Photography | Bulgaria | Sunrise

7 Days — 7 Sunrises

A week of captures on early morning walks

Sunsets and sunrises are both lovely, but let’s be honest, the effort, commitment, planning, and sprinting up hills often required to watch the sunrise make it a bit more enjoyable. Right?

With Bulgaria falling back an hour this past Sunday, what a better opportunity to enjoy a later sunrise than going for early morning walks the week leading up to the time change?

So that’s exactly what I did.

I even marked my calendar and everything. What I hadn’t planned on is being in an unfamiliar area during that week, but I loved the challenge of discovering places for sunrise viewing.

Taking advantage of working remotely, and desperately needing some mountain time, I asked a friend to join me on a week-long visit to the town of Smolyan, nestled in the Rhodopi Mountains.

My first morning in town, I had no idea which way to walk, so I followed the first twisting road I came across until I reached a spot with a somewhat decent view.

The roofs seemingly on top of each other grabbed my attention, and the juxtaposition of the mountain peaks next to them made for as good a capture as I was going to get that first morning.

My second morning I had figured I can bypass the twisting road by going straight up tons of stairs (it’s how locals move from one level of houses to another when on foot).

I had also noticed the old town church the day before and decided to make it my focus as the sun rose behind it.

By the third morning, I was gaining a better sense of the town thanks to my long walks. Having discovered I can walk from the city center to the Smolyan waterfall, located among houses in the western part of town, I made that my destination.

I thought I’d enjoy a nice sunrise view from the waterfall, but instead, the path there led me by an open green area at just the right time. I stopped, watching the sun rise as groups of students passed on their way to school.

I don’t think any of them paid attention to the sunrise.

The weather forecast for my fourth day in Smolyan indicated a cloudy, gloomy, rainy day. I woke up much earlier than on previous mornings and the sight of fiery red clouds greeted me as soon as I ventured outside.

I didn’t even have to climb any steps. The entire sky above me burned red.

Initially, I tried to avoid the power lines criss-crossing the air space. A fixed feature of any Bulgarian village, town, or city, it’s hard to photograph around them. So instead of doing that, I found a way to embrace them.

After a few days of exploring Smolyan, I had started to notice possible locations for lovely sunrise views with minimal hiking up stairs and running up hills. My feet were starting to complain!

One such place happened to be the Niko bakery, a 10-minute walk from our rental place and with rooftop seating.

So on my fifth morning, I walked up to the bakery, ordered hot cocoa and found myself at one of the rooftop tables, facing east.

No other people around.

Just me and the yellow-red Billa sign welcoming the sunrise.

On my sixth morning in town, I ventured out an hour before the sunrise, going in a different direction. I had to climb a few steps and then luckily, I had a front-row seat to my last sunrise (for now!) in Smolyan.

Definitely left a bit jealous of those living in the neighborhood.

The last day before Bulgaria fell back an hour, I found myself in the city of Plovdiv, a much more familiar place, and with zero steps climbed, I captured and enjoyed my seventh sunrise for the week.