Travels with Misho
To Silistra with Michael
It is about a year ago, when my beloved cousin Michael (Misho) left us – this is a minute part of the myriads of memories we have together! R.I.P.
Day One
In the spring of 2004, my cousin Michael, my husband Chris and I started from Burgas on a warm, bright, but cloudy day on a trip towards the river Danube. Avoiding the dual carriageway, we decided to take a detour through the centre of Sunny Beach, one of Bulgaria’s main resorts on the Black Sea coast. I had not been there for at least 2 or 3 years and was amazed by the vast building programme, which had taken place. Many of the old hotels to the right — between the road and the sea, have been improved, re-painted. Outdoor pools have been added. Also, a number of new hotels and blocks with apartment complexes have been built to the left of the road, where there were few buildings before.
The centre of the complex was drastically changed — new buildings have appeared, where before lightweight shopping pavilions were spread around Hotel Cuban.
The new hotels built, seemed to be of differing design and style. Some bright colours caught the eye, but very few buildings had an elegant and sophisticated shape or form. Towards the end of the complex, one elegant building in a “Bulgarian Monastery” style stood side by side with a garish example, resembling some of the worse hotels in Las Vegas.
The volume of accommodation looked to have been drastically increased, no wonder that the Balkan Holidays brochure in the UK this year was 2/3ds bigger than the one from the previous year. Michael, who himself was in the building trade, informed me that yearly, 200 million Euros are invested in new hotel buildings in Sunny Beach alone. The government had decreed that all building work will be stopped by the 12th of May this summer and the unfinished buildings will be wrapped (not by Christo, of course) for the summer season, so that the tourists can rest undisturbed.
While chatting about the building industry and Sunny Beach we entered the windy road over the last slopes of the Balkan Mountains on our way to Varna. The line of trees, with their newly budding leaves, was intercepted here and there by bright yellow flowering bushes and the occasional flowering tree. Here and there, one could see a glimpse of the Black Sea, which was very calm and silver-grey, reflecting the light cloud.
Approaching Varna more vineyards, orchards and forests surrounded the road E87. Being recently re-surfaced, it allowed for a comfortable trip. I lifted my eyes from the book for a second to be surprised by a herd of pigs —semi-wild or “free range” — mothers with lots of little ones. The little pigs (some spotted) were cuteness themselves! Michael informed me that they slept in pig-sties, but found their own food during the day — mainly acorns — and were very tasty (the pigs!).
We crossed the bridge over the industrial area of Varna, passing over shipyards, canals, warehouses and other assorted unattractive buildings and found ourselves in the centre of Varna.
The beautiful cathedral caught the eye with shiny domes, but the eye had to be diverted quickly to the map. Michael, our driver, was demanding directions and Chris was expecting to receive a map from me. It looked as if we were directed towards Dobritch through the centre of Varna.
Like the outskirts of Burgas, those of Varna were also full of unpalatable, degrading and large panel built blocks, which were beyond repair and in direct contrast with the well-preserved and lovingly painted buildings in the centre of Varna. There were no plans to stop in Varna.
OK — got there — on the right road to Dobritch – we planned to have lunch in the old part of the town. Dobritch, the main town of Dobrudja has been populated by Thracians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Rumanians and belonged many kingdoms. During the 12/13th century Tartars have settled here, from which King Kaloyan’ s wife originated. The steppe character of the land suited horse-riding people well. I have a friend, who comes from this area and both hers and her son’s features testify for this genetic ancestry. This part of Bulgaria was the last to be conquered by Mehmed the Conqueror in 1416. Further influxes of population included Crimean Tartars, Turks and Vlachs from Macedonia and Romania.
The town bares the name of Despot Dobrotitza, who during the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was in charge of this area. He was a member of the Terter clan and either inherited it from Ivan Alexander’s mother Despotitza Petriza, whose relation he may have been, or it was given to him to rule by Ivan Alexander himself. However, the Despotate gradually became semi-independent and Dobrotitza’s bothers and son – Ivanko Terter, were often acting against the interests of the Bulgarian kingdom. For example, in the Byzantine Civil war, his brothers took the side of Anna of Savoy – the young Emperor’s mother. She gave them an army to fight with John Cantacuzenus and married one of them to a Byzantine Princess. Alas, they failed. The Ottomans gave the area the name Dobrudja, which exists to this day.
