Melnik

A tiny town close to the Greek border that has historically been swapped between the Bulgarians, the Greeks and the Ottomans. What looks like a dried up river slices right through the middle but this is actually a flood defence that peters out at the top of the only street. Numerous hotels and restaurants back onto the sand pillars that loom over the town and provide the ideal conditions for locals to cut wine cellars into them. Most people in Melnik have a sideline in selling wine which they produce from their own patches of vineyards in the surrounding fields.