Our first impression of Bulgaria was of disappointing
Sofia. Our last will be the
wonderful town of Veliko Tarnovo.
We followed signs for the Comfort Hotel, 200 meters at a time, into the
narrow, twisting, cobbled streets of the old town, where we found a small,
clean and charming pine-paneled lodge with all the amenities. And Venita and Tony even offered to
wash our laundry.
From
1185 until 1393, Veliko (Grand) Tarnovo was known as Tarnovograd when in was
the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The first Bulgarian constitution was written here when
Veliko Tarnovo was briefly the capital again after the liberation from the
Ottomans in 1877. Today tourists
come for the national revival architecture of the old town and to visit the
walled fortress of Tsaresvets.