The car is winding through the steppes, now turned to endless fields, planted with wheat — one of the main exports from the area for centuries. During the 12th — 14th centuries wheat, candles, wood, honey, furs were exported from Dobrudja through the Danube ports, as well as from several Genoese colonies, based near the moth of the river Danube. They were Licostomo, Kiliya and Vichina. The ships brought back cloth from the West, jewellery, glass, and other luxuries for the new class of rich merchants and farmers in the area. Those colonies also had mixed population, with many settlers from Genoa, Greeks, Armenians, Turks, Bulgarians, Tartars and an Italian system of law, banking and administration.
About 4 hours since we started from Burgas we reached Dobritch. During the period of communism, this town was called Tolbuhin — named after the Russian General, who ‘liberated” it. Before this, it was called Dobritch, which is much easier to pronounce than the name the town started its life — Hadgi Oglu Pazardgick. The guide book informs me this is the name of the merchant — Hadgi Oglu Bakal, who built the first house here in the 16th century.
We parked the car near the majestic “Literary Museum Yordan Yovkov”, which was closed for lunch. Yovkov, a famous writer, was born in the beautiful village of Zheravna, near the town of Kotel in the Balkan Mountains, but spent most of his life teaching in Dobrudja. Here he probably wrote most of his books.
What impresses the visitor in the centre of Dobritch is the sense of space in the vast pedestrian area. The down side of it is that the mosaic slabs, which 40 years ago may have been good, were now broken and uneven. Fresh green leaves on the two rows of trees gave life to the blocks of flats and shops, with the pleasant interruption of a small church – St Georges. This was built in 1864 on top of the base of an older church, built earlier, in 1843, but consecrated after the Liberation from the Turks in 1889. The church was burned during the Crimean War. The current, partially restored one, has now lovely icons and a gilded alter inside, while the murals on the high ceiling were the only part not renovated — still dark from the candle smoke. A few selected beggars, fairly well dressed, of different racial backgrounds, sex and ages, met us there and saw us off in an up-beat mood.
We found the Old Dobritch hidden behind blocks of flats, off the main square. The low buildings had their doors open and exhibited crafts in the making — pottery, bookbinding, barrel-making, weaving, lace-making, shoemaking, etc. The effect of the “village” was unfortunately spoiled by the rather unsightly blocks, surrounding it. Last year we visited Etura — a re-creation of a craft village in the Balkan Mountains, which stands on its own in the mountain, by a river and creates the illusion of a village in a much more genuine way. There were no tourists in the Old Dobritch village — the owners were quite desperate to get some customers to enter their shops!
We had lunch in the amply named “Mustang” Restaurant on one of the main street. The Dobrudja area has had a long association with horses, still supporting a horse fair and horse-breeding farms.
We walked past the main hotel, predictably called “Bulgaria”, looking at the people, walking in their best clothes in the last of the Easter Bank holiday days. I noticed that there were very few people with blue eyes and fair hair, the majority were brown eyed, dark haired people. The sun shone gently through the trees and in the people’s smiling faces. We looked through the shops — the area is apparently the best place to buy shoes — as they make them there. “That’s why there were so many shoe shops!” – exclaimed Chris. There were some good clothes, silver jewellery — I bought a ring and some outstandingly original knitwear.
We left Dobritch and the landscape changed — fields alternated with trees, one could see villages far away in the hazy sunshine. The temperature of the air was 25 C0, the green wheat shoots made the earth feel electric. We commented on the fact that all villages seemed very far away. Michel said that the area is very sparsely populated; this was why we have hardly met any cars on the road too. The distance between Dobritch and Silistra is about 93 kilometres, we began to discuss whether we should go straight there, or go to the Nature Reserve in Sreburna, as the weather was so nice.
More hills and downs surround the road, rows of white flowering trees were followed by newly ploughed blocks of brown earth, warm and ready for sowing. We saw more horses and carts on the road here than cars, especially around villages. The villages we passed seemed to be large and well equipped with municipal buildings and services. More houses seem to be painted on the outside, than what is usual for Bulgarian villages, all had large gardens.
The closer we got to Silistra, the hillier the landscape was. Folds came, went, and revealed villages, vineyards, small copses. Here and there, the sunny river Danube sparkled between them. We could now see the few posts of the frontier line. To the right was a new landfill site and more newly ploughed fields. Now that we were driving next to the boundary fence and could see the ploughed boundary itself with its white posts.
We entered the town of Silistra through some blocks of flats, still decorated with communist style marketing panels, probably advertising factories, which had closed a long time ago. We decided to follow directions for Lake Sreburna. Shortly after we entered it, we left Silistra again and after 10 minutes we went into a settlement, called Aydemir. I was commenting that it was quite large and asking Chris to check its status on the map — was it a town or was it a village? After producing a lot of rustling noises, he announced that Aydemir was not on the map at all! This was impossible, as we were now going through an area, full of blocks and still had not feft Aydemir. Michael suggested we checked when our map was produced. What do you think?! — in 1983!! Aydemir probably didn’t exist then at all!
