I Didn’t Expect This in Bulgaria: Hidden Gems around Plovdiv
Welcome people. Today I am in Pliff, Bulgaria. Said to be the oldest town of Europe. So, a lot of history over there. And the plan actually is to take a train to another small town where we’re going to take a hike to a beautiful remote castle and a monastery. So, in the city center, it’s literally filled with ruins everywhere. Like, you’re just walking on a big shopping mall street and then out of nowhere, some really ancient uh Roman ruins or something else is popping up like this. uh an old amphitheater that is really crazy and beautiful that you have all these things in the middle of the city. So, and over here you have the popular clothing brand H&M. And even in there at the modern fashion H&M, they have ancient runes. Let’s go check them out for ourselves. There is a whole level underneath the famous clothing brand of ancient Roman ruins. I mean that was quite crazy, right? And over here you have the famous statue of Milo. He said that he was just a very ordinary guy sitting here all the day and waving to the people. And that’s why they build a statue for him when he uh when he passed away. And you need to rub his knees for good luck and then whisper your wish in his ear. So, I just made my way to Milo. Um, I can’t tell you guys uh what it is because it needs to be a secret. And yeah, let’s see if it comes out. Thank you, Milo. I am making my way towards the train station of Plus. But as I am walking, just everywhere where I look, I can see ruins of the long lost past. As you can see, big buildings, highway over there, and then just little remains of the ancient Roman city over here, like just middle of the city, the theater over there. Over there, there are more remains as well. The whole city is just littered with all remains from the ancient city. Okay, I’m arriving at the train station now. I need to find the right and faster transport to Asenovat. But I can’t understand the destination because they have a different letters, different type of writing. So that makes makes it rather hard. Well, let’s try anyway. I got myself a ticket, but I can’t understand a word of it. So, let’s look for which train it is. So, I asked some of the the railway workers line number four is with basic sign language, and they said I should go under somewhere here. Ah, nice. I think I found it. Yeah, it’s like over here. I need to go under. It looks like our train to Asenovrad is arriving. So, we’re finally on the way right now. And I’m at the end of the train. This is where the conductor is sitting, but we’re going the other way. So, so it looks like we’ve arrived in Asenovra. Okay, we finally arrived in Asenovat at the train station over here. I want to go to some beautiful remote castle and a monastery. I’m about to leave the tunnel as now and go into the mountains cuz yeah, the rest of the hike is just going to be through forest. First side quest of the day is a fact. There is a little little very ancient old church uh a little bit from the path. I just saw it in the distance and I decided let’s just go there. Let’s hope it’s open and see how it looks. The side quest didn’t really ended in what I wanted. There was a beautiful very middle evil looking church a little bit down. I want to go there, but instead uh the map and the pages that we do another I think more modern church, but the church just closed anyway. So yeah, I’m going to make my way back down and I’m going to leave the medieval church for what it is so that I still have enough time to explore everything else I want to see. And maybe I’ll do it on the way back. And after walking for just a little bit, I reached another church. I’m not doing a side quest this time, just following the path. But it looks like I uh arrived at another church. Like telling you, man, Bulgaria is literally backed with churches everywhere. But at the same time, they are everywhere. Extremely beautiful churches. Sadly, this one is closed as well. But we do have a really amazing view from here. Yeah, nice views from the city of Asenovat. After leaving a lovely viewpoint of the city and the beautiful but closed church, I walked up the hill for let’s say another hour and then reach this at seemingly looking abandoned place. There is nobody home. It still looks quite beautiful and I think as well they’re going to have an excellent viewpoint over here. Oh yes, they have another beautiful viewpoint over the city and then very very very far in the distance over there where you can see the hills the seven hills you have of this. So this viewpoint we were just over there at the cross is basically just another church but sadly this one is closed as well. After hiking for another 2 hours I arrived at the fortress. I arrived at entrance of the forest. It’s just over there on top of that hill. And let me go buy tickets. So whatever you say Bulgarians, we can say they’re quite north or close sometimes, but actually they are very very friendly. Um I don’t have cash with me. I thought I could pay with card over here. And I couldn’t pay for my ticket. Uh only cash. I have nothing with me. And I wanted a drink as well. So I come there, I take the drink. I say, “Hey, I want to pay.” Not even that much, €4. And it was €1, I think 5 years in total. I couldn’t. And then the ticket officer just say like, “All right, just go. Just go take the drink. You don’t need to pay for the drink.” And you don’t need to pay for a ticket either. So you see they are friendly here. Well, and thank God as well because I walked quite far to get here. Thank you to Bulgaria for letting me enter without cash. And from here on the other side, we can see the beginning of the castle. That’s the castle of what they still remains. And then over here is our ruins. All this used to be castle as well. A big forest with its ruins and that’s the only thing that remains or got restored. Let’s enter the first part of the forest which got restored. Well, here you can see what was left and how they restored it. Let’s go to the crown floor. Well, hope you can see something cuz it’s really dark in here. But also beautiful. They kept it very much in their original state. Let’s go and explore the upper floor. And now let’s go up to the second level. Oh wow. It’s quite beautiful in here on the second level. This probably all used to be full of paintings. You can see little remains of the paintings. So, this used