A road trip around rural Bulgaria - from Sofia to a ghost village near the Turkish border

Road trips give the opportunity to be spontaneous. You don't need detailed plan, just desire to explore, a car, some money, no expectations and always great things happen. Some time ago I watched a great bulgarian movie - Mila from Mars. The film is set in a bulgarian almost abandoned village near the Turkish border - Matochina (means melissa/lemon balm). This movie is one of my favorites bulgarian movies so to take a walk around this village, and to see the places from the movie seemed like a nice thing to do :). Just 2 solitary people prevent the border village of Matochina from being declared a ghost zone. Actually we met one of them, and he was surprised to see tourists. Even though there is an interesting place near Matochina. On a nearby hill overlooking the village are the ruins of the Medieval fortress of Bukelon.

The Bukelon fortress which is the best preserved fortress from the Late Middle Ages within the current territory of Bulgaria . In 1968 it was declared a cultural monument of national importance. We had two free days so we were just exploring, roaming around rural Bulgaria, stopping by some places that looked interesting and enjoying almost aimless traveling, looking around and taking pictures, which I will share with you now.

Foggy Rhodope mountains

The next photos are taken around the remains of a fortress - Momchilova fortress. It lies near Gradat Village, Smolyan Municipality.
It was built during the reign of Emperor Justinian - the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565, but destroyed and reconstructed around 11th century, than at the end of the 14th century it was burnt down again and was never reconstructed.
There was a lot of fog.. It is called..february

Dam wall.

Светулка means Firefly. Isn't that a cool name?

The devil's bridge - this is an ancient arch bridge over the Arda river. International long-distance hiking trail Sultans Trail passes the bridge. The Sultans Trail is a long-distance footpath from Vienna to Istanbul. It is 2,200 kilometres (1,400 mi) long. The path passes through Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, East Macedonia and Thrace in northern Greece, and Turkey.

And the final destination - the ghost village Matochina with its Bukelon Fortress. In 1965 there were 800 people living in Matochina. And now - 2.

Thanks for reading!