Day 11 (Plovdiv)

Take-off from Sophia was at 9am this morning so we could make it to Plovdiv early enough to see the sights with a local guide to take us on a walking tour. Breakfast at the hotel was by far the most odd that we've seen on the trip yet! Cold food was rock hard bread, selection of cheeses, ham and some pastries and buns. Hot food was sausages, eggs, brussels sprouts, carrots and sweetcorn..weird!

On the road we had two dodgy moments:
1)We got pulled over by the cops who wanted to check Martin's tacograph to make sure he wasn't driving for too long, or hadn't been speeding. We initially thought it was because Todd was standing on the bus and we're all supposed to be seated with our buckles fastened.
2)A scratching noise as we passed under a bridge which turned out to be the aerial on top of the bus rather than the top of the bus up until the end of the bus was coming through the last section and it turns out to be taller than the front..a flick of a switch to lower it a bit and we got through.

All fun and games aboard OzBUS 9.

When we got to Plovdiv we were met my a little guy called Mini who directed us to the hostel (it was fab!). We had a few minutes to settle in before we headed out on a half day walking tour with him. From the side of Plovdiv we'd come in to I wondered how it could be a half day tour as it looked like it was a quaint little village...it turns out it is the second largest city in Bulgaria and in olden times used to be the capital city. Mini took us walkabout and gave us a lot of history about the place that I personally found interesting. The tour however came to an abrupt end once we got to the shopping street. Mini said people looked bored and as it was only an hour and a half long so he was ending it there because there was no point continuing. I was a bit gutted, but soon got over it when we got pizza slices (same size as Difontaines but not quite as good) for just 50c a slice..bargain! We strolled around to see what else there was to see and picked up some postcards from a crazy guy next to the hostel.

Pretty much all the group went to see a free ballet evening in the ampitheatre ruins for the 6th International Ballet competition. Having never seen ballet live before I was pretty impressed. After the show we headed back into town to get some dinner and sampled Bulgarian kebabs..Mmmmm!

Verdict on Plovdiv is that I'd be interested in going back, and reckon that OzBUS should scrub Sofia off the list in favour of 2 days in Plovdiv in that lovely hostel :)

For photos from Plovdiv click here.