While we have a Schengen visa, we want to go to European countries where we can travel as much as we can, at affordable prices. A few months ago we went to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. When we went to Sofia, everyone suggested the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv to us. The city, which was an old Ottoman city and was then called Plovdiv, is also the old capital. Plovdiv is one of the oldest city settlements in the world. Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires had an impact on the city. It is now preparing to become the 2019 European Capital of Culture. We set off for a weekend by bus to Plovdiv. You will find my Plovdiv travel notes, places to visit, accommodation, transportation and food suggestions in this article under the following headings.
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What You Will Find In This Article
Things to See in Bulgaria, Plovdiv (Plovdiv)
Plovdiv, the most beautiful and old city of Bulgaria, offers many options for places to visit. We turned Plovdiv upside down for about 1,5 days. Almost all of the places to visit in Plovdiv are within walking distance, so it is a very easy city to visit.
Central Square
We started our tour from Central Square, that is, the Main Square. You can see ancient ruins in the Odeon, located to the north of the square. Since we went before March 1, there were many colorful stalls with souvenirs sold for the spring festival in the square. At special times, the colorful and active states of European cities are very enjoyable. Plovdiv Town Hall is also located in this square.
Continuing south-west from the square Ivan Vazov street is located. This street is also decorated with big trees and beautiful buildings, the end of the road leads to the train station and bus station.
Tsar Simeon's Park
This park, which is the largest park in the city, is very well maintained. It includes sculptures, swimming pools, benches to relax and walking paths. I'm sure it's much nicer in spring and summer. There is also a pond with singing fountains in the south-west of the park, but it was not open in the cold of winter 🙂
Knyaz Aleksandar I Street
Knyaz Aleksandar street is a long shopping street closed to traffic like Istiklal Street. It starts from the Central Square and continues to the Roman Stadium. Both this street and the old houses in the side streets that cut this street have been restored. You can find many restaurants and cafes in the side streets.
Murals
As you walk north on Kynaz Aleksandar street, you will see a street with a “Together” sign on your left, followed by stairs. First of all, this Together logo is the slogan of Plovdiv's 2019 Capital of Culture. A colorful logo that you will see in many parts of the city. In the process of becoming the Capital of Culture, there is a serious renewal and renovation in the city. When you climb the first stairs before going up to the Clock Tower, many murals on the Nayden Gerov street adorn the walls of the buildings. I recommend you to walk this place from beginning to end.
Clock Tower – Danov Hill
You can easily climb towards the Clock Tower with the stairs going up from Nayden Gerov street. The clock tower here is from the Ottoman times, and there is an Ottoman inscription above its door. When you climb the hill, the view of the Old City will be in front of your eyes. It wouldn't be bad if there was a tea garden here 🙂
Rome Stadium
The Roman Stadium is under the city today. A limited part of it has been brought to the ground, in fact, a large part of Kynaz Aleksandar street is built on the stadium. The stadium, which is estimated to be 240 meters long, was built at the beginning of the 2nd century and was designed so that 30 people could watch the show together.
Friday Mosque
Just across the stadium is the Cuma Mosque from the Ottoman period. This is the largest of the few mosques in the city. The mosque, also known as Hüdavendigar Mosque, was built in the city center during the reign of Murat I. There is also a Turkish cafe under the mosque. You can find everything from künefe to Turkish coffee.
Rayko Daskalov Street and Kapana District
The name of the pedestrian street descending from Cuma Mosque towards the Meriç River is Rayko Daskalov. This street, like Kynez Aleksandar Street, is closed to traffic, a lively street with shopping stores and cafe restaurants on both sides. The area to the east of the street is called Kapana (Turkish Kapan). We can call this place the Karaköy of Plovdiv. With design shops, concept cafes and bars, colorful streets, you can enter and sit in every place.
When you continue straight north from Rayko Daskalov, you reach the Meriç river. There are walking paths along the river and a bridge with shops on it, which is also closed to traffic. If you have been to Florence, you can imagine it like Ponte Vecchio Bridge, but it is not very interesting because it is modern. On the left of the road, you can see the archeology museum and the history museum. We said we'd go in if we had time, but we didn't have time.
