Weekend in Plovdiv – Bulgarian cultural capital
Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria, which has ancient architectural monuments and interesting street art. And the city is already preparing for 2019, because Plovdiv will be the European Capital of Culture in 2019. Here we first learned about the existence of such a program in the EU. Every year since 1984, one or more cities from different countries are elected to be the cultural capital – and everything in order to attract tourists and open it to businessmen. Dwellers of the cultural capital need to organize and arrange festivals, holidays, and many more to entertain guests and show the city best sides, including infrastructure. This is a superb idea, one of the founders of which was Greece, and Athens was the first such European Capital.
Like every city which was touched by Soviet and Lenin style, Plovdiv’s outskirts are such. We tried to live in such a high-riser in the like quarter for the first time in our lives and … there is no need in commenting on the impressions 🙂
This is closer to the city center. By the way, parking is paid everywhere in the city center. Almost everywhere you need to pay via mobile phone. The scheme is as follows: you need to send a message stating the car number to the 4-digit phone number, and an hour-payment will be withdrawn. 10 minutes to the end of the paid time you will receive text message reminding either to take the car out or to pay for the next hour. And you need to look what is the maximum duration you can park the car: there are zones, where parking is allowed for no more than 3 hours, or even for an hour. Do you want to violate? You are welcome but then an officer will come checking in the database whether parking is paid for the car – and if not – you will get a fine written out. Or even worse — they will lock a wheel. We have seen such locked wheels.
We started our familiarity with the old part of the city from Plovdiv’s pride– Ancient Theatre.
This theater is cherished as the apple of the eye – parts are restored, grass is cut, refreshed, flooring boards are replaced…
Admission fee is 5 levs.
Concerts and performances are held up here. In festive evenings all the seats are occupied – it’s a cool great place for hanging out. Illumination, sound, and soft seats are arranged here (green heap in the center of the photo).
On the way to the Ancient Theater there is also ancient architecture and cobblestone.
Colorful houses with dark wooden windows.
Everywhere you can see the banners, signs, and flags: Plovdiv together 2019. As though 2019 has come here and, seemingly, everything is ready for the tourists’ arrival. There is a fine city map, infocentres work, everything is clean and tidy. We saw a group of Koreans here –it certainly can be considered to be the achievement – in our personal standards (because we meet Koreans only in popular tourist destinations).
Encountering the like youth street art you feel the presence of young people in the city, but knowing the fact that almost all youth left Bulgaria in search of financial happiness – you are just marveling.
There are still people in Plovdiv who develop the city. They arrange festivals, holidays, make the town interesting.
We came across an interesting coffee shop: KOTKA I МИШКА (CAT and MOUSE). We liked it immediately and made coffee brake after the morning town visiting.
Good atmosphere. A young English-speaking barman, maybe the owner.
This coffee shop and millions of bright flags adorn the city.
Here is the first arranged festival in Plovdiv. It is a pity we have come for a walk the day after it finished. And the program was fine and interesting.
Another pride in Plovdiv is the ancient stadium, which is now at lower level than newer buildings. To be more precise, it is under the central pedestrian street. Only a small piece of this very long stadium is now seen.
And this is the main pedestrian street of Plovdiv. In general, a sort of Ukrainian cities, like Stryi and Ivano-Frankivsk.
DO THE RIGHT MIX is another project with a pretty name and logo, set up together with the European Union. Bulgarian language is almost understandable for Ukrainian people, so you can read on banners.
Завжди круто виглядають великі букви з назвою міста. Ще б місце краще підбирали на фон, але молодці 🙂 
Big letters of the city name always look cool. They would better select more suitable place for the background, but … well done 🙂
This was the best place of interest for us )) and street art, which is on the street on the top of these stairs. A guardian is on duty near these colorful letters.
Here is a giant street art.
Nice, colorful, spacious, but something is missing.
If you find a parking lot with a parking officer to pay to, and not via cell phone, then you will get a gift card with Plovdiv’s photo and date of visit 🙂 So, fortunately, for such as we are – without local SIM cards – there are also usual parking places, where the officer has the cards and a puncher.
And we will remember Plovdiv by very cool supermarket with the slogan: “Vsychka for sport. Sport for vsychka”, where there is everything for various sports hobbies. Not only the supermarket but also the areas for testing, and if it is not enough, you can also ride in the parking area with the perfectly smooth surface.
With love, RH.
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