to be completely filled with it. Look at the leftover models, medieval paintings. Some are really gone. Like this one. You can barely see what’s still left. And some a little bit better restored or preserved. Then it was time to leave the beautiful church and start exploring those awesome ruins. This fortress, the Assam fortress, has a big and long history of being conquered, destroyed, and restored again. with the biggest expansion happening in the 13th century by the Bulgarians saw Ian Asen from which the name of this fortress comes as well. We made it to the top of the ruins the Bulgarian flag behind me and here I’m going to go down and go towards the monastery. Literally once again on the path passing what looks to be a little chapel little church. Bulgaria seems to be the land of the chapels. They have crossed the whole countryside with chapels and churches just about everywhere. But once again, it’s closed. I keep being amazed by how small those doors are. Nobody seems to be home once again as well. Just is giving deserted vibes. I continued my way to the beautiful forest and now I had to cross this ancient looking bridge. Okay, after crossing the bridge, I can either go up the mountain or go over here where there’s a big road. I don’t want to walk on the big road, but I saw on the map it’s still about 3 hours walking through the monastery and I will definitely not have the time to go and go back. So, I’m going to try hitchhiking. Stop. Stop for me, please. I made it to the monastery. Thank you. Thanks to some awesome Bulgarians who stopped again for me. So, yeah. Awesome. The hedgehiking went pretty well. I think I was only there for like maybe 10 minutes. Let’s enter the monastery. And what I really love about all the monasteries here in Bulgaria is like they have the water. The water tanks everywhere you can take water. I just took water from there. I refilled my whole bottle. I’m wandering through the beautiful Bachova monastery which is more than a thousand years old. And all the time it has been really beautifully preserved. Let’s go and wander inside a church. the Bachova monastery as part of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and literally translated it means the mother of God monastery. And just look at all those beautiful paintings made for over a thousand years ago and really really well preserved throughout all the time. Just look at all the paintings and then the jewelry and everything around it. It’s really amazing. Gorgeous. Wow, that church part of the monastery we just explored was really gorgeous. I really absolutely loved it. That’s a painting of the monastery with that tower over there and in the chapel over here. Inside the monastery, there’s also another water fountain with drinkable water. And the environment at some places of the monastery is also very very green with a lot of trees around to cool the environment down a little bit. Before leaving this mother of god monastery, the bashkov monastery, I wanted to have a one last view of how beautiful the church in the center of the monastery was. And still the second time I was just asked out by its pure beauty. So that over there in the distance is the beautiful bashkov monastery where I just came from. And then there are some little chapels like usual over here which I just explored. Let’s give you a little view of the inside. Going to go backward side. And now the plan is I saw on the map and the people that gave me the the hedgehike right told me go up there as well. It’s not that far of a hike and there is a beautiful waterfall. So let’s see what this waterfall is about. So, I found the waterfall rather easily. But because it is dry season, there is no water in the waterfall and neither in the river at all. Time to go back. So, because there’s not really much time anymore to go back walking, it’s more than 3 hours. Um, I’m trying the hitchhiking thing again. Let’s hope somebody stops. Once again, I got to drive. I mean, I was first hiking close to the bus station because it seemed like the only place the car could stop, but then nobody stopped there. me because it’s a bus station. I walked a little bit further. Almost got attacked by dog, found another little spot next to a cafe and then the first car just stopped for me. I got my ticket. I was very lucky. The next train is in 15 minutes. So, I’ll be home quite early in Pliff cuz I skipped the 3 hours walk with the hitchhiking. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much to Ian. It was this time. And I’m going to get myself some refreshments um from the train, something to eat, and then that will be it. So, that’s going to be it from this little train session. I’m going to say goodbye to you guys. And I want to thank you very much for watching. I hope you liked it. And if you did, give it a big thumbs up. A big big thumbs up this video. And follow for more. Ciao.
Discover the cultural Hidden Gems of Bulgaria with me!
Join me as I explore Plovdiv, Europe’s oldest and most beautiful historical cities, and uncover Bulgaria’s best-kept secrets beyond the tourist trails.
From ancient Roman ruins and the colorful old town streets to the gorgeous Asen’s fortress and the fabolous extremely well-preserved Bachkovo monastery, as well as the breathtaking nature around.
This trip completely changed how I see Bulgaria!
In this travel vlog, we dive into:
• The most underrated spots in and around Plovdiv, Bulgaria
• Hidden roman ruins in the middle of Plovidv’s city center
• The Asen’s fortress, one of the oldest fortresses of Europe
• The extremely well-preserved and gorgeous Bachkovo monastery with amazing ancient wall paintings all around the monastery
• The extremely beautiful mountains and nature around Plovdiv
• Many many hidden historical small churches in the mountains around Plovdiv
If you’re planning a trip to Bulgaria, or looking for underrated European destinations, or love off-the-beaten-path travel adventure, or ancient history, this video is for you!
Don’t forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe for more travel vlogs around the globe!
Turn on 🔔 Notifications so you never miss an adventure!
#plovdiv #bulgaria #explorebulgaria #travelbulgaria #bulgariatourism #bulgariaadventure #bulgariatravel #bulgarianature #easterneurope #easterneuropetravel #bachkovo #monastery #history #bulgariahistory #europeanhistory #fortress #hiddengems #hiddengem #offthebeatenpath