Plovdiv

Plovdiv tries harder than Sofia to be pleasant to tourists.

There are still ugly houses wedged between clean ones, but the city center tries to hide it and the Old Town, with the ruins of the Roman city it used to be, banished entirely all sign of disrepair.

That said, touring the Roman forum, the Roman Theater and the Roman Stadium, as well as the Old Town, took me all of half a day. Some of the ruins are well-maintained, and the Roman Theater is still used to host plays, but the ruins of the Middle-Age citadel are heavily tagged. The view is still breathtaking, if one ignores the broken bear bottles underfoot.

The Roman forum

The Roman theater

There are many shops (for tourists!) with Bulgarian craft, which seems divided between hand-woven clothes and decorative textiles, straw objects, and potteries. And there is some wood-carving, followed by icon-making. And silver filigreeing jewelery (also I haven't seen any since Sofia).

A bientot pour de nouvelles aventures!