Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, and we decided to take a day and go visit it. Our tour guide from the Free Sofia Tour had mentioned it as something worth seeing.

We caught a bus to take us to the main bus station, where we bought tickets. Not as easy as it sounds when all the signs are in letters that make no sense to us.

The ride took 2.5 hours, but the bus was really nice and comfy. The only downside was the driver was smoking and playing the radio system with obnoxious music/talk radio. In Bulgarian, of course!

Once in Plovdiv, we had to figure out how to get from the bus station to the meeting point for the Free Plovdiv Tour. Rich had downloaded a very handy app which told him where to catch the bus, which bus and where to get off it! Very convenient and worked like a charm.

The tour guide, Adi, was a native, but spoke English very well. We had a group of about 20, and for the first time in a while, there were other Americans with us. So nice to hear our language spoken with no accents! :))

We walked around and climbed to the top of one of the hills that the city is built on. It was warm and I was sweating pretty profusely by the time we got to the top. The view was really nice, and a breeze was blowing, which made it very pleasant.

We saw old Roman ruins of an amphitheater and also a stadium--both in pretty good shape all things considered.

Plovdiv reminded me of any other European tourist city, with lots of shops and cafes. They have a nice pedestrian walkway, and we ate lunch there at one of the restaurants after the tour.

The bus ride back to Sofia was long and hot--the seats weren't as spacious as the morning bus, which made it feel even hotter. To make matters worse, the driver was going so slowly that I felt I could jog faster. We eventually made it back, and to be honest--in the same amount of time as this morning, so I guess it was just because I was so hot.

Once back at the bus station, it was raining--but we had brought our umbrellas, so we made it home just fine. Both of us are pooped!