Constantine's Bulgaria: The Natural beats the Brutal at Veliko Tarnovo.

I found it, the beautiful country, Constantine's Thrace, about an hour out of Sophia. This was what I had come to see.  Id be quick and harsh to judge Sofia and consequently Bulgaria. Of course I shouldn't have, something I knew at the time. The Australians and I were going to Velkio Tarnovo, their idea not mine. But it was a good one.

We took the bus I fell asleep,  I awoke in Illisaim, Fields of Gold. I think the flowers were Oil Seed-rape and they stretched on and on for eternity, really as far as you could see. Golden Sun, blue skies and of course I the stunning Australians. Bulgaria is gorgeous.

Bulgaria is poor, it has  poverty in many senses of the word. On the border of East and West, this place has been ravaged by both, it does not have the depth of either and of course,  fiscally the pot is half empty. The only time, they seem to get ahead is when they do it themselves, or when they were under Rome. Everyone got ahead then though. They are in the EU now, the New Rome, and like everyone else in the club, they'll get rich.

On the Bus I saw ploughed fields, but they were ploughed shallow, in England, the fields before seeds are sown the fields are canyons. I saw the reason why, Horse and plough, farming hasn't changed here for centuries, but it looks fertile, Bulgaria could be, and will be a  bread basket for Europe. We passed three men, Step-toe and sons, in a battered cart pulled by an old horse. Of course that quaintness will be lost, good riddance, the sacrifice will be worth it.

Velkio Tarnovo, is in the North of Bulgaria, snaking round steep gorges and through the high relief that the river Yantra river, has carved from the rock. It is a city of magnificent natural beauty, and it is understandable why the the emperors of Bulgaria made this place their capital. We had come to see the ruined castle of the Tsarevets, it took the Ottomans three months to subdue the fortress and us a few hours to wander round, I could easily have spent longer. In its heyday, some seven hundred years ago, the citadel was pinpricked with the domes of twenty churches and the bell towers of four monasterys. I could only find one Church and it wasn't impressive, but if you wanted to see any "Glory of God" you only needed to look around. In Bulgaria, the great Cathedrals are the Canyons and rivers, the mountains and fields it Churches, it could have come from the mouth of Charlamagne.

The stones that are left represent a distinctive Bulgarian architecture, whoever built this place had an aesthetic eye missing from the communist work in Sofia. Now I know I badger on about how bad the communists were (and the really were awful), but I level the same criticism at Fasciesto monstrosities of Rome. They were all a bunch of thugs and they both built buildings with two interests Utiliy and Power and of these Utility was always secondary. You cant get inspired by the projection of Power alone, be it "the will of the people" or the "Superman", that is not enough to do anything of any worth. Neither provide a grand vision except utopia, but one mans utopia is always another's slavery. All of this implies the same Power without Beauty is no better than Fit Wit Wea. That's not me but Virgil, "A way is made by Force" - Brutality, A Hammer to the face rather then a Karate Kick, a heavy weight boxing bout, rather than a fencing match. Building needs finsecces and elegance to work, they have to take the inspiration of the real humanity, not a flawed concept of an unworkable philosophy. The very best like Verasiile, only attempt to adjust the buildings to our place in nature. The Pantheon in Rome, the building is the light of the Occulus, it is how they use the missing that matters. not the concrete Gargantuan fallacy of size. Communism and Fascism ate the soul, and only provided pain to the world. What either built impressed, but only in terror. Like a Bacterium under the microscope under close scrutiny, their constructions revealed themselves; in one, the Ant collective in the other the Ubermanchen, both illicit the same, gut wrenching, shoulder shirking, hair raising, response. "The Horror, The Horror."

The Bus dropped us in a suburb, this was the up and coming Bulgaria all new apartments and flats. It looked ok. The castle was missing we couldn't find it. The Australians asked a Bulgarian chap, he pointed us in the right direction but it was a long walk. We moved on, but he pulled up in a Lada.

"Get in. I will take you".

The Girls looked ambivalent, I was too, but only about the car.
I got in the back and they followed.

"This is good we couldn't have got in without you".
"Ha Ha, he wouldn't have offered without YOU "

Male and Female. The oldest and most complimentary cocktail. This chappie was lovely a real dose of Bulgarian hospitality, and it was enough for me to retract everything I had said about the Stasi like inhabitants of Sofia.

The citadel is tremendous the scenery spectacular. Its as if the city was built in a wild meadow. You have to see and smell it to understand what I mean. In London we conquered nature years ago, but here it looks like the countryside only needs to flex its muscles, to just hunch its canyon shoulders and it could remove all Thrace of man. I was a voyeur of the force of nature.

I sampled Bulgarian Cuisine, it was cheap and delicious. A primary ingredient being an unknown white cheese that was a little like mascapone. I washed it down with a glass of Bulgarian red, which was as pleasant surprise as Bulgaria had become. The Austrialins concurred. We took the bus back to sofia, it was gloomy and muggy.  I had about enough of this so I decided to go to Belgrade.