The seven hills of Plovdiv

Folklore tastes best when experienced in the least expected places and on the least expected hours. Not in museum exhibitions or ticketed shows, but like right now - on a hot summer night on one of seven hills of Plovdiv, where I'm sitting among musicians coming from all over the world to learn the complicated Bulgarian music. Deep in my soul I am thankful for a random choice that directed me to Hikers Hostel - the place where I could live with musicians, hear them and play together.

Bulgarian music and well lit houses of the oldest city in Bulgaria don't care that Lauren and Jorge are from the USA, Katie from UK and Fabrice came here from France. Or maybe they care a lot more when people outside from this culture are so fascinated by Bulgarian folklore art, that they devote long years to learn it's complicated ways? Because for the inexperienced ear the changes of metrum and qurter tones are a genuine riddle, that has been born from the crosssover of European and Oriental cultures.

Plovdiv is the fourth oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. Brought up in the Thracian culture, it has had several stormy romances with Greek, Roman, Bulgarian and Turkish culture. Material remnants of these relationships are present all over the city making it one of the most fascinating in the Balkans.

It is Thracians, to whom Plovdiv owes its location on the banks of Maritsa river and covering the surrounding seven hills: Nebet, Dzhambaz, Taksim, Markovo, Dzhendem, Bunardzhik i Sahat. Why do I write about them? They are important enough to be placed in the city's coat of arms, and for the visitor they are a sort of guide through the history of the settlement, being chapters of it's chronicles.

The photo above is a view from first of the hills, Nebet, where are placed the ruins of Tracian ancient city of Eurnolpias - the first incarnation of Plovdiv. Open for everyone in the day and night, it is a perfect viewpoint and a popular place for meetings and hangouts. In fact this is the hill, where in the middle of the night we could be caught playing music and drinking beer.

Between two other hills - Dzhambaz and Taksim - is placed one of the most known sights from the Roman times in Bulgaria, ancient theater. Impressive when seen in contrast with street going in a tunnel under it and Rodopi mountains in the background, and even more impressive when is full of people during a concert (for example last years DVD by Anathema) or annual International Folklore Festival taking place at the turn of July and August. Looking at it it's hard to believe it was built for 7 thousand seats.

Two more important Roman sights are the Odeon and the Stadium. The first one is visible in the center and recently renovated, but the latter is definitely giving more food for the thoughts. The chariot track had length of one stadium - 600 meters, with places for 30 thousands spectators - that all lay beneath the main pedestrian street of Plovdiv, on which we just stepped... Only the fragment of one end with an entrance is visible - a piece of old glory astonishing, when you imagine the rest of the ancient ruins lying buried under street full of shops.

Above you can see the Knyaz Aleksandyr I-vi Street, placed several meters above the ancient Stadium.

The Roman building is accompanied by remnants of Turkish occupation, lasting for 500 years in Bulgaria - Dzhumaya mosque built right after conquer of Bulgaria in the 14th century.

The highest hill of Plovdiv is Dzhendem, also known as The Hill of Spirits (Dzhin Tepe), here were found the oldest historical fragments of a settlement dating back to the Bronze Age. Later the Bronze Age remnants were replaced by a great bronze statue of Apollo and his temple.

The next hill, Sahat Tepe, bears a mark of 19-th century story of the city - a clocktower with a mechanism brought here from Vienna. A less known fact is, that coming down on the eastern side of Sahat there are amazing big-scale portraits on the rocky slopes of the hill. The guerilla graffiti is a delight for all street art (is it still street art if it's on the rocks?) and history fans.

Bunardzhik, known also as the Hill of Liberators is a touch of the 20th century work. On the top you find an enormous, 15-meters high monument in memory of the Soviet soldiers that liberated Bulgaria during the Second World War. The soldier, commonly called Alyosha, stands proudly over the city, being caught in the second plan of most of the pictures taken from the ruined of the Thracian fortress on the Nebet hill.

The trip of the seven hills of Plovdiv ends appropriately on the Markovo Tepe, but unfortunately the mountain is no more.It has been brought down at the beginning of the 20th centuryand is turned into a building site. The stones were used to pave the streets of the city and the land has been awaiting purpose for over a century and is still waiting for the grand opening of Markovo Tepe Mall.

