Seeing a city through the eyes of its inhabitants is always the best option for a walk. Locals know where to take you and will certainly show you the best of the known sights, but also - some hidden secret places that would be difficult to find by yourself.
However, there are several places in the city under the hills, where we strongly recommend that you don’t take your guests, because whether they’ll be left with good impressions is uncertain.
Stolipinovo
Stolipinovo is not the place where you’ll usually be taken if you are in Plovdiv. We would even rather advise you not to be there when it gets dark in the evening. Among the typical eight-storey panel blocks are all sorts of temporary buildings and cottages, and the spaces around them are filled with all sorts of dirt. Almost nothing has been repaired, and it is perfectly normal for a horse-drawn cart to be carelessly parked next to a ten-year-old Mercedes. Among the tons of rubbish, no matter if it’s a pandemic or not, hordes of children of all ages are a constant sight, and compulsory school attendance here takes on a slightly different meaning. Here they often act according to some other rules and sometimes as a totally different unit of the Plovdiv community. The story of the formation of the largest ethnic district in the Balkans is quite interesting, so if you don’t know it, we recommend that you recall it in one of our previous texts.
The Russian Market
The market next to the building of the Traffic Police – Plovdiv, famous for generations of people in Plovdiv, is truly an indescribable miracle, which will certainly be incomprehensible to most tourists coming from other countries. There you will find literally anything. Starting with rubber flip-flops in various sizes, we go through food products (the sale of which is prohibited by stalls), all the way to technology. Even if you don't know what you are looking for, you will probably find it, but of dubious quality and sometimes even at the risk of losing money. Everything is arranged on all sorts of blankets, makeshift pull-out tables and trunks of questionable cleanliness. It may not be something that will hardly be seen elsewhere, but it is certainly not one of those experiences that we would recommend you to connect with Plovdiv.
Underpasses
Here we shall immediately make a small note - not all of them, but generally avoid them, especially in the evening. Unfortunately, in Plovdiv they are usually dark and unfriendly and we almost never choose them if there is another way to cross. Those that are relatively well maintained aren’t many. In a previous article we looked at some as a landmark and you can still find impressive graffiti on their walls, but always do so during the day and for a specific purpose!
We look forward to your suggestions in the comments for the places that we wouldn’t show anyone!
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