Our first task was to find another dentist to continue the dental work on John's teeth. Tara had an address in her guide book so we hunted it out. The student owners had no idea how to find us a dentist!
We found the dentist across town and walked in through the glass doors from the street straight into the surgery where the dentist was working on someones teeth! We talked to another dentist to make sure that the dentist would use rubber gloves and had the gear autoclaved.
The young dentist who worked on John spoke fluent German and only a little English but we managed to work out what was happening. Once she had drilled out the temporary filling the first dentist had put in she realized that John needed 2 root canals and didn't have the equipment to help him. Part way through the treatment her water pump stopped working as did her airline. She shrugged her shoulders and said "Bulgaria" in resignation. The equipment was from the Soviet days and pretty old and rusty. However, she gave us a contact in Sofia and suggested we look him up to do the root canals. By now John had no pain so he was happy to do that.
We headed off to visit the old town, it used to be called Philippopolis by the Romans in the 3rd century AD but it had been settled thousands of years earlier by the Thracians.
Saw the ruins of the Theatre of Ancient Philippopolis and workers were busy setting up for a concert there. While we were there we met a small group of Koreans dressed in traditional costume. They were on a youth exchange programme for their government in South Korea. I asked this young lady if she was hot and she said "Yes, but I have no choice, I must show the Bulgarian people our beautiful dress."
She also wanted to go to New Zealand one day soon.
Part way up the hill of the old town are Revival-era (1900s) houses of local poets, writers or other important people. The wooden shuttered houses were beautifully painted and restored inside.
Plovdiv is a popular place for foreigners to come to learn the language, folk songs, and dances of Bulgaria. We had met Kirsti (English but working in Berlin)and Peter (English and studying at Oxford) at Veliko Tarnovo and they were spending a month studying the language in Plovdiv. We contacted them and along with Tara and Jana we met at a local restaurant for some typical Bulgarian fare.
John ordered a chicken kebab that come propped up on a frame attached to his wooden plate. The waiter unloaded the kebab and chatted to us about wanting to go to New Zealand. The food at the outdoor place was really tasty so we ate there at night and were nearly the last to leave at 1 am!
We have arranged to catch up with Tara and Jana in Brighton and do some walking with them and if Kirsti is still in Berlin we may catch up with her again too. Of course we will want to know if Jana's love potions that she bought from the herbalist are working!
