The konak in Arbanasi

The konak in Arbanasi, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We made it to Veliko tarnovo after a hellish journey, like some of the worst we have had in Africa, with the minibus getting ever fuller, women fighting to have the windows shut and so on, but we made it after not too long a journey. Dumped at a bus station, the clouds have come over, it is grey and our hostel was full, the other one too. Not a good start.

Still the friendly owner, Georgi, gives us a lift int town, fred finds a friednly lady at the Tourist Information and it all starts going right!

Had a wonderful day, wandering around the old town, having a lte lunch, taking a taxu to nearby village of Arbanasi, with its beautiful church of the nativity, with every inch painted in medieval frescoes, followed by a visit to a lovely Turkish konak, witha. Peaceful garden, the sun comes out and all of a sudden everything is wondrful.

Back at Vk, a delicious dinner followed by Don Carlos at the Castle. A tragic love story, with sub-titles in English, i have never enjoyed an opera more than when sitting high on that hill above the town, surrounded by old walls overlooking a steep valley, the town to the west, the moon and Jupiter rising in the east. Extraordinary.

Today, a lazy day, we feel, although we might visit a local monastery where an Italian cred ae filming a Chekov play. Or maybe not. That's the nice thing abiut holidays.

And we still have Sunny Beach to come, all being well!