In two weeks time I'm going to Bulgaria for a week. How

>>1177985
If you don't visit our mountains don't bother coming

Also, Shumen is boring. Turnovo and Plovdid are the most interesting of the places you've picked, I'd spend more time there. The capital is dirty as fuck, Varna is great.

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Hello friend and cheers for choosing Bulgaria!

Your list and time seem pretty good. 3 days is too much for Sofia, make sure 1 of those days is a day trip to Rila Monastery, I see there's some bus options.

>Taxi my only choice?
Yes. There's a taxi stand that will get you a hassle-free cab but I'm not sure if they're operating that late. Otherwise just insist on the meter and it won't be expensive.

I can tell you're interested in Soviet stuff from the very specific and deliberate locations you've picked. If you want a better, personalized tour of Soviet-era Sofia let me know and I can show you around including some of the off-the-beaten path and stuff like that.

>>1178000
Thanks for the tips. I thought Turnovo was in the mountains?

>>1178009
Rila Monastery looks good.
Haha yes you read me like a book. I'd love to see a more Soviet-era Sofia. A lot of this is orientated around photography, and I often find the Soviet stuff interesting to photograph.
throwaway is [email protected]

>>1178092

Veliko Tarnovo isn't necessarily in the mountains, as there are places like Koprivshtica which are literally in the middle of them.

while in Sofia be sure to take advantage of
http://freesofiatour.com/

I also know this exists
http://bulgaria-communismtours.com/buzludzha-trip/

>Antique market at Alexander Nevski cathedral.
>Parliament.
>National Assembly.
>Sculpture in Borisova Garden.
>Monument of the Soviet Army.
>Theatre of the Bulgarian Army.
>National Palace of Culture.
>Park “The Bells”.
>Bulgarian Socialist Party office.
>Military Museum etc.

What is lacking is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Socialist_Art,_Sofia

They will most likely cover the memorial to the communist victims as well.
The communism tour isn't free I think, but I can do the Sofia part for free.
Pravets can be skipped completely.

It's lacking the Krumovo air museum which has all the

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>>1178139
MiG jets

pic not related, some random shitty "art installation" soviet-style

>>1178139
Hey, I responded to your email.

Yeah those places look great.
Where is the best place to stay to go on a day trip from Buzludzha?

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See Budludzha before its too late.

Even compared to photos from a few years ago, its rapidly deteriorating inside. I recommend climbing the tower, it was amazing, just bring a torch!

>>1178711
*to
>>1178738
Where did you stay to visit it?

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>>1178738
Yup. A lot of shit is deteriorating and a lot is getting dismantled for various reasons.

>>1178815
Since Tarnovo is already in the plans, I'd say there, then Gabrovo, then climbing the hill.

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>>1178815

>Where did you stay to visit it?

I didn't, i actually stayed in Sofia and did a big day trip (it was a whole day). I met some guy of reddit on the travel sub that took me up because he was interested too. Top guy and really enjoyed the journey, he told me a lot about Bulgarian culture and spoke very good English. Very skeptical at first meeting this random in the middle of Sofia at 10pm, turned out to be such a good decision.

I guess you could try something similar, some Bulgarian anons here on trv also offered me a lift but it didnt work out.

Kazanluk is the closest major town that im guessing has public transport to it (in some form). I only drove through it, but it seemed exactly what you'd expect a rural town to be in Bulgaria, pretty run down but seemed safe enough (apparently its famous for roses or rose water or something like that in Bulgaria). From there i'm guessing you could find a tour guide or taxi to take you up there, just ask at hotels and someone will have a relative thats happy to take you up there for $25.

There are also some kind of lodge right near Budludzha (i think they are maybe ski lodges?) that you can see on google earth, i dont know their names or addresses but there are 2 or 3 of them withing a km or two.

I went in winter and you really do need a guide, there was 0 visibility, very high winds, about -10c and knee deep snow (so the top of the tower wasn't that exciting cause we couldn't see anything lol). I was worried we might get the car bogged or lost in the snowfields around it.

(Pic is of hammer and sickle on the roof, compare that to other photos online and you can see how quick its deteriorating)

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>>1179422
I remember you, dude. I'm the same 4chan guy, we even talked on e-mail for a while, but couldn't meet because of my shitty work schedule.

Anyway, gonna try and make it happen for this guy. ;^)

>>1179719

Haha cool man, pretty awesome of you to be helping others out.

I had such a good week, that was the first time id been completely solo traveling and i managed to have a great time even with knowing little about the destination.

This is like the 3rd time ive posted in a Bulgaria thread about this exact story, the reason is (if you cant remember) there's little information on how to get to it and i was so lost at how to get out there, i was pretty desperate for someone who had been there before to tell me how to get there and how to get in. The only alternative were tours, but they dont run in winter and cost a bit.

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Welp too bad it's not spring otherwise I'd recommend the Rousse region. It's amazing during the spring especially the meanders of the Rousenski Lom river. There are a lot of things to see there, rock hewn monasteries from the 12th century, fortresses and generally the nature is amazing.
As for Plovdiv being my home city I'd say one night is just not enough to take it all, but a visit to the archaeological museum should be on the list, the stuff there is on the level of Rome I kid you not (ok not quite but still there are some really cool artifacts if you are into that sort of thing)