Plovdiv, Bulgaria adventures

For our morning tour of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, we checked out of the Radisson and then ate breakfast at the hotel buffet, which featured a tremendous dessert spread, and giant cupcakes. We did not partake, as it was too early for that amount of sweets, but we ate then with our eyes. A quick bus ride…

Read More

Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

After our considerable time in Romania, we were eager to see our next country on the trip, Bulgaria, starting with the village of Veliko Tarnovo in the morning, and then on to Plovdiv in the afternoon. Breakfast was early and we somewhat forced ourselves to eat, not knowing what lunch might hold (more meat stew…

Read More

Bucharest and the Romanian Revolution

Our second full day with Gate 1 consisted of a Bucharest walking tour with a focus on the Romanian Revolution, followed by a field trip to the Romanian Parliament building and a visit to a village museum. The days with Gate 1 followed a pattern of travel days where we were moving between hotel locations…

Read More

Sinaia and Peles Castle

For our first full day with our Gate 1 tour group, we drove back to the Carpathian mountains to visit Sinaia and Peles Castle, about 1/2 of the distance we had just traveled to Brasov. Now it was time for us to turn off our logistic brains and focus on learning and deeper history. The…

Read More

Bran Castle and Brașov history

Beating the European heat wave by leaving Bucharest and heading to the mountains of Brașov and Bran Castle in the north turned out to be a great decision. Brașov ended up being our favorite city in the entire trip and the Carpathian mountains were both ominous yet comforting to Colorado mountain people like us. After…

Read More

Getting to Brașov

While we got to the airport early and checked in on time, our flight to Bucharest, Romania became later and later, putting pressure on our plan of getting in Brașov within daylight hours. We booked an Air Serbia codeshare on Air Tarog (the Romanian national carrier), and Air Tarog’s updates on the delay (or lack…

Read More