Life Is A Highway

We make great victory! We now make driving of car that to us belongs!

After a month and a half of taxis and rental cars, we've finally become automobile owners. What a relief-- we can now have exciting adventures like going to the grocery store whenever we want. Seriouslythough-- that is a big deal. No sooner than we received our keys to our not-exactly-new Volkswagen Golf station wagon we set off for a small adventure.

Jaime and I perused the guidebook and our map of Bulgaria and decided to set off on the highway (and I use that term very loosely) to Koprivshtitsa. The town is about 100km (60 miles) from Sofia. On Bulgarian roads, that is nearly a two hour drive. Now, if you are a math aficionado, you may say "Excuse me sir, but does that mean you would be driving approximately 3o mph?". I would reply "You are correct good man!"

The road to Koprivshtitsa started off very promising-- smooth and fast. Before long though, the potholes or dupkas appeared. The road (not a

highway by this point) began to climb into the Stara Planina, or Balkan Range (which looks a lot like Southern Oregon). The higher and deeper the road climbed into the mountains the quicker the quality of the road deteriorated. For much of the ride through the mountains the road looked a lot like a deserted and poorly paved Forest Service road (that's a reference that might relate to my fellow Oregonians). Just as I began to wonder if I was on the right route, we began to descend through a series of small villages.

There we came across several overload horse-drawn carts

carrying everything from hay to potatoes and large families. Before too long though we arrived in Koprivshtitsa.

The town itself is basically a musuem town that is highly typical of 19th century Bulgarian National Revival architecture. It is also famed as the place where the first shots of the Bulgarian resistance to the Ottoman Turks was fired. It's kind of like the Concord and Lexington of Bulgaria. Once in town we dined at a very delicious and colorful Bulgarian restaurant and then set out to explore.

The town was beautiful and rich in National Revival architecture-- which was rich in color and detail. After exploring several house museum and some craft shops we ate dinner and then took the trek back to Sofia (making sure to leave in enough time to complete the drive before nightfall).

It was a day well spent.