Veliko Tarnovo

IN THE SUMMER the trees are lush and green, temperatures sore in the high 30s, and the local girls strut up and down in their tightest mini-skirts and impossible tans. In the winter you can clearly see the strata of rock in the hills through the skeletal trees, and the landscape is buried under snow for many weeks. I'm in Veliko Turnovo, tucked away in the northern foothills of the "Old Mountains" (or "Stara Planina"). The town nestles upon the slopes of four rugged looking hills, in the beautiful unspoilt terrain which is northern Bulgaria, and the tranquil Yantra River weaves through the hills in a swooping horse-shoe formation, like a child's ...