We arrived in Veliko Tarnovo yesterday afternoon but because I was sick I ended up not being able to see any of the town as I just spent the entire evening in bed.
I wasn’t sure how I’d fare today as my experience with stomach issues when I travel is that it takes me a few days for me to actually recuperate.
I woke up today, having had a nice night’s sleep, not 100% but good enough to get out there and explore.
Food, finally!
I didn’t eat at all yesterday. Not even a snack.
In fact, by the time we went out for breakfast this morning, it had been more than 38 hours since I had eaten anything.
Now, finding breakfast turned out to be a little harder than we thought.
Turns out, the classic breakfast of eggs and meats and such isn’t really a thing here in Bulgaria. Instead, it’s salads or pastries.
Well, I can’t have pastries (thanks gluten allergy!) so we marched down the street looking at various menus.
In the end, we settled for a quasi-breakfast.
A hamburger with egg and bacon.
Hey, it had egg and bacon so, I mean, technically it’s breakfast, right?
Right?
Obviously I had mine without a bun to which the girl behind the counter gave me the weirdest look when I requested it.
Ah, hit the spot!
Free Walking Tour
The burger place was directly across the street from where our free walking tour started from and we popped by there at 11am.
Our tour only had 4 people in it which kind of makes sense since Veliko Tarnovo isn’t really the hot bed touristy spot.
By the way, I’m okay with that.
Give me a small town over a big touristy city every day of the week!
The tour lasted 3 hours but, sadly, after an hour I had to call it quits.
I was feeling a bit light headed and a little fatigued and, above all, I didn’t want to over exert myself today since I was still on the mend.
Nathan continued on with the tour and I headed back to the hostel and literally crashed in bed.
It wasn’t until 4 hours later that I woke up again.
I was feeling pretty good and decided to go out for lunch.
Lunch
I went to a place just down the street and sat at a table for one on the patio.
From the “healthy” section, I chose a Bulgarian dish of meatballs with sweet potato.
I guess, in the scheme of things, it was healthier than most of what we’ve been eating but, let’s just say, it wasn’t a salad or veggies anywhere in site.
While waiting for my food, I decided to Google about what tipping at restaurants is like in Bulgaria.
I found an article that I found quite interesting and opened my eyes a little.
In it, it stressed that since we we’re privileged to be able to travel to these places, that we should also be tipping our service staff.
I had never looked at it from that angle before, and I’m a server who relies on tips.
I am very privileged and fortunate to be in a position when I can do so much traveling and I certainly can take care of my server regardless of what the tipping culture is in a country I visit.
Plus, from a server standpoint, it’s just good karma, ya know?
Another thing it mentioned that made me think was about lowering my expectations for service while traveling.
Obviously, being a server myself, I have pretty high expectations already from other servers since I know how hard I work to give great service.
Having said that though, it’s important to also recognize that service in these other countries isn’t necessarily the same. Part of that is the culture and they wait they’ve been brought up to serve tables.
For example, in North America, when you finish eating, you’re presented with the bill and payment is done promptly. In other places around the world, you just sit and wait and wait for this to happen.
I always got annoyed by this. I mean, I’m done my meal – I just want to pay and leave. In Europe, though, that’s just the way service is. Whether it’s a good or bad thing, it’s just the way things are done over here.
Tsarevets Fortress
After lunch, I decided to walk a bit down the street to find a store where I could buy a bag of chips in case I got hungry later on in the evening as I had no real intention of going out again today.
After all, I was taking it easy, right?
Well, I walked for a bit and then, you know what, I decided to walk a little more.
And a little more…
And, before I knew it, it was 20 minutes later and I was at the entrance of Tsarevets Fortress on the edge of the town.
Well, seemed kinda silly to walk all this way without actually going in to explore the grounds.
So, I paid my 10lev ($7.50) and went through the gate.
As I mentioned earlier, Veliko Tarnovo isn’t really a touristy town so the number of people here was minimal.
I probably passed maybe 10 people the hour I was exploring.
For me, I was happy that I was holding up pretty well considering how it had gone for me earlier in the day.
I did have to visit the public toilet midway through but, other than that, it felt pretty good being out there exploring.
Playing cards
Time flew by today, and before I knew it, it was already 9pm.
Mind you, that probably had to do with the fact that I slept the afternoon away…
Anyway, I chatted with this Argentinian girl, Bianca, in our room for awhile and then Nathan joined us and we went downstairs to play some cards.
Soon, our other dorm mate, Hany from Egypt, joined in on the cards too.
This is what it’s all about for me. Chatting with fellow travelers while playing cards.
Sure, there are castles, and fortresses, and waterfalls to see, but after awhile they all blend into one another.
What you remember is the people you meet along the way and the unusual adventures you find while you’re out there.
