Europe 1987
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan 2018
We were able to change hotels this morning to a 2-star hotel up the road, the Hotel Etur on Ivailo Street. It was a depressing little room, but at least we could afford it. The beds were excessively soft, so Di and Phil chose instead to sleep on the very hard floor. On the positive side, the tall building offered us some great views over the top of the Hotel Veliko Tǔrnovo to the Park Asenovci, which houses the State Art Gallery and Monument to the Assen Dynasty in the sharp meander of the river, and beyond to the old houses on the hills of the town and the Tsarevets Fortress beyond.
After organising the hotel and moving our belongings, we spent the next few hours exploring the streets and taking photos. The weather was very hot, so we had to keep stopping for drinks.
We then drove across to the old Turkish castle, known as the Trapezitsa Fortress, and climbed to the top of it. Quite a bit of restoration work was underway, and the scale of the complex was huge. After exploring the ruins, we returned to the town and did more wandering of the beautiful streets.
We had to wait until 7:00pm to go to a restaurant for dinner. When we were finally able to enter, we found that the menu was extensive but the actual availability of items listed was extremely limited. Nonetheless, we ate fairly well and then returned to our room to begin the lengthy process of getting children to sleep on a hot, sticky night.
Day 23
Veliko Tǔrnovo
Tuesday 4 August 1987
