Places To Visit In Bulgaria

The Belogradchik Rocks

About 230 million years ago, tectonic platres were folding to create the Balkan Mountains and elevating the region of Belogradchik. Later the region became the floor of a shallow sea littered with enormous quantities of gravel, sand and clay. The sediment piled up and gradually became thicker layers of this conglomeration with sandstone mixed in. Pushed up during the formation of the Balkan Mountains these massive rocks were worked on by erosion that left behind the odd formations of the Belogradchik Rocks.

Beginning with the Roman Legions a number of armies found these rock formations the perfect defensive backdrop for fortifications.

The Belogradchik Fortress

The Belogradchik Fortress is an ancient fortress situated on the north slopes of the Balkan Mountains, near the northwestern Bulgarian town of Belogradchik and is the town’s primary cultural and historical attraction. The fortress encompasses the Belogradchik Rocks and is one of the best-preserved strongholds in Bulgaria. The complex is a cultural and natural monument of Bulgaria.

The fortress’s walls are over 6 feet thick at the foundation and stand up to forty feet in height. It includes three separate protected yards connected with each other through gates. The fortress has a total area of 110,000 square feet. The Belogradchik Fortress was reconstructed to later become a proclaimed cultural monument. It is managed by the local historical museum authority.

The fortress and surrounding area have been defended by and added to bys the Romans in the first century, the Ottoman-Turks and several Bulgarian armies.

Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo is in north central Bulgaria and is often referred to as the “City of the Tsars”. It is located on the Yantra River and is best known as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The old part of the town is situated on three hills, upon which there are the palaces of the Bulgarian emperors and the Patriarchate, the Patriarchal Cathedral, and a number of administrative buildings surrounded by thick walls.

With the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire with its capital in Veliko Tarnovo, the fortress became the most important one in Bulgaria, often compared with Rome and Constantinople in magnificence. The fortress and castle complex has three entrances. The main entrance is located in the easternmost side of the hill. The castle is located in the centre, surrounded by an internal stone wall, two battle towers and two entrances – north and south. It consists of a throne hall, castle church and the king’s chamber. The restoration of the fortress Tsarevets began in 1930 and was completed in 1981 in honour of the 1300 anniversary of the Bulgarian state. Kings Petar, Asen, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen the second lived there. The castle was the biggest one in the 14th century.

Trapezitsa is known for its many churches and as the former main residence of the nobility. During the Middle Ages, the town was among the main European centers of culture and gave its name to the architecture of the Tarnovo Artistic School, painting and literature.

Hamburgers Conquer Central Europe

Budapest

Buddies Burgers Budapest

Having spent time in Budapest just five years ago it was a bit of a shock seeing the recent changes. On our last visit we were amazed by the “most beautiful McDonalds in the world” (HERE) and the city seemed to have a McDonalds every few blocks. There were also a few Burger Kings here and there but we couldn’t find much in the way of independent hamburger places. Classic gyros seemed to be the more popular lunch back then but how things have changed.

On our first night in town we found Buddies Burgers only a few blocks from our hotel and located in a ruin bar* courtyard. Young crowd, good music and a really good burger (the onion rings were great too).

Buddies Burgers part of an open air ruin bar

A few of the restaurants from five years ago are gone but once you start looking it seems that independent hamburger places are everywhere now.

Before we left Budapest we also found a really good burger at the popular Meatology with the slaw and pickles also noteworthy. Their fries were also good with a mix of regular and sweet potato fries.

Prague

Black Dog Cantina

On this recent trip we also spent about a week in Prague and it seems as if they have become as fond of burgers as the Hungarians. Checking an online map we found almost two dozen hamburger places in the central city and that’s not counting the McDonalds and Burger Kings of which there are many. On our first night in town we found the Black Dog Cantina just two blocks from our hotel calling themselves an American restaurant.

The Black Dog

The Black Dog Cantina was modern, the staff friendly and the burgers were large. Great burgers, good french fries and cold beer!

A word of caution – in both Hungary and the Czech Republic don’t just assume that everyone takes credit cards. We discovered a surprising number of places that were cash only, so ask before you order.