Old town
After touring the side streets of Kapana District and taking a beer break for lunch, we started to explore the Old City. This area is the best restored and most touristic area of the city. Vehicles other than taxis, employees and residents are not allowed to enter this area, I wish such a protection could be made in every city.
Beautiful buildings, art galleries and streets await you in the old town. I'll list some of them here, but it's best for you to go and explore.
- Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts
- City Art Gallery (City Art Gallery)
- Hippocrates' Pharmacy Museum (Pharmacy Museum Hippocrates)
- Icon Museum
- Ethnography Museum: Entrance is 6 leva, but if you want to take photos inside, you have to pay 6 levs more.
- Balabanov House: It was closed for restoration at the time we went.
- Hindustan House
- Hisar Door: I think this is one of the most beautiful places in the city. Together with the Nedkovich house next to it, they look beautiful. I highly recommend seeing it at night.
- Nedkovich House
- Klianti House
- Lamartine House
- Ancient theater: The most important symbol of the old city is the Ancient Theatre. The theater, which was built during the Roman Empire, is still in active use today. With a capacity of 3500 people, it hosts concerts in the summer months. This is one of the places I would recommend you to see both day and night.
- Mevlevihane: There is also an Ottoman Mevlevi Lodge in the Old City. However, it is currently operated as a restaurant. You can find it on Knyaz Tseretelev Street.
Most of the places in the old city area have an entrance fee and vary between 5-6 levs. You can visit 3 of the 5D shows from the Ancient Theatre, Balabanov House, Hindlyan House, Nedkovich House, Zlatyu Boyadzhiev Gallery, Hippocrates Museum, Stambolyan House, Basalika, Roman Stadium by purchasing a combined ticket for 15 leva. You can get your combined ticket from museum entrances or tourism offices.
Nobet Tepe
The name of the hill where you can see part of the Plovdiv Old City walls is Nöbet Tepe. You can still watch a city view from the hill you can reach with a short walk in the Old City, but I liked the view from the hill where the Clock Tower is located.
Little Basilica
Located outside the Old City, this basilica has undergone a major restoration and was closed with a church-shaped building for protection. You can visit this place by giving 5 Leva. 5-6. It came to the forefront with the mosaics on the floor of the basilica, which is estimated to have been built in the XNUMXth century. But after seeing the Zeugma and Hatay Museums, the mosaics here remain very simple.
When you move towards the Central Square from the Small Basilica, there is another basilica that is still being excavated under the ground. Next to it is the Catholic Cathedral.
What we don't see is on our list of places to visit in Plovdiv. Alyosha Monument left. It is a Bulgarian monument on another hill.
What is Martenichka?
On March 1, Bulgaria celebrates Baba Marta, or March Nine Day. March Nine is believed to end the cold and bring spring. With this holiday, Bulgarians wear bracelets made of red and white colors and these bracelets are called martenichka. You wear these bracelets with the March Granny Day, waiting to be tied to the first blooming tree you see. Of course, you also make a wish while tying it to a tree. There is a tree in Nöbet Tepe, the branches of that tree are full of martenichkas.
There are different practices for Martenichkas, some wear bracelets when they see a stork. Before the arrival of March 1, various kinds of marteniçka are sold in many squares and souvenir shops of the city. In fact, if you make the bracelet yourself, it is more appreciated.
Istanbul – Plovdiv Transportation Options
We preferred the bus to go from Istanbul to Plovdiv. We chose the bus because it is faster than the train, has more time options and is cheaper.
While we were supposed to depart from Istanbul Esenler bus station at 23:00, the bus departed at 23:20 and we set off. The distance between Esenler Kapikule border gate is approximately 2,5 hours. When you come to the border, you first get off at Kapıkule in Turkey and go through passport control, you get off the bus with all your bags, and at the same time, customs control is done. Customs officers also control the bus. Then the same check is repeated once again when we cross to the Bulgarian side. Since we went in low season, we crossed the border without waiting too long. However, during busy periods, border crossings can take a very long time.
