http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Bulgaria , West en-us Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:57:26 BST Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:57:26 BST todo todo todo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-301054.html Bulgaria's beauty is unparalleled and I wish I had more time during training to camp out and appreciate the view from the summits. It is not always an easy hike often having to tread new ground prying apart branches obstructing your path paying close attention to the sudden apparance of cliffs along the way and experience dramatic changes in elevation. But being a city girl and enduring the s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/blog-300789.html It's my first time teaching English as a second language and there are some trials and tribulations mostly the language barrier of not yet being fluent in Bulgarian. Thus the need for pictoral representations is even further stressed as if it wasn't already with the younger kids. The problem here however is that Bulgarians in general and yes I am stereotyping here are terrible drawers. Pic http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/blog-300175.html A word on the food in Bulgaria those of you foreign to the idea of oilinduced salty foods steer clear. Wellcooked meats also known as kuftetas are always present at the dinner table as well. The food is not bad and I've grown quite a liking to the hot peppers here. My favorite preparation involves garlic and vinegar. The peppers are first roasted and then soaked in the sauce. Bread also http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/blog-299252.html so i got tossed off a train last night because my passport looked questionable. it ended up costing me half a day and now i dont think i can make the festivals opening ceremonies on time if i stay on the trains. im going to the air port to attempt to blag my way onto a plane at a reasonable rate. im intent on making it to the opening ceremonies so ill do my best.battery is dying so i must go http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-295537.html From Thessaloniki in the North of Greece we took the morning train to capital of Bulgaria Sophia. We thought that this by taking this train we would be arriving around 1pm however it wasnt to be a greek lady that was sitting next to us told us that she had caught this train many times and it had never arrived into Sophia anywhere even close to being on time. So at around 4pm after a lot of start http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-289303.html We're now in Sofia after a 14 hour train. Nothing considering the past train trips we've done. It wasn't that great a city to arrive into as we got caught in some crazy rain it just didn't stop hailing and after we waited for to stop for over half an hour in a bank there was only one to make a choice. Stephen was the one who paid for it the most his pack got the wet right through. We seriou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-284784.html And so draws to a close our time in Bulgaria. Tonight at 2120 we'll be catching a night train to Belgrade in Serbia because you can't go straight to either Dubrovnik or Sarajevo from here. I don't know why and neither does anyone who works at the bus station. So yesterday we got up kind of late because of a late night but still just in time for some of the free breakfast here at Hostel Mostel http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-282896.html here are many many pictures. hopefully soon I may post pictures that are up to date. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-282881.html So I'm here in Sofia the first city of Bulgaria. It's much different from Greece and I've only seen it from the inside of a bus and between the bus station and my hostel. Which is called Hostel Mostel. Sweet. Greener hillier much much cooler. It's good to be out of the heat How Canadian of me I know. So today we left Thessaloniki finally around three thirty. I bought some shoes for five e http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-282284.html Not a whole lot going on in Sofia. The place is actually kind of boring though there are a few things to see. Perfect for a pit stop unless you're there on a bachelor party I saw a few of those or on somebody's birthday some of the guys I met later on had that as the place is cheap with good looking girls.Tuesday May 13thNot a whole lot of sleep on the train this morning as I kept on n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-276585.html Je parn bulharsk odpoledne. Prv283 jsme projeli Sofi. Po prav stran283 za sebou nechvme kopce poho345 Vitoscarona msto vkendov rekreace mnoha Sofij269an367. Za pr kilometr367 u jsou vid283t vrcholy nejvyscaronscaronho balknskho poho345 Rily i s jej majesttn Musalou. My vscaronak m345me dl na jih po silnici spojujc bulharsk vnitrozem s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Bansko/blog-265899.html In theory I traveled to Sofia Bulgaria for the EGEEII AllActivity Meeting but in reality I just traveled towards it. I will be damned if this doesn't become part of my travel blog to Sofia Bulgaria. Here is my story ENJOYStarting my day at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport for a flight from Pisa to Milan at 6.55am only to have that flight cancelled for the second time. From there a bus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-238400.html AwoHa het Sofiaans dialect zou me een goede 15 jaar geleden op het lijf geschreven zijn. Waarom Wel in deze regionale aftakking van het Bulgaars verbasterd men de 'l' tot een 'w' en ware het niet dat ik tot mijn zesde levensjaar de 'l' niet kon uitspreken en die surprise surprise uitsprak als een 'w'. M'n klasgenootje Lily werd Wiwy enzoverder. Dit echter volledig terzijde. Voor verdere inf http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-233081.html Waarde landkenoten et les hollandais aussiWat ik me net bedacht heb is dat ik eigenlijk nog helemaal niet verteld heb hoe Sofia zelf eigenlijk is. Voor de een is het mischien een magisch sprookjes land voor de ander een storthoop een enkeling denkt mischien dat