Sunday, March 18
A day without churches is like a day without sunshine. Is that how it goes? We’ve been accused of visiting a lot of churches but there were none on the agenda today. To be fair we did try to visit one that was along our route but it was closed. We’ll try again during the week.
We started the day with a stop at a pastry shop. We had spotted this shop the first day we were in Plovdiv, on our orientation walk, but now we had an opportunity to stop and sample the wares. The shops have all sorts of cakes but we wanted to try a pastry that appeared to be covered in icing. It looked different from the typical fare and it peaked our interest. It turned out to be something very close to an Italian Napoleon, without the white chocolate on top. It was delicious. As usual, no pictures. We’ll definitely be back for another bite at the apple and maybe we’ll get a picture then.
A short walk from the pastry shop we found The Small Basilica. I know we said that we hadn’t visited any churches but this really wasn’t a church – it was a museum. Actually our plan was to visit four museums. The previous day we had purchased discount tickets that allowed us to visit five museums for the price of three; there are a total of eight museums that participate in this program. The Ancient Roman Theater that we had seen yesterday counted as one of the museums and so, since the tickets were only good for two days, we planned to see four more today.
The basilica had been built in the 4th century and had been discovered in 1988. It opened to the public in 2014. Very little of the original structure is left but there are large remnants of mosaic floors that have been preserved. The guide map says that there was an ancient synagogue next door but we found no evidence of its exsistance.
(A Baptismal Fount in the Shape of a Cross)
Our path to the next museum took us past the Old East Gate to the city of Philippopolis. You can still see the remains of the gates and the road that connected them.
(Old East Gate to the city of Philippopolis)
After a failed attempt to see a nearby church we climbed up the hill to where the museums were located. All of the museums were located in houses that had been built during the Bulgarian Revival period in the 1800s. The museums featured works of art from Bulgarian artists from the 20th and 21st centuries. The houses were as much an exhibit as the artwork. They contained rooms with high ceilings and intricate woodwork patterns. The rooms were decorated with period furniture and rugs. Many of the houses have large ball rooms and appear to be used for official functions to this day. No photos were permitted in any of the museums.
Between touring the houses and climbing the hills we worked up quite an appetite. We lunched at a German style restaurant, Rahat Tepe, near the pinnacle of one of the hills. The special of the day was a platter of ribs with pickled onions, french fries and garlic sauce. We had to try that. We also order the potato pie. For fun we sampled a glass of rakia. Rakia is a fruit flavored fermented beverage. It’s very popular in Bulgaria. For our money you could easily mistake it for schnapps.
When the waitress brought the food we assumed that she had given us a double portion by mistake. The plates were huge. There was enough food for four people. We ate it all! It was wonderful. When the bill came we realized that we had received normal sized portions. The menu never said anything about family style. At least this time we remembered to take pictures before we ate. We’re getting better 😉. Total cost for the meal: $17.00. That’s pretty expensive by our standards. We’ve been eating a lot of street food and take-away lately. It’s been quite a while since we ate in an actual restaurant.
(Two Full Racks of Ribs)
(Potato Pie Covered in Feta Cheese)
While we were eating it started to rain so, after lunch, we decided to head back to our apartment and digest.
Distance walked: 4.3 miles