Bulgaria 2

The last post missed out a whole paragraph and some pictures!!

So, when we left our campsite this morning just outside Belogradchik we stopped in a lay by and bumped into an elderly gentleman who greeted us in English. We were on our way to view the unusual rock formations in the town and he said we must also visit the fortress. He had hitched 14 kilometres from his village and was going to the town, another 12 kilometres, to see if his prescription was ready for him. He told us about Bulgaria, of the new rich people, the emerging middle classes and of the poverty experienced by the majority of the population. He had been a school teacher and his pension was about £150 a month. He told us about the corruption in the country, in the police and even in the medical services where it was expensive for him to get the medicine to treat his osteoporosis. His prescriptions took up three quarters of his pension. He was proud that he had a friend in the USA and he showed us his passport with his American visa from the one time, many years ago, when he had visited him. He warned us of the dangers in Bulgaria from the gypsies, who would pick our pockets or worse. He said the ethnic Romanians we're lovely, educated people but he didn't have a good word to say about gypsies.

We offered him a lift to town and he directed us to the fortress and as we said goodbye I gave him a little money to help with his prescription and he was overwhelmed. A lovely man and lucky to meet him as only two people in his village spoke English!

The fortress was interesting insofar as the rock formations had been incorporated into the defensive walls, not that it was much use against Turkish invasions, of course.

A pic or two of where we are tonight;

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy