Part 9: From Schumen and Madara to Veliko Tarnovo

5th of May 2004•10:19 hours

This time I once hung out like a real tourist and had delivered myself to the taxi's. Why should I take the taxi if you can also walk? I was a bit overwhelmed that my train did not stop in Madara, whereas I wanted to see the caves of Madara and the rocks with the horseman. Thus I got off at the next trainstop in Schumen and started to negotiate with a taxi driver, whom seemed sympathetic to me. For how much money can you bring me to Madara and back? I had only two hours of time, but the taxi drove with a motorway speed along the small roads straight to the caves. So I had enough time left over not only to climb the mount, but also to explore the old fort and the cave houses. On the way back he proposed to use the remaining time to show me a large citadel at Schumen. It became a lightspeed fast sightseeing tour, along a second citadel and the Tumbul mosque, the oldest mosque of Bulgaria, which still is visited a lot by the Turkish minority. He also brought me to a monument for the honour of the Founders of the Bulgarian State on top of a mount. In the train I got problems with the conductor because I had got off halfway and travelled with another train further, which is not accepted. I acted like the silly Dutch tourist and a boy in the compartiment helped me out by saying that I had been wrong informed.

Arriving in Veliko Tarnovo, a man asks me right away if I was looking for a place to sleep. I was still the lazy tourist and had myself brought to the private pension. Then he wants to exchange old Bulgarian money coins for Euro coins. Later I understand that I have paid far too much and that this man takes half of the money for provision. Anyway I am not in the mood to join him into the city centre to drink something in a cafe but I prefer to go just on my own. First I visit the Tsarevets Hill, then I walk through the hilly old centre and drink something on the terrace of Pepy's bar. In another nice bar, Mosquito, everyone is sociably talking to each other and I sit near the bar in my own. Come on Tijs: or you just keep sitting here for over an hour or you put on a pair of naughty shoes. I make contact to a couple of some young people and ask them if I can come and sit next to them. It becomes a sociable evening with lots of beer, a little joint and a neighbouring discotheque where we keep swinging on regular disco-music until early in the morning. 6th of May 2004•7:24 hours

Yesterday I decided to take a day of rest for myself. Victor, the man who had picked up me from the station, stood on the pavement in the morning and asked me if he could offer me an excursion. That was the last thing that I wanted to do. Instead, I just strolled through the narrow streets in the hilly centre and afterwards I passed the broader avenues in downtown to the station. I decided not to visit another city in Bulgaria and do the same ritual like searching for a place to sleep et cetera. I rather remained hanging out in Veliko Tarnovo to enjoy the surroundings of the town and take the night train in the evening straight to Istanbul. On the station I encountered Victor again, who wanted to help me with buying a train ticket and bringing my left luggage to the luggage depot. That was meant kind of him, but I just wanted to find out that by myself.

After eating I started hiking along the river. Soon I arrived in an unexpected beautiful village. However, there were no real hiking tracks anywhere. I tried a little path but that ended up on a waste dump. Another two more attempts, but each path ended up at some waste dump or left factory. Behind the green beauty of the vally, the whole area seemed to be actually one large dump place. Nevertheless I eventually found a little sheep path that went up the hill and ended up into the forest. The path went further up and the landscape became more and more rocky. Another path crossed mine and then I found a real hiking track with signs to the top of the mount. The forest had made place for some kind of mountain pastures, splendid flowers thrived on the mount slopes. The view on the low green mounts with rock edges is splendid. I follow the route further and get back in Veliko Tarnovo two hours later.