Bulgaria

We took the overnight train from Istanbul to Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria at 10pm. There were no sleeper cars, but barely anyone was on the train, so we were able to stretch out in our own cabin. They are repairing the tracks between Turkey and Bulgaria which means we had to get off the train at the border and take a bus through. The Bulgarian train was very luxurious, meaning that the bathroom had toilet paper. We got off the train around 4am, hopped on a bus, drove about 30 minutes, spent 2 hours getting through the border, and about another 15 to get on the train. We got off the train around 1pm and spent about an hour walking from the train station to our hostel.

We found a really great hostel called Hostel Mostel (http://www.hostelmostel.com) which I'd recommend staying at if you're ever in Bulgaria. Lonely Planet actually named it the best hostel in Bulgaria. It's completely modern, and they have a big common area with pillows, along with an outside deck (complete with fancy pet pigeons), and provide a free dinner with free beer. Alex, one of the staff members, made a couple great soups while we were there.

On the first day we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the gorge. We had a ton of great food and a couple beers for about $8 each. We could not spend money in this country. We kept trying to get rid of it, but everything is too cheap. We then proceeded to nap, eat dinner, and watch a quick fireworks/light show before sleeping again.

The view of the city from the fortress

The second day we decided to see the main site which is a fortress. It houses the ruins of over 400 houses and maybe a dozen churches. The geography of Veliko Tarnovo is very interesting, so the view was great. We were very excited to find the Turkish ruins which the lonely planet guide described as "a mound of bricks covered in shrubbery." We think we found it but aren't really sure. After that we took a taxi to the train station and made our way to Brasov, Romania (in Transylvani) which we will be in until tomorrow evening when we reunite with Katie!