Having entered a large and well laid out village – Sreburna (Silvery), we parked in front of the Biosphere Reserve’s Museum Building, which was, of course closed. This allowed for a superb view of the lake from a high ground, so we stopped to take a few snaps. Almost half of the lake was totally covered with tall reeds, which created an excellent habitat for a large number of migratory birds, fish, etc. Five minutes later, we were down by the lake, going around it – here and there, there were wooded piers, some of which were occupied by fishing enthusiasts.
The tranquillity of the lake was supreme — only bird sounds could be heard, coming from the reeds. We saw and enormous white bird in the distance, but neither the zoom of the camera, nor the lens of the video camera helped magnify the image, so that we could work out what it was. Several attractive black birds with white underwings flew from the reeds towards the trees in front of us. It was so quiet! We continued walking around, taking pictures and peeping through the three-four meter tall reeds in the hope we may see something exciting.
In fact, we came here without binoculars and not actually knowing a lot about birds, but were totally taken by the serene beauty of the place. One thing I noticed was that the wooden piers were not supported by banisters on either side and could constitute a potential danger for small children.
The anglers told us, that much further round the lake one could see pelicans nesting, with babies in the nests. They reckoned that there were 39 mammals, 21 species of reptiles and amphibians and over 10 species of fish in the lake. They also told us that the lake provides a habitat for about 90 species of birds, some migrating here — like the pelicans.
In front of the Museum, there was a list of observation points tours, offered and some indications as to how long some of those were. There were one day trips, two day trips, etc. We only had 2 hours, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Sreburna.
We started on our way back to Silistra — which was an important settlement in the Roman Empire, called Dioestrum. We booked ourselves into the main hotel —“Zlatna Dobrudzha”, in the centre of town. It looked as if we were the only visitors for the day.
We noted the old mosque (16 century) on our way in, and thought we will check it out. It was being repaired — new pavement was constructed around it. I took a few pictures — the top of the building was being kept together with a metal “brace”. Some window frames looked repaired; otherwise there was no evidence of restoration to be seen from the outside.
We asked the receptionist in the hotel what was the best place to eat fish in town and she directed us towards a restaurant by the river, called “Bay Ganyu”.
On our way there, we noted a lovely square with well-kept buildings and pavements, statues, leading to the riverside park. We walked down towards the riverbank amongst people in their best, taking a leisurely walk. The river, when we got there, was beautiful — wide, calm and full, there was a thin island in front of the central alley.
When were tore our eyes form the river, we noticed a large number of archaeological remains by the riverside — none had any accompanying inscriptions — not even in Bulgarian! Michael refreshed my mind with the fact that during communist times tourist were not expected to roam around remains on their own – where was the security in that!? They moved in well-contained groups, with a guide, who would inform them about what was what and take them to what was worth seeing with a bus! So we decided to ask tomorrow in the archaeological museum about the remains by river.
We carried on walking round the river in search of the restaurant. Passed the artistically painted St Peter and St Paul’s Church — in reds and pinks, which was unfortunately, closed. Apparently, the church is famous for the relics of St. Dasios kept there. Pope John Paul II donated them to the town during his visit to Bulgaria in 2001.
I asked some people again — “Where is Restaurant Bay Ganuy”? “Surely you mean Bay Danuy?” was the answer. “By the port, go further east, on the river — they sell great fish!” – We could not wait!
We finally found the customs and the small fisherman’s port, and next, on a large wooden platform, overhanging the river was a restaurant, called “Gostilnitza Nikulden”(!),. That was it! We sat down with a peach rakiya (local speciality) and a salad and watched the sun set over the river. We were spoiled for choice between the 15 types of fish — 12 of which fresh, and settled on sturgeon. The waitress proudly told us that the same fish was shown to day on Nova TV, due to its enormous size. It was delicious, too.
Day Two
I have been researching the contents of the guidebook and discovered many things about the history of Silistra, considered to be one of the oldest settlement in Bulgaria. During breakfast I reported to my follow travellers.
Silistra was built by the Thracians before 5 000 BC and restored later by the Roman Empire. The Roman town of Durostorum, established in 29 BC, became the capital of the Roman province Moesia. From 5th century BC, it was deserted and plundered regularly by Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Proto-Bulgarians and other migrating tribes.
During the Middle Ages, the town was renamed Druster and became an important boundary/military post of the river Danube, protecting the Bulgarian Kingdom from adversaries, attacking from the north. Whenever it was not owned by the Tartar Hordes, it also traded with the nearby Danube Genoese colonies – Kiliya, Licostomo and Vicina.
After breakfast, we visited the Art Gallery. It was built in the period 1890-1891, in the architectural style is “late secession”. Now beautifully restored, with Romanian or alpine style little roof towers, the building grabbed the eye from afar. In the gallery, there were pictures by local, national and some foreign artists – we enjoyed our visit there tremendously.
Walking thorough the central part of the town, we detected a certain Romanian architectural influence. It appeared that after Bulgaria lost the Second Balkan War, the Saint-Petersburg treaty (signed in 1913) gave Silistra to Romania. Later on, in 1940, Silistra was returned to Bulgarian rule. The 27 years of Romanian ownership, however, had obviously left a mark on its architectural style. In 1877 Silistra was liberated by the Russian armies and turned over to Bulgaria.
The Historical Museum was our next port of call. It is housed in another nice building, which at the time, 
was absolutely empty. We benefited from the undivided attention of its curator and were escorted through the most valuable artefacts it housed. At some point, I noticed a photograph of the Roman Tomb, which we came specially to see and mentioned that this was our next port of call. The curator was quite surprised to hear that. She asked how I knew about it. I informed her proudly, that I had a book on Bulgarian architecture at home, which even gave me the working hours of the tomb. She was surprised further. “Madam”, said she –“the tomb has been closed for visitors for more than 10 years! We have installed new equipment, which allows visitors to come, but we are still waiting to receive information on how many people per hour we are allowed to admit! So I am afraid, you will not be able to see it!” We were heart-broken – we pleaded with her in every-which way and finally, she consented to ask the Director of the Museum for permission. Luckily, he gave his permission and she came with us in our car to unlock the door and show us the tomb.
I already knew that the Roman Tomb in Silistra was one of the most celebrated examples of tomb architecture in Bulgaria and the Balkans in general, a typical example of a building that date back to the Late Antiquity.
The museum curator was telling us the story of its discovery – a man, uprooting a vine, realised there was a hole opening underneath it. He came later with a lantern and some ropes and discovered a tomb, whose whole interior was covered with paintings. She added, that the frescoes of the tomb were considered to date back to 4th century – in fact, from the reign of Emperor Theodosius I (378-395). They were a vital source for researching the culture and art of the province of Dolna Miziya, as well as the art, typical of the Late Antiquity. We entered through a raised threshold and a small, raised door, to gasp in amazement at the interior of the tomb. The ceiling was completely covered in geometrical forms in different colours, with a flower in the middle, while the walls had human images. They were wholesale portraits of the owner, his wife and servants, dressed in their best, each in a box. The tomb was built for a Roman nobleman of Thracian origin, but it appears he was not buried there – he may have been moved somewhere else with the Roman army.
The Roman tomb was opened to visitors again in 2010 due to the increased interest shown towards the place, but it appears that you can visit the historic place only in September.
In 1388, Druster/Silistra was taken by the Ottoman armies. During the time of the Ottoman rule, the impressive fortress Medzhitabiya was built. We drove in the mild and sunny afternoon to look at it. Initially, it was difficult to enter – it was locked, but we rang the mobile of the owner and he arrived quite quickly.
The vast fortress, 8 meters high, has many inscriptions on its stone walls, made by the soldiers who spent time in it, during the various wars, in many different languages. We were quite moved by the texts of those. Michael was remembering his days in the navy, while reading the wall scribbles.
The proud owner of the building told us that after its completion, the architect of the fortress was hanged and the 300 builders, who built it, were exiled to Turkey, to ensure that the enemy could not learn about its layout.
During the Liberation wars, the first telephone in Bulgaria was used there. Currently, apart from tourism, the fortress is used mainly by the film industry – many Bulgarian and foreign films are shot there.
Those were the only notes from the trip I was able to find. From Silistra, we continued to
Ruse, then Belene, where we slept in an 1* hotel, owned by the 
infamous Atomic Reactor Company.
Next on our itinerary was the Ivanovo Rock Church , were we marvelled on the medieval murals and the amazing position of the Church .
The next stop was Cherven – the seat of the Terter family – again in a very unusual position in the mountains, with many preserved remains.
In Nikopol, where we were taken around by a Turkish dentist and learned a great deal about the history of the place and were able to take in breath-taking views of the Danube from the fortress remains on the top of the hills.
Then we travelled to Pleven, the centre of which enchanted us. The last stop was in Sofia.