Plovdiv, Bulgaria

We arrived at Plovdiv with our guidebook for this part of the world outdated by several years and without an idea of where to stay exactly since at the time of writing the LP mentioned no hostel options. Still we weren't too concerned because for the past month in Turkey we found the best bet was to show up and look at one or several places until you found the right one for the right price. Despite missing the road to the old town where the budget accommodations are located we did find a tiny hotel (7 rooms total) called Elite Hotel just a few blocks down the street from the pedestrian mall. For 39 leva we found ourselves staying in a comfortable room with private bath and clean surroundings for less than the popular Hiker's Hostel in old town (as we found out from our visit there later it was 20 leva per person and the lobby was a bit grungy looking). FYI: there was a relatively new hostel across the street from Hikers called Plovdiv Guesthouse and from the outside it looked very nice, although admittedly we didn't go inside but it would be worth checking out (link to website: http://www.plovdivguest.com/).
Amazing how much you start to miss certain foods from home after awhile and one thing I had been missing since Malaysia was buttery popcorn! Yes they had popcorn at the theater in Penang but it was always caramel corn, which is great don't get me wrong but it is not the same as a hot bag of buttery, salty popcorn!!! And finally Plovdiv was full of fresh popcorn vendors on the street and at the cinema they sold the buttery version too....yipee. I think I ate 3 bags the first day in Plovdiv.
My other favorite thing about Plovdiv was the beautiful pottery I found at a store called Autograph in old town (if you follow the hill up past the Ethnographic museum until the road splits to the left the store is on the corner). Finally something unique and not mass produced!! Needless to say we purchased a couple fab pieces and I cant wait to display them in our new home...wherever that may be.
Finally, I cant leave Plovdiv without mentioning our night at the Opera performed in the city's Roman amphitheater. We were lucky enough to be in town while the performance of Nabucco was scheduled. In fact, we actually attended the dress rehearsal which was quite interesting to see and it was half the price. Sweet! It was so amazing to see a live performance in the ancient amphitheater and it was the perfect period piece for the setting as well!

In case you are curious, I found this website below that gives the character line up and plot summary of Giuseppe Verdi’s Italian Opera Nabucco: http://italian-opera.suite101.com/article.cfm/nabucco_opera_by_verdi