Andreas Welch Photography

The Bulgarian Ethnographic Museum in Plovdiv was one of the better museums we visited during our trip to Bulgaria. It was also one of the few that would let you take pictures, if you paid extra. I paid the extra and think I got my money’s worth. They basically sold you a second ticket for the camera and then you could take pictures. The museum is in a beautiful old building and houses a variety of items. Some looked quite familiar (from the border areas with Montenegro for example) to what can be seen in the Albanian Ethnographic Museum in Pristina.

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Vice President Biden visited Kosovo this week. I was lucky enough to be in a position to be at the airport when Air Force Two landed and Vice President Biden arrived. His departure from the airport was by UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter to where he made a speech at the Kosovo Assembly. I am still working on the set (linked below), but some pictures are up and I think this is the best of the set.

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The Church of Saint Nedelya is located on the edge of old town. It’s a pretty church, but has been badly damaged by a fire. It was one of the few churches where I was able to take pictures inside.

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Of the three cities we visited in Bulgaria, we agreed that Plovdiv was the best. Located about an hour east, and just slightly south, of Sofia, Plovdiv had a variety of things to do. It is a very old town that includes a range of architecture from ancient roman to the 1800s and modern day. In fact, while most of our other visits only got one or two entries, Plovdiv will get a variety of blog entries simply because of the variety of interesting places we went in those two days. Those entries will include the Roman theatre, old town, the Bulgarian Ethnographic Museum, and one or two churches. For now, here are some general pictures of Plovdiv.

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The stone forest is just a few miles west of Varna. There’s a number of theories as to how it was formed (it is not a petrified forest), but the prevailing theory, and the one that makes the most sense to me, is that the area used to be a huge cave that eroded around the stalactites and stalagmites of the cave. The whole area around the immediate area is sand, but surrounding that is forest.

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While exploring Varna, we decided to drive north a bit and see the “famous” Golden Sands…. Turns out it’s basically a resort. The beach is probably nice though. A bit further north we found a very nice cliff overlook of the beach. On the way back, we stumbled across the Aladzha Monastery. It’s a 13-14th century monastery carved directly into the side of a mountain face.

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After Sofia we headed to Varna, which is on the Black Sea coast. We were a bit early for the town and the weather was dreary (drizzling rain, grey clouds and not much sun). It looked like it had potential to be a really nice town in the summer, but at the time of our visit, it wasn’t great. Many things were closed for renovations as well. Maybe some other time I’ll go back nearer summer. I got some good pictures none-the-less, though they tend to reflect the mood and weather we saw.

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