One of my favourite hobbies is shopping, so when I found out that the little town we were visiting, called Tryavna, had a whole street of arts and crafts shops, I was excited to say the least!
As we drove from Gabrovo to Tryavna the road was long and winding and felt like it was going on forever! It was in fact only 24kms but 24kms on this type of road are not an easy drive! Also, our sat nav occasionally told us to take some very dodgy roads that were probably shortcuts but we chose to avoid them and stuck to the main road …
When we finally arrived in Tryavna my first impression was that there was absolutely nothing to see. The place looked derelict and it wasn’t clear where the town centre was. We found a sign and drove on and as we did the town started to look gradually more attractive. We parked in the centre and walked down the street that was signposted ‘street of crafts’ … this is where the wonderful surprise came!
Tryavna centre is beautiful!
The town is full of Bulgarian revival style houses and each house located on the main streets in the centre is either a museum or a craft shop. There’s also a lovely clock tower in the centre of the main square which dates back to 1814! I also discovered that Tryavna is the birthplace of the famous Bulgarian poet, Pencho Slaveykov and there are many monuments and museums in his memory.
We spent a few hours looking in all of the little shops, the things available were incredible! Everything from handmade leather belts and bags to hand carved wooden furniture. If you’re looking for some unique gifts then Tryavna will definitely be a good place to go shopping! We ended our shopping trip with a late lunch in one of the restaurants in the main square and then we sat back with a drink and enjoyed the sunshine and atmosphere.
Leave a Reply