Our last morning in Borovets was drizzly but still warm. We went on a last walk, catching all of the local pokéstops and doing a last minute spot of urban exploration after we spotted a derelict bar/ hotel. The sorry looking calendar on the wall was from 2006 but strangely there were planks of wood piled up as though it was in the middle of being built. There were some disregarded ski boots which is particularly odd because they are expensive items. There were signs that someone could be living rough there, so we didn't stay long. The drive to the car hire depot in Sofia got hotter as we progressed and Sofia was having a very sunny day. We filled the tank and in Bulgaria they still have an attendant who fills the car for ... read more

The cruel practice of forcing bears to dance for entertainment was banned in Bulgaria in 1998 and now the rescued bears need somewhere to live. Thus the badly named 'Dancing Bear Park' started in Belitsa. The bears no longer have to dance, but instead have huge enclosures in thick forest where they can please themselves. They can't go back in the wild because they don't know how to look after themselves and would not get on with the 450-600 wild bears still living in the national parks. Because of the mountains, everywhere is a long drive away, so we decided to make it more of a 'photographic, leisurely drive', like a Sunday afternoon drive only on a Thursday morning. The majority of the journey was thick forests of fir trees or snowy mountains in the distance. ... read more

My hubby could have been a Palace Guard in Bulgaria once upon a time. Out of a whole group of tourists from UK, Canada, USA, Chile, South Korea, Russia, Australia and Spain, he was the only one who fitted the criteria to get this once well paid and illustrious job. All he had to do was catch an eagle and pluck a tail feather to wear in his hat and the job would have been his. What is this illusive criteria you ask? You just have to be blonde, blue-eyed and over 185 cms in height. However these days those rules are relaxed as there's not many blue-eyed blonde tall Bulgarians to choose from. Plus there's an eagle at the local zoo that supplies the feathers and the job is less prestigious with less pay. We ... read more

Today I have become an Urban Explorer in the mountains! This is easily done in Bulgaria due to the declining population, the fall of communism and the failure of capitalism, resulting in an extremely high amount of derelict dwellings, factories and public buildings. Glyn and I had driven near to Mount Musala looking for moody, misty mountains (which we found) but ended up exploring what we think were derelict hotels, literally in the middle of nowhere. We arrived in Borovets in the small hours of the night, having driven from Sofia, and after much confusion mixed with stroppy night receptionists, we eventually dragged our luggage past the only rowdy bar in the area and found our apartment. To Glyn's utmost horror, there was no bogroll and he was getting anxious about his morning poo. So he ... read more

Getting up at 6.45am is no joke when you didn't get to bed until 3am after a long day of two trips. However, we don't have much time in Norway and none of it is to be wasted, so we soon set off on the walk into town for our pre-booked snowmobile trip. Shattered, we arrived at the Radison Blu to be told it was double booked and there was no room for us, maybe come back later. I was not happy, this was a very expensive trip already paid for with extra travel insurance required. The receptionist guy was completely unapologetic and it took a lot of reasoning with him to confirm whether or not we would be on the later trip - we could always plan something else instead and almost decided to do ... read more