*About Ruin Bars – Today there are dozens and dozens of ruin bars around Budapest. These pop-up clubs started in 2004, when a local named Ábel Zsendovits and a friend opened a bar/cafe in a condemned building on Kazinczy street in Budapest. That club, Szimpla opened in an abandoned building and offered affordable drinks to the young crowd in Budapest. Szimpla was decorated by local artists and graffiti and was outfitted with mismatched furniture. It was an immediate success and soon featured local talent in a free form atmosphere that has turned it into one of the world’s most famous bars.

It didn’t take long for ruin bars to became part of the nightlife culture of this city, where people would come to Budapest just drink and party in these crumbling buildings. More ruin bars opened, like Instant and Fogas Ház. Over the years there has been a split from the counter cultural clubs where some venues changed and expanded and upgraded to cater to the international party crowd. Today Instant, has added surreal decor and now occupies an entire apartment block where the party goes on through the whole night.

Prague’s Main Train Station

The Stations Park Level Entrance

Prague Central Train Station

Navigating Prague’s Main Station

Train Platforms

Both arriving and leaving Prague by the Main Station can be somewhat confusing, but it isn’t as bad as first impressions usually suggest. The station is very large with three main levels including North and South platform areas. Entrances to the station are on two levels that include a lower level with sidewalks coming in from the park (above photo) and an upper level for street drop offs, pickups and parking access. The central area incorporates a large core with three split levels. After you adjust to its size and the lack of signage in English it’s actually pretty easy to figure out.

Locating Your Train And Getting To The Platforms

The station has numerous large displays showing the current timetable for the next hours trains. This display shows:

  • The Trains Service
  • The Train Number
  • The Train Name
  • Train Destination
  • Via Cities
  • Scheduled Departure Time
  • Platform – S for North Platforms and J for South
  • Estimated Delay If Any

Exits from the platform area can be by stairs, escalator or elevators (elevators in North side only) with two large passageways leading from the platforms to the main concourse.

There is no food sold in the platform area and smoking is not permitted.

UPPER CONCOURSE – MAIN FLOOR (The Central Concourse)

Station directional signs list this as the train station historic area.

On this level are the public restrooms (Use requires 20 kc or 1 Euro) along with cambio/currency changing office and a large display showing the current train timetables. There are automated ramps to the lower concourse, a cafe, a Burger King and drink/snack vending machines (Czech coins only).

LOWER CONCOURSE – (The Central Concourse) PARKING/STREET ENTRANCE LEVEL

Ticket Office

This level has a larger display showing the current timetable for the next hour. Included in this main concourse are fashion shops, a bookshop and Metro ticket machines but ATMs are found on the next section below.

GROUND CONCOURSE – (The Lower Concourse) INFORMATION / TICKETS, LOCKERS AND BUDGET CAR RENTAL

Getting to this level is via a ramp or stairs. Here on the far north side of the station are tourist information that also sells city metro tickets. Shops include a chocolate shop, a coffee shop and a Budget Car rental office. Opposite the shops are windows for domestic trains and on the left a glassed area for international tickets with an ATM nearby. At the far end is supermarket.

Shown at left:

The Main Concourse has three split levels with train schedule boards on each:

The Central Concourse – provides access to the other levels along with shops and food outlets.

The Lower Concourse – Accessed by stairs in the middle that go down to the glass enclosed ticketing area.

The Upper Concourse – Accessed by moving ramps up to a central area with access to the train platforms off to the left for South and to the right for North.

The Prague Main Station Neighborhood

The Prague Main Station is located in the center of Prague between the Old City and the New City (while it’s called the New City it is actually around 500 years old) and only a couple of blocks from Wenceslas Square. That square is the real heart of Prague that includes the main shopping district, the National Museum and is the location of some of the most dramatic events in modern Czechoslovakian history.

The birth of the independent Czechoslovakian state was announced there in 1918. It is also where in 1969 Jan Palach, a student of history and politics at Prague’s Charles University, set himself on fire protesting the installation of a Soviet puppet government. Also in 1989 it was where massive demonstrations led to the overthrow of the communist government. Over 100,000 Czechs filled Wenceslas Square night after night calling for independence. Called the Velvet Revolution from November 17-27, 1989, a free and independent Czechoslovakia was declared on the square on November 27th.

Please Note: Caution is recommended if walking out of the station at night using the park exit. While Prague is considered a very safe city there are unsavory characters that seem to gather in the park outside the train station at dusk.

