We walked to Drianovo International Railway Station and waited on the bare platform next to the shell of the station building that was covered in graffiti. The train arrived just a couple of minutes late and we, literally climbed on board (no raised platform and the coaches are high). We paid the conductor and received a lovely handwritten ticket and then arrived at Drianovo station! It turned out that our station is actually called Bacho Kiro (the same as the caves, both named after one of the 1876 uprising heroes) and Drianovo is a large town with a large railway station. The journey to Veliko Turnovo was a slow, stately affair through picturesque countryside, winding past large rounded hills shaped like giant tumuli covered in forest. We were introduced to the city by a large industrial area with many derelict and semi-derelict factories and then the wide Yantra river appeared as we pulled into the station. Once in the city we headed for the Old Town and the famous Hadji Nicoli Inn, which we discovered was closed for renovation. Our guide booked had raved about this “not to be missed” Mediaeval town but I have to say that we found it disappointing compared with the old town of Plovdiv. The castle hill however, with its enormous castle wall was impressive.
We visited the Bulgarian National Revival Museum full of pictures of fighters, their guns, clothing, personal effects and letters. There were some very brief English translations, for which we were very grateful, but it was still very difficult to understand any of the story of the struggle against the Turks. The archaeological museum next door was disappointing, with a relatively small collection, poorly displayed and with very little, if any, indication of provenance or dates of the finds.
We had an incredibly cheap and very good lunch in the old town and, following directions from our helpful, English-speaking waitress, we found the Internet Café. Once again they didn't have wireless, didn't allow USB keys and didn't allow people to plug their laptops into the network. However, the sympathetic although rather grumpy assistant produced an Ethernet cable from behind the bar and I stood for an hour at the bar using the laptop. I was able to post all of the blog whilst Jane was using one of their computers to deal with the emails but the download speed was very poor and I was only able to get a very few podcasts from the BBC. Still, it only cost less than £1 for both of us (a total of more than two hours use), so I can't complain.
We walked over a bridge high over the valley to the Asenovtsi Park in a loop of the river. There was a huge metal sculpture to people who battled against the Turks from the 12th century – I really need to read some more about Bulgarian history. The view of the town from this park was lovely, with old houses clinging to the edge of the gorge over the river.
We walked down from the park to the railway station and caught the train. One other person, a Bulgarian middle-aged backpacker, got off at Bacho Kiro. He stood looking totally confused – understandably as he was in the middle of nowhere with no obvious way off the station. I managed to establish that he was going to the monastery and we lead him down the overgrown ramp, through the woods to the campsite and pointed him in the direction of the monastery.
Photos: The Strinava campsite in its lovely setting; The train arrives at Bacho Kiro station; A rather cuddly prehistoric cult figure in the Veliko Turnovo museum; Veliko Turnovo from Asenovtsi Park.
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