This morning I got up around 8:45. It was raining and lightning all night. I kept the window open and fell asleep to it. There was no breakfast at our hotel but the group was meeting at 9:30 to go for a walk and grab some breakfast on the go. I had a quick shower in my toilet/shower combo bathroom before we were off!
It looked like it would be a cloudy and possibly rainy day but it ended up clearing very quickly and turning into sunshine. We first stopped at a little pastry shop around the corner from our hotel and I had a giant cheese filled yummy pastry. April had kindly given me a banana earlier as well, so that covered the daily banana need.
From there we walked down to the Main Street and at the end (Dzhumayata Square) there was actually the old ruins of a Roman stadium that was once 240 meters long and 50 meters wide, seating 30,000 people. Unfortunately the main shopping street was built over it, but parts of it can been seen at Dzhumayata Square and at a random section below a shopping mall further down. Next we walked up a cobblestone street hill to the Roman theatre. The theatre was actually only discovered in the late 1970's after a landslide unearthed it. There were awesome views of the city in the distance from the theatre seats. The group actually ended up spending about an hour there walking around and going on stage and up behind the stage. We then got carried away with photos and spent quite a large chunk of time doing a photo shoot. It was fun.
We walked down the street to the fortress next. During our walks between places I noticed a lot of buildings had beautiful engraved-like murals on the sides of them. There were a lot of little shops along the way and the buildings were different from what we had seen so far. They were outward tiered like, if that makes any sense. The old fortress wasn't really a fortress any longer, just the ruins of it. There was a nice breeze up there, and again, more beautiful views of the city. We took our time taking it all in and sat in some rocks and relaxed a bit. It was turning out to be a perfectly paced day.
After that we went and sat at an outdoor coffee shop a few feet away and some had cake and coffee - I just stook with coffee. After our little coffee break, Karen and I broke off to go and retrieve Steve from the hotel. He had been having some tummy issues so he stayed behind in the morning. We walked back to the hotel and checked things out a bit along the way.
Steve was all good to go so we headed down the other side do the Main Street we hadn't explored yet, but there wasn't much down there other than the post office, a fountain (which was quite nice) and a park. We found a little coffee shop down that way and sat and did some blogging/journaling. I had another coffee - a delicious iced frappe - with a piece of delicious hazelnut cake, since the others had made me want cake after I saw them eating it earlier.
When we were done there we decided to go back the other way down the Main Street to check out the stores even further past the stadium ruins as well as find the supermarket. Unfortunately, along the way I started feeling a little off in the stomach department. It kept coming and going but after a bathroom stop I decided it best I go back to the hotel. I grabbed some snacks from the supermarket and headed back. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in my room until it was time to meet for dinner. I snacked on some digestive cookies just to see how things would go and it seemed to be ok.
At 7:30 we met downstairs in the lobby and walked over to the restaurant that was by the bus station. It was a really nice traditional looking place. I had a meat, cheese, and veg kind of plate just to keep it light on the tummy. I ate really slowly for once. The waitress asked us where we were all from because I guess they had flags from some of the countries. She brought over a Canadian and US flag to the table. It was cute.
At 9 there was a traditional dance and song performance that lasted an hour. It was really well done. The dancers looked like they were happy to be dancing and really into it. The girl that sang however, seemed to lack in enthusiasm. The last dance they did was similar to the one I joined in on in Athens where you link arms and take a step and then kick out one foot one way followed by the other foot the other way. It would've been fun to join in on the action, but I just wasn't up for it that night.
We walked back to the hotel a shorter route and then it was off to bed!
Engravings on side of building:
Roman theatre:
The stage is all mine:
Hello up there:
Enjoying the old fortress views:
Flags at restaurant:
Traditional dancers:
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