The Lego Prague Train Station

In the Central Concourse at the Prague Main Station is a huge model display of the station made completely with Legos.

Had To Share This

Hot Tub Sailboat

One recent evening in Prague we walked out to the Vltava River to catch the Sunset. Just as we walked back across the bridge and looked down we saw this small sailboat with a large hot tub installed? It was just ready to pass under us and the Sun had set so it was a grab picture in the darkness. ; -)

Franz Kafka, Prague’s Favorite Son

The Hanging Man

Prague seems to not just celebrate the life of Franz Kafka but to embrace his sense of the bizarre found in his writings. One popular attraction in the city is a giant rotating head of Franz Kafka made of a coil of polished stainless steel. Kafka t-shirts are also a popular item in the tourist shops. Stroll the streets of the Old City and you’ll discover the bizarre popping up in surprising places. Looking up there’s the Hanging Man statue swinging in the air from a building top. Walk into a square and find the Pissing Men statue.

The rotating head of Franz Kafka Prague

Prague is home to The Franz Kafka Museum that holds a collection of historical documents and first editions along with art and numerous exhibits showing his life. The museum is housed in an impressive building that was part of the Hergetova Brickworks on the bank of the Vltava River.

  • All first editions of Kafka’s works
  • Correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, photographs and drawings
  • Three-dimensional exhibits
  • Audiovisual pieces created especially for the exhibition and a soundtrack

There are displays attempting to prove that all of Kafka’s major work describes the city of Prague. The unnamed cathedral in The Trial is St. Vitus Cathedral, where in the last chapter, Josef K’s path describes a trip from Old Town across the Charles Bridge to the border of Lesser Town. It is also claimed that in Judgment the quay and the Vltava river and its bank are described looking from Bendemann’s window. Much effort has gone into proving that Prague’s topography is always present, but not named in Kafka’s stories.

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, who is regarded as a major figure in 20th-century literature. His works offer a bizarre mixing of the elements of realism with a nightmarish unreality. They often feature isolated protagonists living through surrealistic predicaments with incomprehensible social and bureaucratic situations.

Franz Kafka

Born July 3, 1883, in Prague, that was at the time of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary.

He died June 3, 1924, and is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery, Prague.

If you haven’t read any of Kafka’s stories it is an interesting experience as you get drawn into the mind of a character that often finds himself awake in a nightmarish world. It’s not hard to be drawn into his worlds and in so doing gain some insight like in the Prisoner that seems to offer parallels to aspects of current cultural issues like cancel culture and worrying about what is acceptable thought.

Dancing House Prague

On the Rašín Embankment on the Vltava River in Prague stands “The Dancing House”, sometimes referred to by its nickname Fred and Ginger. The structure is so unique that the building is recognized around the world.

The Dancing House

It was erected on the site of a building destroyed by the U.S. bombing of Prague in World War II. The bombed out structure remained untouched until 1960, when the lot was cleared. The neighboring building and land was co-owned by Václav Havel, who spent most of his life living there. In 1986 Vlado Milunić, an architect in Czechoslovakia, came up with an idea for a project at the location and discussed it with his friend, Václav Havel.

The neighboring plot was actually co-owned by the family of Václav Havel, and he had spent most of his life there. At the time he was a little-known dissident who a few years later, during the Velvet Revolution*, became a popular leader in the country and was subsequently elected president of Czechoslovakia. It was probably his political pull that helped get the project funded.

View of Old Prague from the roof top bar

It was designed by a Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in cooperation with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. Designed in 1992 the construction was completed four years later in 1996. In 1992 in Geneva, Gehry and Milunić began to work on Milunić’s original idea of a building consisting of two parts, one static and one dynamic or “yin and yang”, intending to symbolize the transition of Czechoslovakia from a communist regime to a parliamentary democracy.

Gehry was the one who originally referred to the house as Fred and Ginger after the dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers thinking the house resembled a pair of dancers.

The Dancing House cafe

*The Velvet Revolution, or the Gentle Revolution, was a bloodless uprising that caused a transition in government from communism in the Czech Republic. The revolution occurred between November 17 and December 29, 1989, and was marked by demonstrations led by students and political dissidents against the one-party government of the Communist Party.