Roman ruins in Plovdiv

Elena at the Roman amphitheatre
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Plovdiv was our next stop in Bulgaria, for 2 nights.   We stayed at Hikers Hostel, right in the centre of the Old Town. The first thing we did was go and have a late lunch at a restaurant recommended to us by the hostel. It was so good, we ended up going back there for dinner and lunch the next day! And cheap too... we had 2 mains, a huge side dish, and 3 drinks (Richard was thirsty) and it only cost us 14 leva (about 7 euro).

There are many Roman ruins in the town, and first we saw an old Roman stadium. It is situated right in the centre of a big modern square, and a lot of it is built over by modern buildings. Unfortunately it is covered in trash and seems to be a breeding ground for cats, which is a shame as it is quite well preserved.

A traditional Bulgarian house, now the Ethnographic Museum
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Our second day in Plovdiv was spent exploring the Old Town further. There seemed to be a religious festival of some sort on, as the church was swarming with people and there were lots of people carrying around flowers. There were vendors selling pigeons outside the church too, and we saw one woman release a pigeon into the sky... I guess you say a prayer and then let the bird go.

We saw a huge Roman amphitheatre built in the second century AD next, and then explored the back streets which are filled with traditional Bulgarian houses. They are very colourful - bright orange and blue - and we went inside a few of them. One has been converted into an Ethnographic Museum, where we saw traditional Bulgarian clothing, icons and old everyday items. As I have a partly Bulgarian background I found this quite interesting!