VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria — Moscow ranks near the top of a list of 120 of the world's most expensive cities — even more expensive than New York, but the other former Soviet bloc countries haven't caught up. Ranking near the bottom, at 111th, is Bulgaria's capital city of Sofia.
Here in Veliko Tarnovo, the royal capital from 1185 to 1393, before the Turks invaded, you can still live like a king.
Let's start with the dinner we had at the Gurko Tavern (www.hotel-gurko.com/index_en.html), a cozy restaurant and hotel built into the cliff over a canyon carved by the snaking Yantra River.

Starving after eight hours on the train from Bucharest, we started with King's beers (with a bottle opener built into the bottom of each bottle) and a plate of roasted red and green bell peppers. Then it was cold yogurt soup with cucumbers, trout and crepes with bananas and ice cream. The bill was 20 Bulgarian lev, the equivalent of about $14 with tip.
We might have snagged one of the Gurko's 11 rooms with balconies, air conditioning and cable TV ($67), but the hotel was booked, so we're next door at the Nomads Hostel (www.nomadshostel.com).

We're paying $30 for a private room with a bathroom in the hall, but the same great view.
Notice, I omitted the word "youth." Eastern European hostels don't tend to use it, and like most of the newer hostels, Nomads has private rooms for travelers who don't mind paying a little more for privacy.
Fedio, the 28-year-old owner, picked us up at the station, and he and his partner, Maria, have been great resources for everything from how to read signs in Cyrillic, with the letters that look like backwards "Rs" and upside down "Vs," to what there is to do and see.

Veliko is in the Balkan Mountains, and it's not practical to rely on public transportation for sightseeing out of the city. Instead of renting a car, we arranged a day out in the countryside with Fedio as our driver and guide, for about $40.
In the meantime, we're exploring Veliko on foot, walking up and down the narrow streets in the old town that spill Cinque-Terre style down steep hills.
Our street, Gurko, is the oldest. Cobblestoned and mostly pedestrian, it runs along the side of the gorge with several tiers of buildings above it. Some used to house coppersmiths, weavers and other craftsmen. Now they're filled mostly cafes, boutiques and restaurants catering to an influx of tourists.

The ruins of a castle on the hill are impressive, but the most striking river views, and maybe the oddest, given Veliko's reputation as a hip university town, are of the State Art Museum and a huge black monument dedicated to the kings who liberated the country from the Byzantines.

The museum is a massive stone building that holds a collection of art mostly acquired during Communist times. Hardly anyone goes. (A woman came with keys to unlock the doors when we rang the bell.) But, so far, nobody has proposed replacing it with something else.
"Bulgaria is a country of paradoxes," Fedio says.
I haven't been here long enough to know, but I'm looking forward to spending the next few days finding out more.

By Carol Pucci
Seattle Times travel writer
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/