Total Distance Cycled: 672km We seemed to had a window to cycle on Saturday. It was warm and overcast, but no rain, so we went for it. Other than climbing out of the hole we had in Kavala (on the coast, but totally surrounded by hills), the ride was pretty good and we did have the aid of the wind for most of the day (that makes three in a row now :-)). This was certainly our second best bike day of the trip so far. Just like the other day from Komotini to Xanthi, we spent most of the day [View Full Entry]

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Enjoyed an excellent Bulgarian Merlot 2003 before settling in for a quite night in the village. On the morning of the 27th, pushed on out of the Shiroka Laka valley and continued on twisted, narrow, barely-maintained mountain roads. Surprisingly close to SL, we came to the Parapova ski resort. This looked great in that the forest was dense and evergreen, but not so great in that it was like an outpost of Pomland inserted in the Bulgarian mountains. Pubs, and chip butties. Worth another visit though. Dropped back into Bulgarian villages pretty quickly and then onto the Chepelare district. [View Full Entry]

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After the basic 30 hour haul we arrived in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. A city of old European architecture, mosques, synagogues and cathedrals. The day started with feta pastries and strong coffee and ended with a chicken goulash. The autumn weather is kind with sunny skies and daytime temperatures in the 20's. Cyrillic is hard to spontaneously fathom but is a necessary part of getting around. Lacking Cyrillic we bought 4 tickets each for the 2 rooms of the Ethnographical museum not under renovation. Sophia is clearly in transition or has been for the last hundred or so years. Soviet-s [View Full Entry]

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So, it was time to part from the mountains - probably appropriate since our pace of travelling and general movement had become extremely slow. Our next destination was not Varna (like every other backpacker) but Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city. We took the train again, preferring perhaps unwisely legroom over the option of an air-conditioned bus. Arriving at Veliko Tarnovo station (after some expert Bulgarian language attempts to the taxi driver) we were rather bemused as to how to obtain a ticket as the woman was shut firmly behind her screen doing her best to ignore us. Luckily though, th [View Full Entry]

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W srode, 15stego, znudzeni juz morzem, ruszylismy w strone Sofii. Nie ujechawszy zbyt wiele, zdalismy sobie sprawe z tego, ze tam tez niczego ciekawego nie znajdziemy. Postanowilismy wiec skierowac sie na poludnie, w Rodopy, gdzie znajomy Konstantyna, Javor, zaklada powoli swoja baze. Jakims cudem udalo nam sie tu dotrzec i ....obecnie znajduje sie na koncu swiata (a jednak z dostepem do internetu:-), w opuszczonej wiosce bulgarskiej, 4 km od granicy greckiej, u podnoza Rodopow. Cos absolutnie niebywalego! Ruiny opuszczonych 57 kamiennych domostw a posrod nich, jeden super odrestaurowany dom J [View Full Entry]

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I can’t believe tomorrow’s my last day here in Plovdiv! Time really flies when you do these volunteer camps, it’s crazy. As much as I’m looking forward to coming home, it’s still sad to think of leaving here. Wednesday pretty much cemented the fact we're all going crazy w/ these kids - everyone of us girl volunteers has been molested by these kids. They're not shy about it either, they grab on. Hard. I dare the next one to try it (they were good yesterday) because they will get their hand smacked, and hard. Oh yes, we've also pretty much all [View Full Entry]

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So, we met the new bunch of kiddies yesterday - world of difference b/w the two groups. Three of the girls came into our kitchen, introduced themselves and asked if we'd go play football. We had just woken up (it was like, 11am haha), so we told them later. (Even though it was supposed to be our 'day off' we still didn't mind). When we finally went downstairs they all came over and were like shaking hands w/ us and everything haha. Aw, too cute! And then even ask for things - it's no more grabbing glasses or cameras, I love [View Full Entry]

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I'm currently sitting by the window watching a lovely thunderstorm. There is nothing better than reading a good book, sitting curled up on the couch, and listening to the rain. It's not quite as good as the one we had the other day (where we lost power, about 10 screen windows blew out into the backyard etc), but it's still a good storm. It's a nice break in the weather too - it's not boiling for once. I can't believe the camps already half done... these volunteer stints always go by so fast, it's sad. Yesterday afternoon we ended up bringing [View Full Entry]

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Well we are in our final country and final stop of the trip. We are in a place called Plovdiv, about 3 hours from Sofia where we were yesterday, and where we will be tomorrow for our fight on Monday. Sofia was odd, it didnt seem like a capital city, not helped by the fact we arrived there at 6am. There was little to see, which we knew would be the case. We went to see a cathedral and a crypt which SB probably went on about yesterday. This morning we came here after much fun. We struggled to find the [View Full Entry]

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The kids have calmed down a bit since we began... or maybe I'm just getting used to it, I'm not sure haha. It's funny because that's the one English word they ALL know how to say - COME, COME! A couple know please which is nice, but very often you just have them run up to you, take a flying leap for your chest or just grab your hand and pull - come, come! Come, come! Yesterday morning we played outside as per usual - it was too cute. There's one kid that's clearly the leader of the bunch; he's a [View Full Entry]

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