Hey you guys! Thanks for joining us on another journey. Today the top things to
see and do when you're in Bulgaria, yep yep. If you're new to the channel this is April
and I'm Wayne, we do a video every Thursday so hit that subscribe button and smash that bell.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the journey We're out here at the ancient Roman theater
out here in Bulgaria. this thing's in way better shape than the stuff that we saw in Greece
i mean it is in great shape. today the theater is open to the public where you can experience the
seating area but also backstage and also during the summer the theater still hosts plays and
musical performances. that would be so amazing to go see a performance inside that theater.
this was a cool theater you even did a show, yes i did a song and a dance
check out the card above. for two people it costs 10 lev which is the equivalent of
about six dollars U.S. one of the really cool things about walking around Plovdiv was
the different architecture and street art, oh the street art was so amazing
i really enjoyed the street art there. if you're in Plovdiv, you have to go do the umbrella alley
i mean yeah every city has an umbrella alley now but you know--not every city--i like the
fact that they made it into their flag. yes that was cool. Rila Monastery is known as being one
of the hideouts of the Bulgarian revolutionary. i can't even imagine how long and how hard
it was to do all of these paintings. oh yeah this took forever it's so intricate. yeah. pretty
evil painting some of them. that's what i'm gonna do to you--you think you're gonna do that to me
you know what since we've been there, found out that we could have spent the night there that
would have been really cool. we could have stayed at that actual monastery? yes! oh my god i wish i had known that
yes that's what i said to this person who commented about spending the night there
basic room but it was clean. no that would have been awesome! just to stay in that older place i
mean this thing is ancient and the artwork is so amazing. it's been restored and some of the places
aren't as old as they were originally it's still awesome and the thing that i like most about it is
all of colorful paintings the black and white stripes. i enjoyed it i would have
liked to have spent more time and gone on a hike. i bet you Bulgaria is amazing in my fall
Veliko Tarnovo was the original capital city of Bulgaria--is no longer, now Sofia i mean Sofia
Wayne's got me mispronouncing it--and that was back in ancient times--when you say ancient
i mean we're not talking about like Greek ancient, we're talking like 11 12 1300s yeah. tell you what
if you get a chance to come here to the fortress i would highly suggest going inside the church
it is very beautiful i couldn't bring the camera in and film the uh paintings were something
different than you've never seen in a church before. i would say they're almost controversial
but i really enjoyed them. it only costs six lev which is about three somewhere right
around three dollars and fifty cents i'll put the exact of how much it costs in u.s dollars
Bulgaria has been a really cool adventure going through different parts of Bulgaria it's super
affordable if you're an American literally your dollar is worth uh well the Bulgarian
dollar is worth 57 cents to the u.s dollar so every time you go somewhere it's literally 50
off for us which is great because if you're on the Euro we lose money most of the time
i'll tell you something that's really cool when you go to Bulgaria is definitely get on some hikes
this country has some diverse mountain ranges i was even surprised that it had hoodoos, completely
blew my mind i thought only hoodoos were actually in Utah. if you don't know what a hoodoo is check
out the card above. even though it was a very brisk, rushed, steep scramble to the point it was a
wonderful place to take in the sunset especially how it illuminated the pyramids of Bulgaria.
we are at Sofia's city center right now we're walking around the Nevsky Cathedral. it is believed
to be one of the 50 largest christian church buildings by volume in the world
and to think how old it is that's the impressive part. in Bulgaria's capital city Sofia
we were here on a cold wintry Christmas day and that cold is by far the coldest that you're gonna
feel it felt like New York City in the middle of Christmas. you definitely feel like you're in a
different part of the world you know you're definitely not in America
and it even seems different than a lot of the European cities that i've been to even the
eastern European cities. we had a pretty simple day we just walked around checked out all the
different churches and the different artworks, statues--oh like sculptures--yeah sculptures yeah
when you're there you should check out the Lion Bridge the history on the Lion Bridge is amazing
there's a card above to teach you more about that. so once upon a time we went to a village that like
Wayne likes to call it a village but ethnographic open air museum it's called Etar/Etara
near Gabrovo. we hit it along our road trip--well we got to--well yes on a holiday--on the weekend
and they were closing up and we can just imagine-- we did get to see a few craftsmen and
we've had more than a few people tell us to come back in a different season so we can experience
more of the life of the place. we can just imagine how lively it is, transportive it is taking us
back to the time of the Bulgarian revival. i thought it was neat watching the guy make the rug
i mean that was really really cool watching him do the traditional rug making
oh yeah--and they had they had people there that were making bowls and stuff like that as well
and i don't know why we didn't go in the sweet shop...
it was only six Bulgarian lev for two people so i think that's like a dollar fifty i'll write down
how much that is above. yeah one of the cool things about visiting Bulgaria is the fact that we had
got some of our best recommendations from local people telling us what to go see.
