We (the group) thinks this is why the Bulgarian girls are in general prettier.
• People continue to work and use their cellphone at the same time... it is normal to be served while the waitress etc are on their phone
• Getting and change continues to be something that annoys people here. While I get this, when you only have ATM money it is hard not to want it. Last night at dinner the smallest change they have was a $10 note!!!

Time running out so will update rest at latter date