We reached Plovdiv at 05:00 in the morning with metro tourism. It was written on the website of the bus company that it would reach Plovdiv at 06:30 in the morning, and when we crossed the border quickly, we reached Plovdiv earlier than planned. The bus drops you off on the street in front of the bus station. You can take a taxi from the bus stop. However, you must have called a taxi. You can go to the bus station and ask for help. Or you can ask a taxi driver like us to pick you up. Taxi to the hotel in the old city center cost 4,5 leva and about 2 euro.
You can choose the following companies to go to Bulgaria by bus. We preferred the Metro even though it was more expensive because of its internet sales and wide seats.
Istanbul – Plovdiv Bus Companies
Alpar Tourism
Alpar Tourism departs from Istanbul to Plovdiv every evening at 20:30 and arrives in Plovdiv at 03:30 at night. Round trip 130TL.
It is not sold online, you need to make a reservation by contacting Alpar Turizm on 0 212 632 65 18 by phone.
Metro Tourism
There are flights from Istanbul to Plovdiv every evening at 20:30 and 23:00, we preferred the one that departs at 23:00.
There are flights from Plovdiv at 00:45, 11:00, 14:00, 19:00 and 22:30. We preferred the 14:00 bus to return to Istanbul early in the evening. It is quite expensive compared to Alpar, with a price of 86 TL for departure and 90 TL for return, ie 176 TL in total. Comfortable seats also influenced our selection criteria.
Getting to Plovdiv by train
Another option is to go to Plovdiv by train. Istanbul – Sofia train also passes through Plovdiv, so you can use the same train. Click for details about Istanbul – Sofia train.
Plovdiv Accommodation
If you are going to the city early in the morning like us, it would be better to inform your accommodation (early check-in). Since our room was available, we slept until 09:00 when we arrived at the hotel. Thus, we relieved the tiredness of the road a little. The hotel we stayed Plovdiv Corner Guesthouse It was a charming old Bulgarian house converted into a hotel in the old city, very close to the Ancient Theatre. His employee, Alex, did not receive an early check-in charge from us.
Cheap Accommodation Options in the Old Town
Below are the hotels that caught my attention and the hotels we stayed at:
You can search for the suitable hotel for your stay on Booking.com.
Breakfast in Plovdiv
- In Bulgaria, ayran is drunk with pastry for breakfast. But those pastries buffet It is taken from the style places and snacked on foot. And they were drinking coffee. Other than that, there is no breakfast culture like ours. There are coffee machines in the streets in many places and you see people with paper cups in their hands.
- We also had breakfast overlooking Central Square. raffyWe found . Although it says gelato, you can find options such as pastry, omelette, English breakfast. You can have your breakfast for 10-15 TL, and it is a very nice place. Also local pastries banicha You can eat. Quite delicious and satisfying, ginam ginam 🙂
- Apart from the local buffets for breakfast, we also prefer Happy There is, but it did not suit us because they opened at 11:00 in the morning.
- Also serving Turkish breakfast Turkish restaurants there is. However, we eat Turkish food as the last choice in the places we go, after all, one of the reasons we travel is to learn about the food culture of the place when we go.
Weekend Plovdiv Trip Cost
Our trip to Plovdiv cost 105 euros per person, all inclusive. You can see the distribution of 105 euros below:
- 38 euro bus (round trip)
- 18 euro hotel
- 4 euro museum admissions
- 2 euro taxi
- 38 euros for 1 breakfast, 2 lunches, 1 dinner (30 euros for dinner) and drinks.
I am writing in Euro because when I write TL, the prices change after 6 months due to the exchange rate difference.
It is worth coming and changing your world for 2 days…
1 Comment
Apparently, it was a nice trip, as far as I can see, the Plovdiv wall was my favorite. It's nice to read such content when we can't visit.