Melnik, wine capital of Bulgaria

I'm quite ashamed of myself, I spent almost 2 weeks in Bulgaria and I only visit 2 places there. I wish I could stay longer in this lovely country. There are places that are all about tourist attractions, monuments, museums, sightseeing... And there are others with a soul so deep that you lose yourself in it. I think that this can be applied to the whole county in general but one place that touched my soul was Melnik. The trip there from Sofia takes about 4 hours, you change buses in Sandanski and from there to Melnik you get a small dusty minibus... so dusty that I was really happy it was only a 30 min ride and a shower is a must after. But when I got off in this tiny village of Melnik surrounded by pyramid mountains with a flat grassy top, I realised that was the place for me.

 There is only one street in Melnik, Melnik street which is hardly 1 km long. The air is fresh, the lanscape is beautiful, very few tourists, relaxed people. We stayed in Bolyarka hotel that we loved... A balcony, a fireplace and a bathtub... What not to love! They also have a hamman there. 

A short (15 min) hike to enjoy the view over the town...

Melnik is the wine capital of Bulgaria.  Surrounded by wineyards, every restaurant and possibly every  house in town makes its own wine. Young wine is sold everywhere in plastic bottles and costs around 3.6 lev per liter. But is still delicious and no headache the next day no matter how much you drink. In restaurants you can try a better quality wine which goes perfectly with home made food such as typical bulgarian sausage accompanied by Lutenitsa (typical spicy sauce) or again with the famous Shopska salad. If you want

some bread which you have to order on the side in Bulgaria,  ask to grill it. They add some slightly spicy sauce on the top, it's yummy.

You will also find a variety of home made jams, I really loved the plum one. Melnik is particularly famous for

its white jam but sadly I haven't tried it. May be you will :)