The main attraction of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria is Tsarevets Fortress. I had specifically picked my hotel for the balcony view overlooking it.
I saved visiting the fortress until my last day, when I had several hours to kill before heading to Istanbul.
Today I woke up in Sofia, Bulgaria and attempted to go to the bus station. At first I could not find the tram station. Then I got on a tram going in the wrong direction . Of course I did. I finally got to the bus stop, bought a ticket and I was on my way.
Before arriving, I was all kinds of confused about the bus station in Veliko Tarnovo. It appears there are two bus stations, the South bus station (Yug) and the West bus station (Zapad). I was never sure which bus station I would be getting out at prior to getting there. When we arrived in Veliko Tarnovo, I wasn’t even sure we were in Veliko Tarnovo since there were no signs.
It turned out that my bus didn’t drop us off at either bus station. Instead, we were dropped off at Hotel Etar, which is used as a bus stop for only one bus company (Etap.) I didn’t even know this stop existed at all. Note, this is way more of a convenient stop than either bus station.
At the time I got off the bus, I was so confused about where the hell we were since nothing matched the map I had. Rather than deal with it, I took a cab to my hotel. It cost me $4 BG which is about $3 US. The driver even tried to give me change from a $5.