Juliana's Guest Post: Plovdiv

Plovdiv, a historic city located a small walk and two bus jaunts from Sofia.  

Easily reachable even by those unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Though my incredible hosts would have liked to accompany me, schedule-wise it worked best, if I went on my own while they were at school…so my hostesses with the mostesses described where I could walk to see the highlights, led me to the nearest bus stop, told me how to recognize the word Bus Station in Cyrillic, wrote down the numbers of buses that would lead me there, wrote down the identifiers for reliable taxis, gave me bus tickets and described the little orange box in which you validate your ticket, left me with their travel guide and a Cyrillic-to-Roman alphabet translation sheet so I could match things up to the Roman maps…I was set up to succeed.  

And for those of you in the Betsy and Brett fan club, I just want to say how thoroughly and wonderfully they will welcome you.  You might even get chocolate cake after they pick you up from the airport...

Observations from a hapless wander…

A luscious park fragrant with wild daisies where stylish new moms push their babies in strollers with attached sun umbrellas.  

A man in a white t shirt with a red  hammer and sickle enter the central fountain plaza and join one of several animated groups of men cheering on chess games (I didn’t even know that was possible).  BYO-Digital-Chess-Timer.  

Puffed up pigeons trying to impress a potential mate.

A velvety field of royal red tulips or poppies.

A cherry tree heavy with fruit.

Winding cobblestone avenues. Church towers, domes and columns.  An ancient bath house.  

Gypsies (or, to be pc, Roma people) doing the thankless dirty work...groundskeeping, toilet duty, garbage picking.  Clear segregation.  

High school kids dressed and primped to the peak of fashion joking and flirting after school.  

A man resignedly or even angrily doing a simple puppet show on the pedestrian walkway.  

Graffiti.  

The ruins of a coliseum, where workers were laying and mopping marley for a dance concert.

Chewy breads akin to pretzels but in circle form with sesame seeds.