Although the sightseeing from Sofia you can visit in just one day (it resume in one yellow-brick street with all the remaining buildings of the communist time), we spent five days there, just hanging out in the hostel drinking beer in 2 liters bottles and in many different pubs during the night. For the beer lovers, Bulgaria is a must. From all the countries we have been in Europe, they have the cheapest beer! Special thanks to Ralph, Christian, Siyka and Margarita for the many beers drunk together!! The hostel we stayed (Sofia Hostel), is the first hostel open in the [View Full Entry]

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Skiing in Bulgaria - Bansko Amazing Hotel - Kempinski Grand Arena - 20 feet from gondola with ski room you can ski to. Hotel has 5 bars, 3 restuarants, 2 pools, massage, saunas, steam rooms, ice room, whirlpool. Top quality. Skiing is not bad - some marked runs no longer exist - be warned - I spent most of one afternoon sliding down the slope on my rear! Food in town is extremely cheap and plentiful. Just had a meal for 4 - 3 courses and wine for 25 UK pounds. [View Full Entry]

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10th November Arrived into Sofia at 6am - vowed (yet again) that we would never do another overnight bus journey! Found a good hostel for the next 24hrs and after catching up on some sleep went out to explore the city. Sofia is an undiscovered capital on the edge of Europe with a lot to offer the adventurous tourist. We stumbled across the remains of a Roman village and 4th century church hidden within the grounds of the Presidential Buildings. Visited a number of Bulgarian Orthodox churches all with beautiful frescoes and chandeliers. Identified the old Communist Party Headq [View Full Entry]

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"Come to Bulgaria, your cars are already here" - Bulgarian joke tourist slogan aimed at Western Europeans (though probably with an ounce of truth in it...) "No this is real natural yoghurt, its not your western muck!" - G in response to Erika asking if the Bulgarian yoghurt had gelatin in it. We finally left Vratsa on Monday, 6 days after arriving! G accompanied us on a great cycle out of the city and over the hills into the Iskar gorge. The hills around Vratsa are really beautiful - very white limestone rocks which shimmer in the hot sun. The last [View Full Entry]

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We finally leave Brasov quite late in the afternoon after last emails to Robin’s parents arranging for replacement bank cards etc. We cycle for a meagre 13 miles but it feels so good to be cycling again and we find a lovely camp site near the main road but back up near the woods and a river. The land is for sale so this actually translates in Romania to a free camp site that is already well dotted with Romanian families camped for what looks like a good while, all with their own camp fires. We pitch our new tent and [View Full Entry]

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Well, I'm lying here in my hard narrow bed at the Hotel Pop Bogomil in Sofia. A lot of stuff has gone on and gone down since my last entry. Yesterday was perhaps the craziest most event filled birthday of my life. I didn't even realize it was my birthday until 10:30pm. Pazardjik was such a gritty, real, tangible place. It's strange to lie back now and digest it. After the first day it has been raining like all the time and the hours we were keeping were not normal. Our first night, Thursday, we were out until 2am. Friday we [View Full Entry]

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Szófia és a Vitosha Nemzeti Park 3-án érkeztünk vissza Veliko Tarnovoból Szófiába, ahol ez alkalommal nem a Hotel Chance-ban szálltunk meg, hanem egy olcsóbb és sokkal kényelmesebb, tisztább helyen. (Egyébként azok a magyarok ajánlották, akikkel Ahtopolban találkoztunk.) Sajnos a nevét már akkor sem tudtuk megjegyezni, de az állomásról a városba menet a főút (Mária Lujza) jobb oldalán van, egyből a Vladajszkán való átkelés után a sarkon. Kicsit nehéz a kaput megtalálni, mert egy duplaszárnyú üvegajtó jobb oldali szárnya a bejárat, míg a bal oldalon pattogatott kukoricát áru [View Full Entry]

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The Rila mountains are the largest and most impressive in Bulgaria. Most peaks rise to around 2600m with Mount Masala at 2915m the highest. Many miles of beautiful marked hiking trails cross the mountains, in many directions. Based at the Rila Monestary at 1100m the many trails that begin and end there have one main direction, up. Having seen photos of the Seven Lakes on postcards, we decided that we had to see them, we couldn't find the starting point of the shortest route, blue, but easily found the red route. Unluckily we had taken so long organising our things that [View Full Entry]

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After a few days in the bustle of Sophia we headed south to the Rila Monestary. Famed world wide for its beauty and tranquility. The slow journey by bus from Dupnitsa yielded successively more impressive views until we arrived. We wandered around briefly, it is such a beautiful place, why so many police? We couldn't stay too long as we needed to find a camp site. About 1.2km along the only road into the mountains is the Bor Camp site. Again the setting is beautiful, and on a friday evening we were one of about 3 tents, we set the tent [View Full Entry]

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The train from Belgrade to Sophia did appear as scheduled this time, and after the rough night before we paid the $10 upgrade to sleeper. It was well worth doing. I had an almost uninterupted nights sleep, and felt good when I arrived in Sophia. First impressions of Bulgaria. 1 - Friendly people - for the most part, a guy helped us get the sleeper carriage, a Bulgarian. 2 - Great coffee - again a real cafe society. 3 - Great Ice Cream - the best Sara has ever eaten in her life :) 4 - Magnificent churches - hope the [View Full Entry]

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