April 28 2005 page 15 |
2005 BALKANS TOURBen Oostdam |
Plovdiv BULGARIA |
| In the Sofia railroad station, I had a fright seeing that the train to Plovdiv went the wrong direction, i.e. "back" to (Serbian)Dimitrovgrad where I had just come from .... till I found out that there are two towns of that name, thanks to Marshall Tito's admiration of the Bulgarian Premier Dimitrov (?), the other Dimitrovgrad near the border between Bulgaria and Turkey! |
| It was a pleasant ride between mountain ranges and along wild creeks.
A drunk fellow passenger entertained me trying to speak English running back and forth
between our cabin and the next where some schoolgirls translated such words as "fox" and "forest". We arrived in pleasant looking Plovdiv at 20:20 and I crossed the road where a taxi chauffeur offered me a for 3 Euro ride to Hotel Dafi - where I had made reservations for 3 nights. He also shooed away a gypsy woman who offered to come with me for 10 Euro and told me the old town was full of beautiful women. I did not give them a chance but before I retired I had a chat with the receptionist and asked him to wake me up for breakfast. |
| A lovesick cat kept me awake for hours, but I woke up in time for the breakfast downstairs. A hard-boiled egg stood waiting on my table - apparently they are served cold, and the waitress brought me plenty of coffee, fresh bread, cheese, sausage and yoghurt. I was also accosted by two English ladies in their sixties (with 6 and 3 children at home, resp., ranging from ages 17-45) who were picked up at 09:00 by a realtor to go view summer cottages for sale. |
| I first took a long stroll "around the block", skirting the old town and the adjacent highways. Noticed plenty of Playboys and Hustlers in the kiosks, and also found a "cash-machine" and my way back to the hotel in this "Kapana" - or trap as Milena, the manageress called it when I stepped back in triumphantly. She told me about the real estate boom and had bought a flat 3 years ago for Euro 11K which now was worth Euro 25K. She also referred to the present generation as the first which was survived by their parents, which she blamed on fast food. Next, I did some laundry, arranged a tour to Bachkovo the next day, and took a nappy before going on the town again. |