📍Plovdiv, Sofia, & Smolyan, Bulgaria 🇧🇬

You were right, Blago. Your country is beautiful.

After 10+ years, I finally made it to Bulgaria!

Most people reading this know that from the age of 15-22 I worked at a restaurant called Armand’s in Bethany Beach, DE. Every summer, a group of Bulgarian students would come work for the busy season and we quickly became very close. After hearing about their country for so long, I was so excited to finally reunite with them, introduce them to J, and see the country with a local tour guide!

Day 1: After 17 hours of travel, we made it to Plovdiv where Yanko picked us up. It had been 10 years since we last saw each other, but it felt like nothing had changed. He brought us to his home in his village and we met his wife, Simona, and daughter, Darya, who we loved! It was pretty late, so we caught up for a little, ate a homemade dinner Simona prepared for us, and went to bed.

Day 2: We woke up a bit late and had breakfast (again, homemade) at the house and hung out with Darya.

We finally got ourselves together and made it to Plovdiv to walk around. I had heard that Bulgaria was beautiful for a while and now I can finally say, they weren’t lyin!

We met up with Yanko’s friend and had lunch downtown. This is also the time Darya and I became best friends. In other words, if you see me in America with a child, please note: I did not have a child, but I did steal Yanko’s baby from Bulgaria.

We continued walking around the city and saw Yanko’s college, a beautiful outdoor theater, and the fountains.

We had dinner at a local brewery the European way: eat, drink, and talk for hours.

Day 3: We woke up to yet another homemade breakfast…if anyone needs me, I’ll be living in Yanko and Simona’s home from now on.

We got ready and headed to Sofia to meet up with Erin and Sam (Erin’s brother). Randomly, some of Sam’s friends from Barcelona were also in Bulgaria at the same time, so we all met up for a very cultured lunch. Yanko then took us all on a tour of the city. Lemme tell ya, a private tour guide who also happens to be a friend is the way to go. Highly recommend.

After our tour, we got ready for dinner at the hotel. Seeing as we are traveling for a bit with just a backpack, our “going out” clothes are limited and we were all under the impression we were going to a mix of a restaurant and a bar. WRONG. We walked into what must be the fanciest club in the city, C’est La Vie. I mean, Lamborghinis in the valet… andddd us in our t-shirts and very casual leggings/jeans. Between our outfits and ordering tequila sodas, we stuck out like a sore thumb. I believe the question from our friends (and even the waiter) was, “why are they mixing that shot with water!? What are they doin?” News flash crazy Bulgarians, sometimes, just sometimes, tequila is more than just a shot. Try it sometime.

Way more importantly, at this dinner I got to see 3 more of the Bulgarians I used to work with. It felt like I blinked and it was a Wednesday night in 2010 and it was simply blissful. We had dinner, drank, talked, and somehow stayed from 8 pm until 2 am listening to music and watching everyone dance.

Day 4: After a long night, we made it out of the hotel around noon to begin our journey to the small mountain village called Smolyan, which is also Yanko’s hometown. We drove about 5 hours. It would have been less if I had even just a little control of my bladder or hunger, but that’s a problem for another time. Also a good time to mention that Yanko has a sedan, so Erin, J, and I got real close in the back for quite some time. We stopped at an amazing local restaurant and had the most delicious food and drool inducing dessert.

When we finally made it to the mountains, Yanko dropped us off at a hotel where he said we may have a good view. Erin, Sam, J, and I had dinner in the cozy hotel lobby and played games in our room for the night…my favorite type of night.

Day 5: Our favorite tour guide was back on duty for an early morning pick up. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, Yanko picked us up for a full day of activities.

We walked around Old Town Smolyan with Simona and Darya. When it was time for Darya’s nap, the rest of the group went to the tower in Pomporovo and had lunch at the top with a beautiful overlook.

We then did a very short hike, ok fine, it was really a walk, to a beautiful overlook.

We briefly walked around New Town and found a very local shop to grab a drink and play games.

This is where things got serious. Not only did Yanko and Simona show us around all week…his sweet parents invited us all to their house and made us a 5 course homemade, authentic, DELICIOUS Bulgarian meal. I have no words simply because they will not do it justice. Not only did they feed us, but they gave us all souvenirs and thanked US for coming. What hosts!

Day 6: If you ask Yanko, everything we were doing was a “15 minute drive.” So we woke up and drove “15 minutes,” arriving at Agushevi Konatsi, which is a home where a very rich family lived for over 6 generations. We did a tour of the part of the house that is open to the public.

We then went off-roading in the mountains with an actual tour guide. Remember I said Yanko was from a small town? Apparently, after a few minutes into the drive, he found out the driver was one of his cousins. We preferred they didn’t get excited about this information in that moment as we were on the edge of a cliff and they were gleefully looking at each other instead of the road. But hey, it all worked out and we all made it back safely. After the wild ride up the mountain, we made it to a beautiful overlook where Bulgaria was on one side of us and Greece on the other. The overlook was a skinny platform with the end made of glass where you could look straight down. Sam, J, and I did fine, Erin and Yanko were big weenies.

It was time to start heading back to Plovdiv, but not before our last mountain meal. We stopped in Smilyan, a town “15 minutes” from Smolyan, and had a great lunch outside. On our way out of town, we made a stop at the best water fountain I’ve ever had. It was a local tap with the fresh mountain spring water. It was such good water I couldn’t leave it out of this blog.

Anyway, we made it back to Plovdiv and stopped at the grocery store. It was our turn to make the Bulgarians some American food. Naturally, we made them burgers and fries. We all had dinner, hung out at Yanko’s house, and enjoyed our last night together. 😭

Day 6: Erin and Sam hadn’t seen Plovdiv, so we all made one last trip to the city before it was time to leave. We walked around, got some souvenirs, stopped for the caffeine addicts to get their coffees, and had some lunch.

Our plane was leaving from Sofia the next day, so Yanko drove us to the train station and escorted us through like a dad taking his kids to school on their first day. Thank gosh he did because that train station was hard to use. After a 3 hour train ride, we arrived in Sofia where my friend Julia was picking us up. She not only picked us up, but made room for all 4 of us to stay in her apartment with her family. The hospitality from the Bulgarians 10/10, A+.

We all went to dinner at a great restaurant called Raketa Rakia Bar. We were all tired from a jam-packed week and had an early flight so we went to bed right after dinner.

Day 7: Not only did we wake up to a home cooked breakfast again, Julie also took us to the airport. I’m serious when I say the treatment we received was unmatched. There was an accident on the way to the airport so our 15 minute ride took about 45 minutes, but we successfully made our flight.

Yanko, Simona (and Darya), and Julie, thank you so much for everything! We had the best time in your country and we’ll be back for sure! Miss you all already!

XOXO,
AK & J

Bloopers 🫣