The Ugly Side of Europe’s Oldest City | Plovdiv, Bulgaria 🇧🇬

Welcome to Part 13 of my Lost in Europe Series.
Plovdiv, Bulgaria is THE oldest city in Europe, even older than the likes of Rome and Athens. In this video, we'll begin at the train station and walk through the streets of this ancient city. I begin the walk through pretty rundown streets, and even explore a couple of abandoned buildings. Later in the video we finally find some of the absolute gems that Plovdiv has to offer, the Plovdiv Roman Stadium of Philippopolis and Plovdiv Roman Ancient Theatre of Philippopolis. I was also lucky enough to be in Plovdiv during their annual folk festival!
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As always, a huge thanks to Scott Buckley for his incredible compositions, used in this video:
/ scottbuckley
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If you enjoyed this video, you'll love my other city vlogs across Europe:
Brasov, Romania:
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Newcastle upon Tyne, England:
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Madrid, Spain:
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Wroclaw, Poland:
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Gdańsk, Poland:
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Riga, Latvia (summer):
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Riga, Latvia (winter):
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Tallinn, Estonia:
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Prague, Czech Republic:
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[@fjorddenierbear4832]

The Bulgarians are extremely good at certain things. In general, the craftsmanship is not bad. It's not superprecise, but it's good enough. Enter a new building and study the details. The concepts are good, implementation so-so, but good enough. The building won't burn down tomorrow due to an electrical error. So, it's good enough. Then on the other hand, you have the absolute clusterfuck of a warzone near the train station, LOL. I wish they would just finish it. I hate that area now! It was kinda nice last year before they started, now it's a nightmare trying to survive traffic. I also hope they start demolishing the admittedly charming industrial buildings just north of the train station. Lots of dilapidated, abandoned buildings in that area. Not sure what they ought to make there, but perhaps hotels, residential, commercial would be a good idea. Unfortunately things move really slowly here, but at least the slow pace gives Plovdiv's residents something to look forward to. I live here, so I am a kind of resident (i.e. "person living here"), although I am not Bulgarian at all.

[@fjorddenierbear4832]

Lol, you are definitely in the worst area of central Plovdiv :) North of train station is just a dump, but the train station per se is kinda cozy, although confusing.

[@limazulu6660]

As if the outskirts of Birmingham or Paris are "better" 😂 Go to the outskirts of Mataró in Spain. At least it looks rough but way much safer.

[@BenRobson123]

I never said they would be. But yes I agree Bulgaria did seem very safe

[@maciekwr]

Are you planning any more videos from Poland? 😊

[@BenRobson123]

I’m sure I’ll visit again one day!

[@Thepokedek]

Im soooo glad you showed the ridiculous situation with the roads. They started this "renovation" before c()\/id and stilllll to this day they look like this, this has been over 8 years. Crazy.

[@BenRobson123]

Usually I get abuse for being honest 😆 but I just tried to show a true reflection of my experience :)

[@sorinpopa1442]

I guess now Bucharest must be growing more into ur eyes after u visited this city ^^ Really think u didnt gave it enough time to visit Bucharest ,Think u skip the old town also , and the Village Museum + some other very important places ! Anyway Bucharest its way bigger then this city its like 3X the size of this city .

[@BenRobson123]

Yeah I think I didn’t quite have enough time / the energy to properly explore Bucharest. Although I did appreciate Plovdiv much more after seeing the Ancient Theatre and Old Town

[@christianbelev5294]

Maybe read a little bit of history before you comment on things. Especially about these abandoned buildings that are historical monuments and are in these conditions because of political issues happening in the last few years. In regards to all comments about how grey the buildings are pavements, etc. what do you expect from an ex-Soviet country in Eastern Europe 😀? Anyway, maybe if you read a bit more next time you won't compare two completely different cities like Bucharest and Plovdiv even though there are some things in common. Take care and good luck. :) 😉

[@scottmcmurray3233]

Ben the kitty magnet 😂😂😂

[@BenRobson123]

Hey I wish mate 🤣

[@scottmcmurray3233]

@@BenRobson123 I'm saying nothing 🤣

[@mmmnahfam]

You definitely seem to have a grudge against Bulgaria... how you even find these places is beyond me

[@BenRobson123]

Massive grudge, only reason I went

[@fjorddenierbear4832]

​@@BenRobson123 You cultivate hatred of Bulgaria. Because they have delicious cheese inside bread. I get it. The trick though, let me tell you, is that you can have it too. Yes, you can have your banitsa and eat it, there is no point in cultivating hatred. (J/K from start to end.) Plovdiv is 90 % good and frankly it's cuz of the weather - it's great. The 10% bad would be variable service, the occasional water outage or power outage. (More frequent than in Norway, but in general I have not found it to be a problem. Anyway, this is a 2nd world country and the expectations should be at that level, considering its still growing economy, etc.)