when you're in Bulgaria the thing you've got to do is try traditional Bulgarian cuisines
and don't forget the wine and the rakia, i tried the rakia everywhere we went as many glasses as i
could handle--and then some--all the different soups that we had um obviously soup is a big cuisine--and
Wayne especially loved the cured pork fat--no not at all. i bet if we did it properly, like some of
some of y'all have have uh educated us on how we should have eaten it, and i bet if we go back
and do it properly we'd probably enjoy it better i hope so but i still couldn't wrap my brain around
cured pork fat. well we had someone comment and say that she it took her a few times but she
got to where she couldn't not order the tripe soup if it was on a menu
in Bulgaria and i'm like how do you--for me i think i can adapt to the cured pork fat easier than the
tripe soup. i actually really enjoyed the tribe soup--it's tasty but the chunky bits of the lining, blech!
i don't know i thought it was amazing i actually really enjoyed it and i had never
actually liked tripe before i've had it a couple times but i never actually liked it and i liked
it--and the chunks of the lining didn't bother you no it was, you know the seasonings that they use in
Bulgaria are so flavorful. oh yeah no that part was good it was the chunks that bothered me and
normally i love chunks. everywhere you went you just smelled the aroma of just amazing seasonings
they definitely like their meat they have vegetables it's definitely not as plentiful
you can even get a meat sword. yeah but you can also get that winter salad that vegetable winter
salad that we loved so they do have vegetables yeah that winter salad we were raving about it
this was so amazing i haven't even looked up how to make it yeah i've never had canned
vegetables that i enjoyed and thought it was the best thing i've ever put in my mouth
except for here. the breads yeah pastries ruined for bread croissants but i'll tell you what i'm not a
dessert eater but--you went nuts-- i chowed down on some desserts in Bulgaria--you went nuts on that one
at the restaurant in Plovdiv oh yeah that was the best cake i ever had ever it was amazing it was
good it was like a, the best way i can describe it is it was kind of almost the texture of like
say a pudding cake but with like the flavors of say maybe a spice cake but it wasn't too sweet it
wasn't too spicy it wasn't too anything it was like the perfect amounts of what they used and
it was delicious and because it wasn't too sweet you could keep taking bite after bite and Wayne's
like oh i i do i'm done no no i think i'll have one more i think i'm gonna have another one
absolutely this will be my last. yeah April doesn't like sharing her desserts nope i'm not used to it
but what about that ice cream? oh yeah in Melnik Chavkova House oh that i literally i think i said
in the original video card above i think i said i was having a food orgasm. i i can't even like
words do not describe like it was so fresh the best part for me was the freshness of it
that is what took it over the edge for me the flavors were phenomenal and amazing.
that's one thing you have to admit when you go to Bulgaria the food is so divine because
it's not processed as Americans we're used to garbage. Bulgaria was amazing on the food front
one of the things that i think i like the best about Bulgaria was the winery oh yeah the
Villa Melnik winery was my highlight of Bulgaria wow absolutely--what great people
and beautiful beautiful vineyard fascinating to learn about the process that was my first
wine tour. yeah if you want to know anything about wine you've got to watch this video
card above--it's quite interesting--they were ranked 39 in the world which is crazy! top
50 world's best vineyards they they are 39. exactly. it was so fun to taste all of the wines and
she kept saying this next one was her favorite and oh yeah we definitely drank way too much wine
it was so good--is there such a thing ? no there's not as too much wine? maybe. would highly recommend
coming out here touring Villa Melnik and there are many other wineries in the area too
but they had some of the best ones and some unusual ones that i've never had like the orange
wine. so did the the hailstorm killed 70% of all your crops? the hailstorm story and how it affected them
and their winery was quite moving and it made the wine taste all the more better. well and the wine
was amazing very unique. so then Wayne Berg decided to take us on this crazy ass adventure that i
thought i was going to die upon, slushing through the ice and the deep puddles not knowing how deep
those things were going to be in this not a four wheel drive rental car. oh yeah we made it through
no problem. that's because i will give Wayne props he is an expert on mudbogging in cars and trucks
and in off-roading. the active archeological dig site. i have never felt more like Indiana Jones
in my life until we were at this Heraclea Sintica it's awesom!e it transports you it makes you feel
like you are part of something. what's neat about being on a actual dig site is the fact that
they had a lean-to made up just covering a giant pot from one AD that roman statue is amazing
i could have stayed longer. oh the sheepherders! i can't believe how much i enjoyed watching the
sheepherders even though the dog wanted to eat me well that's because you kept talking back to
him. he was putting you in your place which you are not used to and he took it as a threa.t he
didn't understand english. it was awesome as if you didn't already feel like you were in like
quintessential countryside of Bulgaria then comes the sheepherder with the sheep it's like totally
we time traveled. oh yeah and and then on top of that they they've marched the sheep right through the
archaeological site. We want to thank you guys for watching our video all the way to the end.
If you would, hit that subscribe button, share it with a friend and, like always, thank you for living
life!