Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of Bulgaria during the Second Kingdom. The old section of the Veliko Tarnovo consists of antique white stucco buildings covered in red clay roof tiles. The houses wind along the knoll of a hill; each house is situated so that it has a view of the river valley and a medieval fortress.

In the centre of the city—between the old section and the new—sits an enormous monument to the Assen Dynasty (1185 to 1241). It depicts the Assen brothers, Kayolan and Ivan (and their successors), who led the revolt against the Byzantines. The brothers are mounted on large warhorses that stand on ten foot tall plinths; they surround an enormous sword that thrusts up from the ground and towers above the horses and men. Viewed from up close the monument makes you feel tiny and insignificant.

Graduation Day in Veliko Tarnovo

On Saturday we watched the parade of the 2014 graduates from our hotel in Veliko Tarnovo. Graduation Day is when schools and the towns throughout Bulgaria celebrate their graduates. All day (and night) we listened to honking car horns. On the streets, young men in shiny suits marched alongside young women wearing fancy dresses and, walking along in their ill-considered high-heels, with varying degrees of success. Following the graduates were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Working in the many souvenir stores and fancy tourist shops in Sofia are young men and women who probably had marched alongside their families on Graduation Day only a few years before. Now, they sat outside their shops or leaned against doorways, watching the graduates and their families promenade; the former grads looked hot and bored, like underemployed and under-paid young people everywhere.

Later we ran across a couple of young artists we met in Sofia. We talked about the graduation ceremonies. One of the artists said, “You know, they are celebrating like this is the best moment in their lives.” Some of the grads will leave to go to university, others will leave to find work elsewhere in Bulgaria or beyond and some will join the ranks of the bored and disaffected store clerks sitting outside of a ‘Rose of Bulgaria’ shop, wondering what had happened to their early promise.

Hotel Comfort

We arrived in the centre of Veliko Tarnovo with no accommodations booked, so we wandered from hotel to hotel. We were hot and tired and settled on the Hotel Comfort, with its familiar sign. Tony, the owner of the hotel, showed us a top floor room. It had wood wainscoting and a timbered roof and the view from the balcony looked over the river valley and the medieval fortress.

Tony told us that he had emigrated to the US where he spent a few years in Detroit driving a taxi. He was back home now, fixing up the Hotel Comfort. He had finished the fourth and second floors. His father had done most of the woodwork. He was pleased we were from Canada. Because in Canada, he said, “You understand wood.”