Photos

The hill top of Tsarevets has been inhabited for well over 3000 years; however, the fortress was built around 1200ad with major restoration done in the 1930s.

The town Veliko Tarnovo disappointed me at first - traffic whizzing through, paved roads, a wide main street filled with restaurants and cafes where you could barely peek through to the gorge. And the gorge was not something so spectacular - it reminded me the view from American interstates along the Appalachain Mountains. Fine views, but not overly special - or European - to me.

Luckily, I found my place high above the traffic on the steep old cobbled roads and the paths leading to a forest (thanks to the people I stayed with for an introduction to the path).

I was being too lazy to get up at the crack of dawn, but luckily the haze that plagued my view along the ridge would now cover the harsh sunlight in romantic pastels.

If this was to work as an image, I knew I would have to override the white balance settings and not to worry about extreme sharpness but let the haze give the picture some depth.

This was in my last few hours in Veliko Tarnovo. Despite my initial impressions, the hill top and others I met made my stay here the most pleasantly memorable of my short trip in Bulgaria.