Walk baby walk !
Today begins the real visit, because we actually did nothing yet !
Begining of the day
Motivated like ever we benefited for our workout session to discover one of the seven hills that surround the city : Youth Hill (Джендем тепе). We will learn it later but this hill was in the past, famous for being "cursed".
We are both naturally curious so we want to discover what locals are used to doing on their everyday life. And one of the most important activity to see is how they do shopping !
So we go to the Billa (austrian supermarket chain we don't know in France). Until now nothing very atypical or different from what we can find in our usual stores. However, we quickly discovered that they have a catering section offering fresh and homemade dishes. Hard to choose among the large selection of salads, meats, fishes, desserts... but finally we picked some foods and went savoring it in the Rowing Canal (гребна база).
It's a wide water place used for rowing competitions of course but not only. The most delightful thing is that the canal is surrounded by a big park allowing people to do jogging, biking, having a drink, chilling etc. A very nice spot, not overcrowded with nature and precious shadow :) (if we knew that before , we would have make our workout there instead of the haunted hill)
Kapana
On the afternon we (finally) started to visit the city of Plovdiv starting with the neighbourhood of Kapana : the artistic center !
I really appreciated this area with its charming winding streets hosting antique shops, craftspersons, organic shops ; but also bars, restaurants and tea rooms so hipstero-boho as we like ! . And the icing on the cake is obviously the amazing street art that turns the place into a pop, colourful bubble where you can loose yourself during hours.
Too many emotion gets you thirsty : we think about having a drink but where ? between organic smoothies, the well known coffees in the Monkey House or the Central Perk (absoulutely inspired by the TV show :p). Finally we choose a very cute tea room ; Shen Cafe ( Шен кафе клуб ) and tasted their homemade lemonade and cakes : Yummy !
Time travel
Our next step is the Hour Hill, Danov Halm (Данов хълм) ou Sahat Tepe (сахат тепе ). We weren't disappointed by the astonished view when we reached the 19's century clock tour. The story of this clock is quite original because only one 90 years old man is still able to fixe it.
Why he didn't train somebody else and explaining how the mecanism works?
Simply because he doesn't want. Indeed, it appears the mecanician want to take this secret into his grave !
So know it's time to reach the meeting point of the Free Walking Tour : it's a very good concept where volunteers (monstly local history or culture students) lead free walking tours -as it is untitled lol) in different cities (you pay at the end as you want according to the quality of the prestation). Here, the volunteers are involved in the NGO 365 (visits everyday regardless the weather).
So during two hours we follow Stephan who teaches us several unusual events of the city of Plovdiv. My favourite story with no doubt was the one of Milu :
" famous in Plovdiv just four being himself ! "
He used to seat in the main street talking to anyone even if he was deaf being very nice and sociable. Further years after his death ; a sculptor decided to "bring back to life" several Plovdiv's urban legends and as most locals still remembered him ; Milu has now a statue at his effigy standing right where he used to stay.
A tail also says that if you make a wish in his ears it can come true ! In my opinion, this initiative gives an intemporal and very poetic aspect to the moving story of Milu ! (1)
The tour ended on the old town while we were admiring the sun setting on the city.
Over with history lessons, it's time for a break
So many walk, so many information, we are starving ! Yann, take me to the Grazhdanski Klubb (ГРАЖДАНСКИ КЛУБ) : a bar/restaurant in the old town. Its menu mixes prepared meals and snacks for little and big stomach or to share ! The better part : a huge range of rakia !
Finally we decided to chill around a shisha at the Narguile Bar, after all, orientals habits are also part of the bulgarian folklore thanks to its Ottoman roots. Here, you don't know what to choose between the different flavors the bar offers and that you can mix. Fortunately, the waiter kindly helped us finishing our day in a cherry/mint cloud !
(1) Another statue from the same sculptor exists in the city, the one of Sašo Sladura Nikolov a violonist from Plovdiv whose humor was fatal since he finished his days in a gulag for making fun of a communist officer... Not cool !
Follow our trip to Bulgaria reading my articles untitled #Amazingbulgaria
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To be continued ...