Shumen, Bulgaria

Shumen…not the city everyone thinks of when they hear Bulgaria, but it’s what I think of. My mom is originally from Bulgaria and Shumen is her hometown. I’ve visited Shumen many times over the years and it’s always filled with shopping, family, and food! Firstly, to get to Bulgaria there is about an 8-hour flight from the United States to somewhere else in Europe. On my trips we normally go through Frankfurt, but we have also gone through London. Then we fly to Sofia, which is the capital of Bulgaria, from there we fly to Varna, and then we have a 45 minute drive to Shumen. After that exhausting and long journey we normally just spend that day settling in and hanging out with my uncle, aunt, cousins, and grandparents.

 I went just recently to Shumen and on our first day there we ended up spending it at my grandparents apartment! We hung around and ate food…lots of food. My grandma always cooks so much food for us when we are there including the traditional Bulgarian kebapche and kyufte. Kebapche is a meat kabob made out of pork sausage and ground beef, and kebapche is like a meatball. There is also a special dipping sauce that they are normally served with called lyutenica, which is a roasted vegetable and tomato spread. It is often eaten with bread as well. After lunch, we took my grandparents crazy dog out for a walk. She is so full of energy and can jump surprisingly high for such a small little thing. The next day we ended up walking around downtown and going shopping! One thing we always do whenever we visit is go shopping and it’s always so much fun! They have different clothes there that are hard to come by in the United States! After shopping, it started getting late so we headed back to my uncle and aunt's apartment and spent the rest of the evening playing games with the family! While visiting Shumen we decided to hike up to the 1300 Years of Bulgaria. You can climb up to it and we started, but then it started raining and we couldn't finish our climb.

The 1300 Years of Bulgaria Monument

On our final day in Shumen we ended up meeting up with a bunch of my 2nd cousins and aunts! We had lunch at this little cafe and then we went on the bumper cars for a bit! Afterwards, we played in this park that I always used to play in when I was little and I pushed my baby cousin on the swing! It was my first time meeting her and she’s so cute! The following day we went on our flight to Sofia where we spent the night in the city and the next day it was back to Frankfurt and then on our 8-hour flight to the U.S. Bulgaria holds such good memories from over the years and Shumen is definitely the center of it all!