Soon after moving to Bulgaria we set out to explore the country and our first stop was Plovdiv Old Town. We were lucky enough to stay at a great hostel with creaky floorboards and Roman ruins in the dining room. And we met other travelers who were happy to share their recent experiences and show their photos. The hotel owner had suggested some tombs and museums for us to visit, but these travelers had something far more interesting. They had stumbled upon an old abandoned relic from early communism that resembled a UFO both inside and out.
We just had to see it for ourselves, even though the directions were a little sketchy. It had recently snowed and the road up the mountain was covered in drifts. We put the car into 4 wheel drive and continued up. The place was closed up, locked and definitely not open to visitors. We walked all around looking for a way in and enjoying the view. Finally finding a broken window that was low enough, we scrambled through. The missing roof tiles and the snow combined to make the place look other-worldly. What a find... even if we did have to break in.
On our recent visit to Corfu we were driving around the north end of the island when we saw a sign to "Old Peritheia" and decided on a whim to check it out. It turned out to be an excellent choice and we thoroughly enjoyed the drive up the mountain side and stopped to sample the local wine in the old village. Another traveler asked us if we had visited the cave yet. "Oh, you must go! It's like entering the underworld," was the way he described it. How could we pass this up?
Again the directions were sketchy and we were surprised to find a path at the end of the track that said NO BIKES. We headed down through the trees into a hidden ravine.
The cave opened up at the bottom like a large mouth ready to swallow us. The birds were nesting in the rock walls, and the whole place was lush with trees, creepers and flowers. It wasn't the biggest cave and not very deep, but we felt like we had found something unexpected! By following the overgrown path at the end of the road, we had entered another world far from the Greek island of Corfu.
So when another traveler excitedly tells you of that unexpected place he just found, get directions and follow them.
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