Greetings world travelers!

Did you know that until 1944, Bulgaria was a kingdom?

In September 1944, under the occupation of the Soviet Army, the country moved to a "People's Republic". An interesting fact is that the king, or the "Tzar" as we say here, is still alive and sound, he spends his time partly in Spain and Bulgaria as well. Another, even more interesting fact is that he was elected to be a Prime Minister of the country a few years ago :)

The place I am going to show you today has been build by his father, the previous king as a residency.

Now-a-days, it is a lovely place at the outskirts of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia and is called "Vrana Park and Museum".

During the weekends, it could become quite overcrowded, despite the rather expensive ticket of 10 BGN (about 5 EUR, at the time of my visit). The ticket, however, includes a guided tour that starts at the round hours.

From our guide I found out that the former king, Simeon II, has donated the bigger part of the residency, the palace, the park and some of the greenhouses to the capital country. He only left for himself a residential part of one of the greenhouses. In that greenhouse we found a pleasant and polite woman who was taking care of the plants and we bought two pots with Aloe Vera from her for the surprisingly good price of 3 EUR each :)

It was good that I visited it on a business day, I had the feeling I have it all to myself :) I suppose that the coldness of the day also aided to that lonesome experience :)

So here is what the visitor sees when they enter the official park entrance:

I really liked what I saw there. I have to admit though, that this walk was both very pleasant and quite disappointing. There were some things that I loved and some that I was quite frustrated with.

Let me start with the good sides :)

The Park

I could spend there the whole day. Even more, why not. The green spots, the huge variety of plants - bushes, trees, flowers, etc. Also the artificial small lakes and hills, the wooden bridges, the decoration, the benches... I can keep going on. Even at the cold day of a cold season I could tell a lot of people took care of it.

The palace itself is also quite beautiful from outside and for a building that has a century on its counts, it looks pretty good.

Some beautiful decorative details as well:

Walking around I noticed this stone engraved plate, informing the reader that "... on 14 June 2017 was the beginning of the reconstruction of the chapel 'Saint Tzar Boris Baptist' destroyed in 1946 and found inside the building of the king palace of Vrana."

Now let me share with you what disappointed me.

First of all, the palace was closed and from what I understood by the guide, there were no real prospects of opening it in the nearby future.

I could definitely tell that the owner, the county does not take good care of this treasure.

Of course, I can always find the beauty in the things people leave behind...

... but hey, why then such an expensive, for the local standard, ticket?

Despite these sad pictures, generally I enjoyed a lot visiting this place. It was definitely a positive experience I really hope that the country puts the right financing and efforts to restore this beautiful place back to its glory.

Ah, I almost forgot to mention that at weekends, there are public transport routes from the capital center. However, you can go there on bike. :)

Then look who is going to safely guard your bicycle while you enjoy the calmness of your walk :)))

I hope you have enjoyed that place along with me!

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