Plovdiv's coat of arms pictures the seven hills of which one - you'd think unmovable landmark - has fallen victim to "progress". In contrast to the hill, the immaterial cultural heritage - music, dances, cuisine and traditions - are flourishing among the Bulgarians, as among artists from all over the world still fascinated by Bulgarian folklore.

Vrachanski Balkan

Bulgaria, XII.2013

Sofia has this one indisputable advantage of being surrounded by the mountains. In whichever direction you would go, you would meet one range or the other. South with a city bus - there's Vitosha (Cherni Vrah, 2290), to the west Lyulin Mountains (Dupevitsa, 1256), to the east - Stara Planina, known also as Balkans (Botev, 2376), and with a train towards the north - Vrachanski Balkan (Beglichka Mogila, 1481). In the winter break we decided to visit this named in the last place.

Last minute preparations - a map printed out from the internet on a single sheet, just before closing of the printing point. It was already in the train when we realised, that our designed three-day trip was reduced to a A6 format, rest of the map being unnecessary. Ah, but come on, it has been worse - every time when I see a crappy map I have in mind my hand-drawn map which guided me through Romanian Muntii Cindrel. Most important is that we have the relief of th terrain printed out in color, we can figure out the rest.

Shops closing early in the Christmas season, there is no gas. And when I made peace with fighting with bonfires in the cold December nights, I recall that over a year ago I left a gas container with Mitko during my first visit to Bulgaria. Quick phonecall - he still got it, great!

So the last thing remaining is to check which station to get out of the train and everything's ready. Last minute, but succesfully....

Hitchhiking in Bulgaria

... not entirely. The train departured at 7, so we had to get up still in the dark. We're regaining the lost sleep on the hard benches of the train in the meantime losing track on how many stations have we passed - and the lack of signes on the platforms doesn't really help. So, obviously, we get out in the wrong place, something like 15 kilometers before our destination point.

The looks of locals suggest, that tourists are not frequently seen in Tsarovo in the middle of the winter. We roll into a bar like a couple of aliens with full backpacks and a tent attached. We cheer oursleves up with a cheap coffee and think what to do. Dani is a bit sceptical towards my statement, that hitchhiking is ridiculously easy in Bulgaria, and even more disbelieving when I say that I have never waited more than 15 minutes on the side of a road...

... the scepticism last for the first 10 minutes. We get out of the hitched car close to Ochindol.

For the not so high mountains - the highest peak is only 1481 m - Vrachanski Balkan is surprisingly steep, rocky and treeless. In addition not so popular for this time of the year, so it is perfect for finding a weekend pinch of adventure.

Heaven for rent

On the road from Ochindol to shelter Parshevitsa we encounter a small "zaslon" with stone walls. Not marked on the maps that we had (at this point two already), something like 30 minutes from the place that we'd set the tent last night... But no regrets, it had been already taken by then by a guy, that made dibs for a New Years Eve. Good destination for the future, a few days in a mountain house with a view on the peaks and valleys - why not?

Taste of the past and shkembe

Not much later we get to shelter Parshevitsa, in which we encounter several people even though the ski season is dead. Insides remembering golden times of mountains tourism and perfectly suited for cheap and great tasting meal, which consists of two dishes and beer for two people - for around 12-13 lv (6 euro). Hurray for Polish shelter, where this kind of prices would never appear.... Nor the great shkembe chorba, spice soup made from animal's insides.

Next part of the trip mainly consists of views that many mountains of similar height could be jealous of:

In the evening of the second day we start going down, while it gets colder than on the ridge. Temperature inversion that we have seen as a sea of clouds the night before gets in our way when we fall asleep and wake up in the middle of this sea. And where there's sea, wet there is.

This way we get to Milanovo, but our descent is not yet finished. Ahead of us lays a kind of road that is the most frustrating to any walker in the mountains, with it's twists and turns stretching few kilometers to alomst 3 times as long:

We put 4-5 kilometers behind us, rounding in zigzags and I'm pretty sure at least one circle, trying to cut the turns through the steep walls. After an hour of walking a first car appears, so we decide to test the "ridiculously easy hitchhiking in Bulgaria" thing once more... after few minutes we leave the car at the bottom of the mountains, just by the train station.