If I asked you the name of the European city that had been continuously inhabited for the longest period would you say Plovdiv? No, me neither. In fact, I’m ashamed to say that a week ago I hadn’t even heard of Bulgaria’s second city. Plovdiv was a new addition to our itinerary as a result of our V5 Sofia detour. It was right on the route to Istanbul, but in the end it was more than a convenient place to park for the night. 

Plovdiv is a cool, buzzy city that’s small and easy to get around. There are lots of cafes, cocktail bars, and people hanging out on terraces with hookahs, glasses of tea and sweetmeats. There are also Roman ruins all over the place- a stadium, amphitheatre, forum- you name it Plovdiv’s got it. It was European Capital of Culture in 2019, and I can kind of see why it pipped Swansea to the post!

But, sad person that I am, one of the best bits of Plovdiv for me was the campsite. It was called The Motel and Glamping Alliance, which sounds a bit dodgy. Maybe it is a bit dodgy-but it made van life so easy. It was a brand new complex designed for camping, glamping and hotel guests. There were glamping pods, tree houses, pet showers, en-suite bathrooms for tents or vans, a beach, games room, bar, strong Wifi and immaculate laundry facilities all accessed by scanning a QR code. Surely this is cheating?! Aren’t we meant to be suffering for our adventure?

Our next stop is Istanbul. I made good use of the WiFI, Googling Midnight Express and scare stories about the Turkish border. A frightening number of travellers had to take every single thing out of their car/ van to be individually passed through the X-ray machine. That’s A LOT of boxes, bags and packing cubes. I hope the border guards are impressed by the level of colour-co-ordination!