het de godin van de wijsheid is waarin ik kampeer. Eigenlijk zouden deze drie fictieve personen een ander en enkeling louter als bee http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-228539.html Waarde ParochianenDe eerste zin is altijd de lastigste dus maak ik me er op deze manier even snel vanaf. Er zijn echt veel gekke dingen gebeurd hier in Bulgarije sinds de laatste keer dat ik jullie verblijdt heb met een stukje non fictie proza. Een goeie week geleden waren we met de hele Erasmus crew op een drum'n bass feestje in Sofia. Op een gegeven moment kwam Emil erg enthousiast in m'n oor s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-221025.html Woke up the next day about a half hour out of Sofia. We packed our things and I threw on some extra layers thank god.The weather was... how to describe it... Imagine any movie you've ever seen about Eastern Europe. Yeah it's like that. Overcast and dark at one in the afternoon. It seemed as if the clouds weren't blocking out the sun but holding down last night's darkness trying to prevent it' http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-220962.html We actually made it upstairs for breakfast this morning and we were completely right about it. We weren't even told whatwhere it was we had to ask for it. It was a little pastry each filled with cream cheese. Seriously what is wrong with cereal and toastWe chatted to the Iranian guy Ally for a while and an irritating woman kept on butting into the conversation with banarl comments. We learned http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-220413.html We both slept beautifully which was probably in large part due to having a proper mattress for the first time in ages. Again we abandoned breakfast for an extra hour in bed. It may sound like are being lazy but we really are ever so tired. Also breakfasts are utterly disappointing in most hostels and not worth the effort we expend getting to them. We dressed and just as we were about to leave I sa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-219719.html The alarm went off at twelve and we both woke up rather reluctantly. We packed our things and tried our best to separate the clothes which stank of smoke from last night. After leaving our room we walked over to the main hostel and chatted to people whilst stealing all their music to put on our pda. We struggled to find an available hostel for Sofia. So many people have told us to stay at Hostel M http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-219718.html Hey lieve kinders Wederom een aflevering van pieter in Bulgarije. Allereerst ik heb voor de eerste keer onderwijs gehad Ik ben dus nu officieel student in bulgarije. Onderwijs bestaat blijkbaar uit een praatje met je professor in haar bureautje met nog 2 andere erasmus studenten erbij het lijkt op een soort priv les. De courses die ik volg zijn speciaal voor ons ontworpen en mijn examen besta http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-215771.html AankomstIk kom aan op een erg klein vliegveld. Mijn koffer rolt als eerste van de band en ik laat mijzelf voor 5 Lev 25euro naar Studenski Grad rijden. Ik stap uit bij mijn bestemming gebouw 52. Ik heb daar afgesproken met Pieter een jongen die ik inmiddels al goed ken uit Maastricht. Met hem deel ik een kamer. Onze kamer is heel basic de bedden zijn dik in orde maar voor de rest is het 10 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-213400.html Helleu Eindelijk een blog dus geen onleesbare mails meer enzo...Voor alle duidelijkheid ik vertoef nog steeds in Bulgarije waar de zon ondertussen weer is gaan schijnen. Vandaag was het echt een ongelofelijk productieve dag ik heb mijn kamer opgeruimd en mijn huur betaald. Naar Bulgaarse normen is dat ongeveer het meeste wat je geregeld krijgt in 24uur ik was verbaasd dat we geen formulieren http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-212323.html SidebarYou will notice that from here on my attitude kinda changes. After Istanbul I am more concerned about taking it slow than trying to see as many sights as possible. The reason for this is fatigue I had no idea how tiring such a regimented tour routine would be. So from here on I'm a bit more lazy and am taking in the atmosphere of the cities rather than seeing everything there is to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-210355.html Its Ian here currently in Dubrovnik in Croatia and im 30...but lets go back to the heydays of my 20s if i can remember that far back and to Veliko Tarnavo in the middle of Bulgaria which is where we left you. Internet was free last time hence a bit of an essay but im flicking into a more light and breezy manor detail is for 20 somethings they have time clock ticking for me now notice all http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Bansko/blog-210140.html The trip I was doing was actually about going to Turkey to attend a voluntary workcamp. Planning my trip I couldnt miss to visit Sofia so that was the first thing I actually planned to visit. My trip started on July 16 at Belgrade train station where I took the BelgradeSofia train. Everytime I travel I am trying to do it by night and to spend days as best as I can at every p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-206959.html I was dragging my feet leaving Greece ashamed to admit that the comfort of a developed nation had enveloped me and enticed me back into a way of life I know all too well. But there was no need to worry...futile really...as I found a spring in my step as I ventured through Sofia Bulgaria's capital for the first time despite my lack of sleep on the overnight train journey from Thessaloniki I tho http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-204501.html We're in an internet cafe now trying to sort out banking information since we charged more than we thought we would to the credit card the LP Guide said all train tickets would be cash and so far only RILA has been USAA loves international travellersOur Last Day in SofiaWe had an extended dinner at Happy Bar and Grill our favorite place in Sofia where we were taken care of by a most horrible s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-200320.html