BG Rocks!

Belogradchik is in north-western Bulgaria. It is quite a pleasant and prosperous little town. Its two claims to fame are Pri Ivan, an excellent Serbian restaurant that gets rave reviews in Trip Advisor, and Belogradchik rocks, some amazing geological formations just outside the town. 

Tripe soup, a sovereign remedy for hangovers

There was, however, one small problem: getting there. From Kalotina, we had a choice. We could drive to Sofia and then go round the ring road, before taking the main road to Montana and then on towards Vidin, before branching off to Belogradchik. The other route was to hack across country to Montana, as this seemed to be a shorter way. We chose the latter and it was a big mistake. I thought that the drive would take about two hours, whereas in fact it took three and a half because the roads were so narrow and twisty. Lots of roads works did not help much either.

In the restaurant "Pri Ivan"

Finally we arrived in Belogradchik and we managed to find the restaurant quite easily. The food really was good and the portions were huge. For starters, I had the shkembe chorba, an interesting soup made with tripe and plenty of paprika. (It is supposed to be a wonderful cure for hangovers.) John had the tarator and I cannot remember what Peter had. Next we had pleskovica, a sort of meat patty or hamburger, covered with cheese. The chips with extra cheese were a mistake, as we had more fried potatoes with the main course. The portions were enormous and John and I could not finish our food, although we tried hard!

After lunch, we wandered (rather slowly) back to the main town square and we tried to decide the best way to get to the rocks. This was a bit difficult, as the large map was rather confusing. When we finally found one way to go, we started to see the rocks in more detail. They really are amazing! These sandstone formations were formed millions of years ago. Wind and rain have, over time, moulded and sculpted the rocks into all sorts of weird and improbable shapes. We were able to see some of the rocks, but we definitely did not see all of them because they are quite spread out. A mountain bike really would be the best way to see all of them. As for these photographs, I am afraid that they really do not do justice to the amazing Belogradchik rocks. Incredible!