Bulgaria with Noodles

Introducing Tina to the unsuspecting readers of my blog   We actually had another reason for going to Plovdiv. Yes, it was great to go on the excellent (and free) Walking Tour with Pavel, but there was an additional motive for visiting the city: our new doggie. No one ever feeds me or takes me for a walk. For a long time, Irena and I have been talking about getting another dog after our return from China and finally (finally!) we have done it and taken the plunge. At first Irena wanted a poodle, but poodles are few and far between in Bulgaria, as well as rather expensive. We did not want another Fox Terrier like our dear Zoika, so we settled for a Jack Russell.  She is beautuful (and the dog is quite cute too) The eyes have it. Her name is Tina and she is now two and a half months old. She is quite a stubborn young lady, with a lot of character. As you might expect, we have been trying to persuade her to leave her little messages outside, but so far we have not alwa

Plovdiv is the second-biggest city in Bulgaria and, even though we have been coming here for fifteen years, we had never been to Plovdiv. It takes about two hours to drive there from Sofia. The road is pleasantly scenic and there are a lot fewer dupki than usual. Blogger and our guide, Pavel Regular readers of my blog will know that I am a fan of the free Sofia walking tour. Well, the Plovdiv-based version is equally good. We met Pavel, our loquacious and very knowledgeable guide, outside the city hall, next to the rather splendid fountain. The tour took about two hours and it covered the central parts of the city: the main square, the street that follows the layout of the Roman stadium, the Kapana district and the Old Town. On the way, we heard some of the many stories about Milo’s statue and yes, we did whisper in his ear and rub his knee. As for architecture, there are plenty of charming and elegant buildings from the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, but Plovdiv

After we drove back from Greece, we had a few days to get things ready. On the Sunday we had lunch at the cheap but rather good Chinese restaurant next to the church. Dave and Beth Kanelos of IBC had been running a Christian camp in Macedonia, so they wanted to say “thank you” to their co-workers and we were invited to the lunch as well. Lunch after church, with Dave, Beth and lots of IBC people My old friend from our teacher training college days, Peter Adams, has come to stay. Peter arrived on the Tuesday. I collected him from Sofia airport and we had a late lunch, followed by a wander around the huge park that is just across the road from our flat in Ulitsa Kozyak. Then on the Wednesday we went to see my school, St. George’s. Peter was suitably impressed by the amazing gym and the penthouse suite, complete with the fully-equipped bar and spectacular views of Mount Vitosha, but my security card does not give me access to the theatre and the swimming pool. Bother! Out on

Absolutely lovely, and the view is quite nice too. There are supposed to be some amazingly beautiful caves on Zakynthos, the famous “Blue Caves”. There is also the most photographed beach in the whole of the Med., the Shipwreck Beach. (Why a rusty old boat should be regarded as so photogenic is a mystery.) Well, we were supposed to be going on a boat trip around the island to see the caves and the beach, but we were not collected from our hotel. In the afternoon, we went to the offices of the company that had promised to collect us from Agoulos Inn and take us on this wonderful trip.  On the beach, with a shipwreck and about 500 tourists. Then they promised to take us the following morning. This was the last day of our holiday on Zakynthos. The same thing happened. No one came. We persuaded the nice   lady who owns the Agoulos Inn to phone the company and this time they promised to come at twenty past one. Twenty past one duly arrived, but they did not. After we were fed up

We woke up at 3.45 am and, after some frantic packing, we were on the road just after half past four. Soon the horrors of the Sofia ring road were left behind and we were heading south, to the Greek border. The formalities at Kulata did not hold us up for long and we stopped in a lovely field, just off the main road, for a well-earned picnic breakfast. We took the wrong turning in Thessaloniki and that slowed things down a bit. There were lots of tunnels as we drove on through the mountains, past Ioanna and on to Arta. We got a bit lost again in Arta, but finally we arrived at the Marathia Hotel in Chenapolou just after two. What a drive it was! A toll-free picnic Greece really is wonderful! The food, the scenery, the language, the weather, the people: it’s all lovely. Now for two little moans. The Greek roads are absolutely beautiful, scenic, almost empty of traffic and well-surfaced. Most of the ones we drove on were dual carriageways and they are obviously a lot better main