We were surprised that we breezed through Romania as quickly as we had, so we took advantage of our extra few days and decided to spend some time in Bulgaria. Wanting the bragging rights, and not wanting to head back early to Sincan, we chose a lovely city that was on the way home, Veliko Tarnovo. Though it was a bit of a trip getting there (first our train was late getting into Bucharest, then we got off our train in Bulgaria to only get back on the same one after crossing the border, and then having to spend two hours in a freezing train station waiting for our connection) we were very happy when we finally arrived in the freezing little village. Thanks to the assistance of a nice local we were able to secure a cab ride in the desolate out skirts and after driving around a bit looking for a hostel, that in our opinion does not exist, we finally arrived at an up-scale hotel. We splurged on our last two nights and chose a recently renovated hotel, which was only one story high; the rest of the floors actually below street level, which gave a beautiful panoramic view of the gorge. We both took well deserved naps; I was extremely happy to have my own bed as Stacy is notorious for cocooning herself in all the covers, leaving me with only scraps to try to keep warm. Upon waking we made our way to the bus station to secure our journey home. As it is a very small village there were only buses every other day to Istanbul. We booked the next available seats and confirmed when we should be at the station. We then located a quaint little restaurant and enjoyed delicious Bulgarian delicacies. Stacy was very happy to see cheese in almost every dish and had a hard time narrowing down her choice.
The next day we made our way to one of the only sightseeing attractions, Tsarevets Fortress. We bundled up as much as possible; we were not surprised to learn that Veliko Tarnovo is the coldest city in Bulgaria in the winter and the hottest in the summer. We made our way precariously up the steep uneven steps to the church inside the fortress. Upon entering we were awed by the beautiful modern mosaics. Gothic depictions of the Bible covered every inch of the walls and ceilings. We immediately started snapping photos. We then made our way back through old town to our hotel. Along the way we stopped at a gift shop that sold hand-made wood carvings. We both made purchases of ornately designed crosses. We finished our day at our new favorite restaurant, where Stacy picked another dish off her ever growing list of things she wanted to try.
The next day we geared up for our ten hour time kill before boarding our bus to Istanbul. We killed as much time as we could in our hotel café before heading to “our” restaurant for one last indulgence. We then headed to the bus stop with about an hour left to kill. Upon arriving it was pretty dead, with only a few people waiting. Not thinking much, as it was a pretty small town, we sat and waited till the bathroom attendant started looking at us a little curiously. Stacy went over to make sure we were waiting in the right spot. After a few minutes of hand gesturing and calling over a younger guy who could speak a little English, she called me over. She explained tentatively that we had missed our bus. Our bus had departed at the scheduled time of 8:30 pm and here we were ready to go at 10:00 pm! The time of course had been written in military time. We were in utter disbelief! After living in Thailand for over a year where they only use military time, then spending the past four and a half months in Turkey where it is also popular, how could we have made such a big mistake? We had even checked and double checked with the travel agent what time we had to be at the station, but of course this was also in military time! There was nothing else to do but collect our things and make our way back to the hotel. We re-checked in with apologetic smiles and headed to our new room. Not wanting to spend another two nights in Bulgaria we did a lot of back and forth calling with reception before finding out the only way to get home would be to first travel to the capital of Sofia and then board one of the numerous daily buses to Istanbul. After waiting till the bank was open and again changing money, we traveled to Sophia without a hitch. Once inside the large station Stacy located our bus company we use to get from Istanbul to Sincan. We booked the next available bus to Turkey. Our trip home went smoothly and with only a short wait at the border, where we had to scan our luggage, we soon made it to Istanbul where we were able to immediately book a bus to Ankara. We were on the road after three hours and then traveled the last 40 minutes home ready to dump our bulging back packs and purses and fall into bed. Oh and to top it all off we came home to an ice storm, luckily we had power!
~ Randi 
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