We're Jordan and Emily in March of 2022 we quit our jobs to travel the world full-time
last time you saw us we had one of the biggest Days of our road trip by driving
from Plovdiv to Veliko Tarnovo we saw the UFO of Bulgaria had lunch on the side of
the highway and froze at the shipka monument holy [ __ ] it's really cold we've scheduled
ourselves two days to explore here and started the brisk morning in the center of the Old Town
it's freezing but we are in pretty much the middle of Veliko Tarnovo which means
we didn't have to have a long walk in today might have been nice actually it would have
warmed us up it might have been good yeah now that I'm thinking about it there are
positive and negatives of being right in the middle of the town for example this is our car
doesn't look as bad right now but this parking lot is 100% full and these small lanes that you
have to drive up are and they're like one way and super Steep and really cobblestony I don't
know how you got up here we were struggling for a long time to be honest a lot of the
reviews the place we're staying we're like yeah great place but like you can't drive
there I parked way down the hill and just walked we didn't see those reviews until
we got up and then it's a one-way and you can't really back down but there's some tight streets
so there is saying in the Veliko Tarnovo there's three directions up down and through the stairs
and right down the stairs like I don't want to get too tour guide-y here but it's the oldest street
in Veliko Tarnovo and it was named after a Russian General Gurko who came here and helped free the
bulgarians from the Turks there is so much history here it's going to be really hard to not go into
tour guide mode because it's so interesting it's so pretty and autumnal like it's obviously
freezing cold but all the flowers are still out but all the trees are changing colors it just
we've been here for how long now like in Bulgaria and I can't get over the trees and a brown tree
doesn't sound like it should be very pretty it is I'm obsessed and the oldest street obviously is
the most beautiful Street of course it is it's like a fairy tale it's honestly like stepping
back in time if you put me here and told me this was the town that like Beauty and the Beast or
like Disney movies were based off of I would 100% believe it it's that cute quaint and picturesque
That is one of the important monuments that we are going to see today but that's
a little bit of a while away I'm not even sure how to get there right now
These houses are so packed together the joke is that when you raise chickens you
raise them on your neighbor's roof look at this
makes a lot of sense but apparently these look really small but they go quite deep
so they go quite far underground so they're actually big houses but they
look so tiny because on this level it just looks like it's a one-story house
but really it's like a cliff on the other side that goes three deep this street and town is
just so disney-esque and cute and quaint I love it everyone has like Vine leaves growing over and
our tour guide from Rila Monastery told us that that's so they can make homemade wine or rakia
super cute but we've got to make a move because we want to get to the Fortress when it opens
this is a little bit of the Cornerstone of the Veliko Tarnovo
it's the Fortress that's been here for hundreds of years again don't
want to get too tour guide but it's pretty hard to resist it costs 10 Lev
he's like 'where are you from?' we said 'Australia's like oh kangaroos
The Fortress is really unique so when you're walking down from town you can see both sides
like split out no wonder it was such a like stronghold for them it's like up on the top of
the mountain surrounded by Rivers be impossible to get up here be so hard to try and take the castle
I guess, we can do it
how do you say the word tsare-
tsara- Tsarevets Fortress is the main Fortress of the medieval Bulgarian Capital Veliko Tarnovo
I don't have to be a tour guide at all we'll just use all that audio there wasn't much information
here but literally I was just asking Jordan how you pronounce the place we were at and
then he said it he said it really really cool all right let's explore all the things he said
one thing the perfectly timed voiceover didn't mention is that they have light shows here so
there's massive lights that are spread around the whole castle and it happens about once a week
they light up the castle there's like dramatic music and lasers and supposed to tell the story
of the Veliko Tarnovo and kind of Bulgaria's history how tumultuous and pretty crazy it was
whoa that's heavy how did they get anything done you feel safe if I'm looking after you
let's go to war
this cat is full-on obsessed with us he's been waiting for us at the bottom of the Tower
and as soon as we start moving
he's trying to be cool about it though he's like oh you guys you guys are going
that way me too oh my gosh I just happen to be going that way so if you guys are I
guess we can walk like together we've started as a joke but legitimately a
different group of people have walked past him and he's just waited for us it's so cute
I love it he's our cat now we've decided to name
him in Bulgy after Bulgaria and also because he's a bit bulky
I assume this was like a walled City like a protected Fortress
City because all of these ruins look like they're the size of houses like
they wouldn't be much more than houses in the streets look like suburb streets
it's very cool
so pretty here all of the trees are changing to the autumnal colors that
I am just obsessed with one of the weird things is there's not very
many like information plaques or anything I'm pretty sure you can hire a guide but
that very well-timed voiceover covered a lot of it anyway so at least we got something
we have made it to the far end of The Fortress which is where the execution
rock is and I didn't realize it was like a lion king rock that they used to execute
people around hanging wait so they chopped their head off they just pushed them over yeah gosh
we lost Bulgy he might turn up again but I he's gone for now officially catless
it's 10 30 and we've just seen our first like massive tour group School Group
whatever it is so we're going to quickly go in the church before they get here
wow that's such a weird Church the artwork inside is extremely like
graphic but it's very striking and like dramatic it's really catching and I think because
it's all dark and somber in there just like overwhelms you with like a heavy emotion almost
and I think being in there by ourselves really helps we've seen some videos on
YouTube people that are like absolutely packed in there like sardines and it just doesn't
look the same so we must have got lucky beating those tour groups I
think it would give you the same feeling either it's a very pretty particular art
style it's very unusual I don't think I've seen anything like that only in Bulgaria
very cool I'm hungry damn it that was really cool but it's not even the main thing I think
it's debatable like it might be the main thing but it's definitely not the first thing you
see when you get to Veliko Tarnovo that's that sword thing is a monument that sits literally in
the center and wherever you're getting a view wherever you like kind of find a little niche
in between buildings you can see it what's it called it's a monument to Assen
oh wow it's like four horses and a sword am I going there now
and we just missed not one but two massive tour groups
again really really hard to stop with the history we've just crossed the bridge we've got to the
monument it's the Assen Monument so it's dedicated to the Assen brothers who overthrew the Byzantine
rule here from what I read pretty much Byzantium had a very strong grip on the whole country and
then they tried to raise the Imperial taxes and the brothers were like nah so there's a
full revolt and they took over wow now it's a massive sword with the brothers surrounding it
on their horses looks like he's trying to be Spider-Man with that logo on his chest
we're over here there is a hotel that has a really good view of this monument and they have really
cheap beers so I think we're gonna go there it's crazy to me how clear the sky is and how warm it
is now considering how freezing cold we were this morning there's not a cloud in the sky
we have come to the same place that we started when we got in a few days ago and
got a traditional local Veliko Tarnovo beer which we've not tried yet what's it called
it's called something I pronounced perfectly just a second ago but I only had one so done
it's really nice tomorrow we're jumping back in the car going all the way to the coast to Varna!