Veliko Tarnavo and Arbanassi
Veliko Tarnavo
I love this town! If I ever come back to Bulgaria, I shall stay here for a week and forget about Sofia and even Plovdiv.
For once, we have a hotel in the town centre, opposite a flight of steps leading up to the old town for a stroll after breakfast.
From the gatehouse of Tsarevets, it was a steep climb up to the hilltop church, restored under communism as a historical and cultural museum – but there’s more than that to the distinctive and unusual frescoes (see bottom left photo). The painter was a Christian, and Christian pilgrims can see familiar themes in strange designs.
Returning to the level of the river, we visited the medieval church of SS Peter and Paul, now a museum, with frescoes from the XIIIth and XVIth centuries.
Across the river is Trapezitsa, site of at least 22 medieval churches. Something to explore if I return!
We then drove to the village of Arbanassi, for another museum church and lunch hosted by twin sisters. They not only fed us in their home (mushroom and rice soup, stuffed green peppers and a vermicelli dessert), but entertained us with a Bulgarian folk song (see bottom right photo above). We responded with a verse of “Guide me O thou great Redeemer.”
We returned to Veliko Tarnavo for a free afternoon – shopping for most people. I walked across town in search of a “Teach Yourself Bulgarian” book, which I found at the third bookshop I visited. I returned via the Cathedral and prayed my way round the icons before looking for the Visitor Centre, where I arrived five minutes after it closed at 5:30. So that is something else to save for my next visit, as well as walks and monastery visits in the surrounding countryside.
Supper was in town, probably within walking distance for most if not all of us, but we still went and returned by coach.
emeritablog: life after work 