Plovdiv

As long as I’ve been living in Bulgaria I’ve heard great stories of the old town of Plovdiv and the Roman amphitheatre which dwells within.

Colin suggested a day off and as he is a great lover of history, he has always wanted to see the Roman ruins in Plovdiv.  Seemed like a damned fine idea to me as I was much in need of some time away from work, so off we went.

Plovdiv is a terrific day out.  There are beautiful churches, Roman ruins, lovely architecture, great antique stores ( which I avoided like the plague) and just lovely walks around the old city.

Colin’s major interest was the amphitheatre but on the way there we saw some lovely things.  We visited two very beautiful churches, St. Marina and St. Dimitirs.  We couldn’t take photos in St. Marina but we could in St. Dimitir

It was pretty much all marble and very beautiful inside

We spent a little time in both churches and then continued our upward climb to where the amphitheatre was, this time passing some lovely architecture

and eventually we came over a little rise, down a few steps and there it was…actually, the first thing we saw was this

It was a stinker of a day and this little fella was out for the count in the heat and in exactly the same position when we left a considerable time later….but he did move his head, so he was alive.

And right below him …

And what, I can hear you ask, is going on in that ancient piece of property ? Well, they use it for performances and when we arrived it was being prepared for a concert that evening.

It was slightly odd seeing all that technology in amongst this

But it certainly didn’t detract from that tremendous sense of history that one gets in places like this. Colin was in his element and I did wonder if he would ever want to leave.  While he sat and absorbed & enjoyed where he was, I gazed around and noticed that everywhere I looked there was something of interest peeking out from amongst the surrounding environment…

 

I was particularly impressed with this house teetering on the rim of the amphitheatre

with a most interesting backyard adornment firmly ‘tied’ to the side of the hill.

I can only assume that the risk of damage to the amphitheatre below if they tried to move the stone was greater than securing it to the side of the hill…and this in a country that experiences earthquakes !!!

We wandered off back through the town visiting museums, gazing wistfully into antique shops and enjoying all that was happening around us.

There are further discoveries still being excavated and statues being cleaned up

and let’s not forget this famous figure,

carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders…

A great day out in a lovely place and I can only recommend going there to anyone who comes to BG…it’s gorgeous.

I’m off to pick some more tomatoes now.  With any luck I’ll get another entry up before this day is out…or perhaps I’ll just have a great big Nana nap.

Except for a bit of vege picking, I’m not working today at all…Hooray !!!