The picturesque city of Plovdiv, is a wonderful day trip from Sofia, Bulgaria!  Ranked as one of the world’s oldest cities and located just two hours away by bus, you’ll find cobbled streets, art galleries, and beautiful architecture!  You’ll have difficulty trying to book transport ahead of time though.  I went to the Central bus station in Sofia at 7:00am and purchased one way tickets for myself and my tour participant, leaving at 8:00am.  The women working behind the counters at the bus stations are not friendly and at times are rude, but I’m sure it becomes tiresome having to deal with foreigners that don’t speak their language.

We joined a free two hour walking tour upon arrival through Free Plovdiv Tour that supplied us with some of the amazing history of Plovdiv and Bulgaria.  While making our way from the bus station in Plovdiv to the meeting point in front of City Hall I snapped a few photos.

The man in the above photo reminds me of a grumpy “Joker” and didn’t appreciate me sneaking a photo in.

This fountain is really cool!

Their pedestrian only walkway is quite lovely…

I always take photos of fountains!

This statue was erected for a guy nicknamed “Milyo the Crazy”.  He was a bit mentally unstable, but loved making people laugh, and was hard of hearing.  The lovely Jing is posing for me…

Watching the locals relax and gossip…

 Cute young girls in traditional costumes!

A festival was taking place while we were there with lots to see and do…

Children were rock climbing on the side of this building…

Up in the oldest part of Plovdiv, these musicians almost sounded German…

The architecture was fascinating!

The view of the city from “Old Town” is gorgeous!

It was my turn to pose for a silly pic…

In the late afternoon, we walked back to the bus station and purchased return bus tickets for Sofia.  We really enjoyed Plovdiv!