Today has been an interesting day. We woke up to rain, and it has continued to rain all day. We decided to head into the Balkan Mountains to check out an area called the Rose Valley. One of Bulgarias major agricultural products is rose oil which is used in cosmetics and perfumes and this area is the center of production for the roses.
When I punched the campground into Greta Garmin it was only about 120 kilometers so today was going to be an easy drive. Since we had time and the weather was pretty dreary we decided to stock up the refrigerator before leaving Plovdiv. We joined rush hour traffic into town to go to a grocery we had seen the last couple of days from the bus and were there in a few minutes.
Having stocked up our pantry we set out for the Rose Valley. The drive was uneventful but slow as we were on 2 lane roads the whole way. The quality was pretty good, but there was a fair amount of traffic so progress was slow but steady. It rained all of the way and as we climbed up into the Balkan Mountains the temperature started to drop into the low 50’s. We arrived at the campground around noon and were startled by what we found.
We pulled into a nearly new very posh looking campground, but there was no sign of life at all. There was one trailer on site but it looked like it was in storage. Ton and I wondered if it was open, when we saw a head pop out of one of the buildings. It was open but we are the only customers. All of the buildings are nearly new and there are spots for 100 campers. It is a little lonely, but the showers are clean and the free internet is lightning fast so we are enjoying our solitude.
Our other interesting experience was at the Damascena Ethnographic Center. Next to the campground was this very impressive looking building. As we walked up there was a parking lot that would hold a couple of hundred cars and places for 8 to 10 tour busses to park. The parking lot was completely empty so once again we wondered if it was open, it was and we were the only customers.
The region we are in was the center of ancient Thrace so the complex we were in was advertised as both a rose oil factory and a museum about Thracian culture. The building was striking and it had a large grounds with water features and statues. It looked like something you would find in Las Vegas.
The complex was extremely luxurious. It had an outdoor coffee shop that could easily seat 100 people. There were 4 very cold looking workers huddled under blankets and no customers.
The interior was marble and glass and quite large. There was some artwork on the wall depicting scenes from ancient Thrace, and a few photographs of relics from archaeological sites around the area. As a museum it was not very impressive, but the building was fantastic.
The floors were highly polished marble, all of the railings were hand made iron. The furniture was hand made wood of really high quality. We found a restaurant that looked like it could seat a couple of hundred people in high luxury. There were a few workers about but not much being done as we wandered around, they almost seemed startled that there were customers in the building.
There was also an amphitheater on site that looked like it could seat 500. All of this looked like it had been built in the last 5 years. The only thing missing was roses. We bumped into the guy who sold us the ticket and he explained that the roses used for oil production only bloom from mid-May to mid-June so we were a week too early. We could see the fields but there were no sign of roses.
He then showed us a small vial of frozen rose oil. He explained that pure rose oil will freeze and form crystals and is stored that way. He then warmed up the vial in his hands for a couple of minutes and it turned to liquid. He put a couple of drops on our hands and it smelled wonderful. The vial of about 1 ounce costs €25. To produce one kilo (2.2lbs) of oil he said takes 3.5 tons of Rose buds that have to be picked by hand. So we now understand why it costs so much.
We did make some purchases in their gift shop as they had some very nice Rose oil based products. We also bought a bottle of Rakia made from rose oil that we tried with our dinner. Ton loved it and regretted we did not buy more.