Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Our last days in Bulgaria were spent vising the Valley of the Kings, an old Soviet-era relic, a preserved Ottoman-era village and a church carved out of the cliff face near the Romanian border.

The Valley of the Thracian kings and their 2500-year-old burial tombs in the middle of nowhere, Bulgaria. Who are the Thracians you ask?

The Thracians were kicking it in the area south of the Balkan Mountains around the same time as the Greeks were inventing democracy a few hundred kilometres down the road. The Thracians sided with the Trojans and opposed Greece for centuries.

Anyway, these guys never wrote anything down and thus were largely forgotten footnotes of history, but they did bury their kings in elaborate ways.

The Buzludzha Monument is set high on the mountain top, it was built in 1981 and abandoned in the 90s as it represented the previous communist regime. It's now closed to the public, but a few people have found a way inside to see its beautiful Soviet-era mosaics. Natasha had researched how stalkers got in, who doesn't love a creepy abandoned building adventure? When she saw the small opening into an abyss of darkness she thought better of it.

Next up was the small town of Veliko Tărnovo and another hotel win. A great room with a fantastic view of the town and its cliffhanging homes. Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and is known as the city of the tsars.

The last stop was the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo, a series of caves carved into the cliff face in the 12th and 13th centuries. The 13th-century frescoes including a depiction of the Last Supper were painted about 130 years before Michelangelo painted his masterpiece.

Tomorrow we cross the border and will stock up on Garlic for our safety.