December in Belogradchik

by Daniel Johnson (Romania)

A leap into the unknown Bulgaria

While staying in Sofia, Bulgaria at the beginning of my travels, two friends and I decided to take a trip up north to the Belogradchik fortress. The trip got off to an interesting start when my buddy who was renting the car couldn’t find his driver’s license, and instead pulled out his expired license, (which had a hole punched out of it) and was assigned a car with no questions asked. There was more entertainment to be had at the rental agency, though, when the guy that got our car for us, pulled it out into the road, told us to get in quick because a taxi was coming, and then said, “But first, a joke.” And proceeded to tell us a joke about taxi drivers. He was awesome. After arriving in the small northern town and getting some dubious food from a fast food joint there, we headed up to the fortress, which was pretty incredible. Built into the really cool rock formations of the area, the original fortress was constructed when the area was part of the Roman Empire and has been expanded several times over the centuries by both Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. We were in the fortress exploring and taking pictures for over two and a half hours and had the place completely to ourselves, almost the entire time. Traveling in the offseason is incredible. After leaving, we headed back into town and found a room to rent. We then went in search of dinner. On our way we found a car on the side of the road that was up on blocks and completely stripped so that all that was left was the metal frame and a couple loose wires. It was only five o’clock when we arrived at the one restaurant that we could find. We went up to the door and saw that the place wasn’t supposed to open until seven, but before we got back into the car, a woman came and opened the door and ushered us in. That’s how dead this town is in December. If they see anyone willing to spend money they will go out of their way to oblige. The English in this small town was limited and ordering food was interesting with our non-existent Bulgarian. The one thing that was clearly understood was when I ordered a vodka and she asked me if I wanted a small one or a big one, by putting her fingers close together then far apart. I emphatically indicated I wanted a big one and was brought a glass with about 3 shots worth of vodka. Excellent. After eating we went back to our room to drink and play cards. After a while we decided we wanted to see if the observatory was open. We’d read that it was kind of hit or miss when they were open, but despite it being a pretty overcast night, we thought we would try to check it out anyway. Even if we couldn’t see anything, it would be cool just to check out the telescope and hang with the astronomers. So we went to the corner store and picked up two two-liters of beer to offer to the scientists, thinking they probably weren’t really working, if they were there at all, since there wasn’t much to see and they might want to party with us. The gate was locked when we arrived though, so we walked up to the outpost for the fortress that was next to the observatory. We could here music coming from somewhere and decided to go in search of the music, figuring that the people playing it were obviously down to party unlike the astronomers. We searched for a while but couldn’t find anything. However, we did go down this dark dirt road and rolled up on a car with four young guys in it who were clearly smoking pot, and did a U-turn right next to them, then returned to the head of the road and sat there for a couple minutes before moving on. I can only imagine what they were thinking but I’m pretty positive we freaked them out. Ah…paranoia.