[caption id="attachment_401" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Me at Tsarevets (the Castle)"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04564.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-401" title="CAE VT" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04564.jpg?w=300" alt="Me at Tsarevets (the Castle)" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

I went to Veliko Tarnovo on Saturday in a snow storm.  I thought it was going to be a pretty low key weekend and it was.  But I never expected that I'd be traveling to the city in the first snow storm of the year.  It's made a couple of things clear: I need to buy new boots for winter and a better hat.  This will be a priority for the upcoming weekend (which I am spending in Sofia--it's the first in four weeks).

Snow is a funny thing.  I think it makes people a little bit crazy.  In Washington DC, at the first suggestion of a snow storm people would flood the grocery store and buy up huge amounts of toilet paper and other food staples as if they might never be able to make to the store again.  In Sofia, people seemed more ho-hum about it.  I packed some warmer clothes in my bag and broke out my wool sweater and headed to the bus station.<!--more-->

It was a little bit slower going, the side walks are uneven already so a little snow covers that and made me walk more cautiously. When I got to the tram line on Vitosha Street, I thought: phew, now I am only five stops away from the bus station.  No problem.  Of course, there was a problem.  The tram wasn't running on

[caption id="attachment_402" align="alignright" width="225" caption="View into the Valley "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04539.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-402" title="VT Universisty " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04539.jpg?w=225" alt="View into the Valley " width="225" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

Vitosha this weekend.  I guess it was scheduled for repairs.  Luckily a Bulgarian girl who saw me standing there told me in nearly perfect American-English that the line was down.  It was really, really nice of her. I can't imagine how long I would have stood there otherwise.  Well, it was snowing pretty hard so I guess that I would have lasted for 20 minutes before I was cold and tired and decided to walk home and call my friends in Veliko Tarnovo for a "snow-check" (you know, rather than a "rain-check").

Anyhow, as luck would have it I was able to walk about six blocks and catch the tram further up.  Still, reader, you should know it was snowing in big wet clumps.  It wasn't sticking to the ground so the sidewalk was wet and slushy.  I had my umbrella out but it might have been more trouble than it was worth.  Somehow, I made it to the station about 15 minutes before my bus was leaving.  I bought the ticket, hopped on the bus and by the time I was comfortable in my seat, we were on the road.  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.

By the time I got to Veliko Tarnovo, it was snowing heavily there.  Needless to say, I spent Saturday curled up on a couch catching up with my other Fulbright friends, eating soup and reading.  I figured it's better to be trapped inside with friends than at home alone in your apartment during a snow storm so I was happy as a clam.

When I woke up on Sunday, the sky was clear and the sun was out.  It wasn't warm but the snow was melting and it was perfect weather for a walk.  So we walked all over the town.  On a map it doesn't look very big and it's not but what's surprising is how hilly the town is.  I was never out of breath or anything but walking around you get this sense that you are always going up hill.  This maybe where the "I walked to and from school up hill both ways" jokes originated.  It was great to see the city and even more than that it was nice to be out the apartment.

[caption id="attachment_403" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Road to the Castle "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04552.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-403" title="VT Castle road" src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04552.jpg?w=225" alt="Road to the Castle " width="225" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

The next day, I did about four more hours of walking around.  Veliko Tarnovo is known as a tourist city but it turns out in the middle of November after a snow storm there are not too many tourists out and about.  It meant that I had the castle nearly to myself.  I saw two other tourists on the grounds with me and when I was leaving I saw three more people entering.  The castle is an interesting thing because it was build during the 20th century.  Apparently there used to be a castle of some sort on the grounds but by the time anyone cared much nothing was really left.  So they rebuilt it.

But to say that they re-built it is kind of misleading.  They put up a church and then some walls that imitated what might have been there--once.  So there are rocks to climb over, walls to look at and an incredible view of the city and the valley.  It's worth going to the castle for the views alone.

I have to say, I thought it was going to be a little bit cheesy to go to the castle seeing as it's a man made tourist attraction but when I was there I completely forgot about the feeling.  I am sure that it helped that I more or less had the place to myself but I think that it would be equally enjoyable during the spring or summer--just with more people.  The name of the castle is actually Tsarevets but being an American I don't get to use the word castle nearly enough so I just called it the castle all weekend long.

Really just think about it, do we have a single real-honest-to-god-castle in the USA? I don't think so.  (The

[caption id="attachment_404" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Chruch at Tsarevets"]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04565.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-404" title="VT Church " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dsc04565.jpg?w=225" alt="Chruch at Tsarevets" width="225" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

only castle I can think of right now is the Smithsonian Castle and that's just so-so.)  This made it that much more fun to say things like: I am going to take a walk to the castle or oh, this afternoon I toured the castle grounds.  I think that castles+me=fun. Oh and one other great thing,  the church at Tsarevets doesn't have a single icon painting.  Instead it has these great mural paintings.  The murals are seriously communist inspired and a refreshing change to a sea of icons in blue and gold with images of the Jesus, the Virgin Mary and saints slaying dragons in most of the other Orthodox churches I've been to visit.

I did a little shopping in order to do my part to reverse the current economic downturn.  I am not sure if I really made much of a difference but I got some great stuff--a little something for me and a few gifts as well.  And once again, I was struck by how inexpensive everything is even hand made jewelry made locally.

So my final thoughts on Veliko Tarnovo, it's a great little city.  I was very happy to have spent three days visiting the city.  If you were visiting Bulgaria, however, and wanted to see Veliko Tarnovo I think that you could do it in a day and a night.  That is if you were snow storm free!!