Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
I left you in suspense over a week ago and I am sure you have all been sitting by your computers waiting for an update...
So after my adventure upon arrival in Sofia, I managed to buy some sun cream and fruit, which involved a lot of pointing and miming. In the evening I went for a meal with some people from the hostel, which also involved a lot of pointing and miming. When we went back to the hostel, the woman who was working there started talking to a couple of us, and we went out with her, which was good, because otherwise we probably would have stayed there all night watching films on the huge TV with everyone else!
Next morning, I woke up early, which was unfortunate, considering that I went to bed in the not so early hours of the morning! I did a little bit of sightseeing and got the bus to the airport to meet my tour group (thankfully it was a very uneventful bus ride!). I then got the shuttle bus to terminal 2 sitting in the back with the luggage! We drove to our first hotel and had the first of
many cold meals!
We stayed at that hotel for 3 nights, and spent the first 2 days walking in the surrounding area (and paddling in lakes, climbing over rocks, eating cold food, overdosing on cheese and tomatoes, that kind of thing!) and then walked to our next hotel on the 3rd day. We got caught in a storm in the morning (torrential rain and thunder...you get the idea!), so got absolutely soaked and stopped for lunch at a mountain hut. There were some people building there and they started getting us benches and tables in the bit they were working in, but then they invited us into their kitchen and moved all the tables and benches in there for us, and we ate in there with the family whilst shivering around the stove! They were so welcoming, there were 15 of us, plus our guide (quote mark Ruben Lyuben quote mark, an absolute LEGEND...and liar...! I cant find quotes or apostrophes, by the way!) and they didnt really speak English but they seemed so happy to let us interrupt their meal! It was such an amazing experience, afterwards we all agreed we were glad it rained!
We went
to a shepherds hut the next morning, for breakfast. It felt very authentic, sitting in a little wooden hut eating cheese, looking at the girls on the wall (if you know what I mean...) and watching the shepherd drive off in his 4x4 wearing a lycra tracksuit. Later that day we went to a thermal bath and were unimpressed to discover we were not meant to wear...ANYTHING...to go in. Needless to say, most of us wore our swimming stuff, but we were not alone, and I was very traumatised by some of the views we had from the pool. And that is all I will say about that.
Friday shall forever be known as the day of the never ending hill. However, the view of the Seven Lake Region (we could see 7 lakes, basically....) was totally worth it and we did the whole group photo thing at the top. We slept at a mountain refuge that night, which was great (great for 1 night only though, I think). We were in a dorm with what was basically a huge bunk bed with a load of mattresses lined up next to each other and worryingly smelly blankets (and...ahem...toilets)! We
washed in a stream and I was looking at the stars while I brushed my teeth.
The next day was our last day of walking, and we ended up at the Rila Monastery, which was nice, but kind of fake (there are only 7 monks left, and they are outnumbered about a million to one by tourists and they have mobile phones and you can buy doughnuts there and you can sleep there and the list goes on...). Anyway the monastery was built by some guy who lived in a cave in the Rila Mountains for 12 years, so he was probably pretty delusional by that time, but I can see why people think its a spiritual place, because the surroundings are beautiful (if you ignore the car park and road) and to be honest by the time youve walked up a never ending hill, slept in a mountain refuge and walked downhill continuously for hours, any place where you get to stop is pretty special! Our last hotel was awesome, but I dont think they had finished building it! We were the first people to stay there, and the stairs had no banisters so if you werent looking
where you were going, you could step from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor in one go! We also had a meal there that was hot and had no cheese in, which was a revelation.
Yesterday, we drove to Sofia and had a quick tour, and then most of the group went to the airport. One girl was staying at my hostel, so I showed her where the bus stop for the airport was and then we went to the hostel. We went for a walk in the afternoon and saw the changing of the guards at the Presidents Building, which was pretty funny because they have to kick their legs up really high whilst keeping a straight face! We had the free meal and beer at the hostel in the evening (its the most amazing hostel ever!) and then went out to meet 2 other people from the tour who were staying in Sofia.
My flight back to Vienna was this morning, and I was a bit sad to leave Bulgaria. I absolutely loved Sofia and I have got a bit attached to the Cyrillic alphabet, I am already missing translating stuff! Plus, I was with
a really great group and had such a good week! I dont know why exactly, but I loved it so much, and more than anywhere else Ive been so far, I didnt want to leave. I will definitely be going back there in the future, as we saw such a small part of the country, and there are so many more places I would like to go.
Im doing a walking tour of Vienna this afternoon (I found Vienna a bit boring last week but I would like to give it another chance!). I will probably go to Bratislava tomorrow for the day, and then Im going to Salzburg with Busabout the next day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0711s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb