In part 1, we travelled to Veliko Tarnovo. In part 2, we experienced the city. Snuggled in the lap of the mountain, Veliko Tarnovo is a tiny little version of San Francisco when it comes to street denivelation. There are some flat parts but overall, it’s either going up or going down. This didn’t go, um, down well with Cris and Cat, who were both tired and devoid of any enthusiasm for walking.
The hotel that Cat’s school arranged for us was, in addition to the cat, pretty decent, clean and quiet. We unpacked and went out to attend the opening ceremony for the art competition, held at the school where it was due to take place the next day. Cat insisted she wanted to attend. Cris and Irina did not discourage her despite knowing that school-organised opening ceremonies are rarely a rewarding or pleasant experience.
In this case, it also turned out to be a tourist mistake because the competing artists got a gift from the school: a free pass to the Tsarevets Fortress. Opening hours: 8 am to 7 pm. Opening ceremony: 5 pm to 6 pm. There was no way we could make it on Saturday. There was also no way we could make it with Cat on Sunday because the competition was from 9 am to 1 pm and then we had to get home for reasons of Monday being a school day and Cat insisting on doing her homework. She resigned to her fate and we went back to the hotel for dinner — only to find out the hotel’s restaurant was booked for someone’s birthday party.
By this time, Cris and Cat were well and truly into hating Veliko Tarnovo, and Irina’s resolve to like it was beginning to get shaky. By the third restaurant that was fully booked for one event or another, hate was the general sentiment in the family. We did eventually found a lovely place to eat and Cris and Irina got additionally rewarded by the place’s choice of music, featuring major 90s pop hits. We had a nice time. Then we went back to the hotel. Which was literally vibrating with the music from the birthday party, which was emphatically not 90s pop hits. We did not get much sleep that night.
On Sunday, bright and early, bleary-eyed and grumpy, we dropped Cat off at the competition and went to stroll around some Mediaeval history.
We discovered Veliko Tarnovo is most beautiful when seen from a height.
We were greeted by Fortress Cat, one of many roaming the city.
We enjoyed some more views of the city from above.
We found a marble block with an inscription built into a wall. No idea why it’s horizontal rather than vertical.
We strolled around some ancient wall remains.
We found out the entrance to the ancient throne room was being reconstructed.
We also found oregano growing in the cracks between the stones. Of course, we took some home. Jury’s still out on whether it’s taken but we’re hoping.
Then we went back down to the city for a walk around the tourist traps.
And we discovered double standards were alive and well.
Cat didn’t came first in the competition, she came fifth but that’s all right. She came first in last year’s edition. We’re going back to Veliko Tarnovo at some point in the future, so father and daughter can climb some Tsarevets tower that was closed for visitors this time. Irina will be sitting the tower climb out. She has a problem with heights.
Sympathy for the loud hotel.
The first time my Son and I made our annual trip to Galveston we made the mistake of staying at the Holiday Inn "Resort". It had an attached night club that played wall shaking music until 2AM. Then, when htey left, they left the sound system on playing canned music at the same volume. I can only assume the latter was some form of acoustical aggression against their guests.