Christmas Day.

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January 10th 2007

Published: January 21st 2007

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Brian Lauran

Santa

Ho ho ho - Merry Christmas. Have you all been good boys and Girls?

Hi all,

Well it's time for my long overdue blog entry from our Christmas break.

Arriving in Bulgaria it didn't take us long before we met some of the locals. Taxi, you want taxi, I have taxi, I take you.
This wasn't all that new to most of us, but we weren't too sure of where we should head to and it wasn't all that easy to organise a group of 17 to communicate with about six drivers to take us to our hotel. Luckily a nice local lady pointed us in the right directon and spoke to the drivers for us (with our fingers crossed that we were not being ripped off!!!) and we were on our way. The race was one. Taxi v's taxi.

Safe and sound at the Park Hotel Vitosha we unpacked and headed down to the lobby bar for a few arrival drinks. This is where we found out just how far we were going to be able to stretch our pounds. The conversion rate was about the same as the Aussie and NZ Dollar but everything just that little bit cheaper(Happy Days).

With the prospect of a day of Snowboarding ahead

Parko Snowboarding??!!!

of us and everyone wanting to get to bed before Santa came, most of us hit the hay early.

On Christmas morning we all got the first big announcement of the trip. No... not that the ski lifts were open or that there had been a massive snow dump overnight, but that our K1W1 buddy's Ryan and Kylie were engaged. Congratulations guys!!!!!

Surprisingly though they were more interested in finding out whether the lifts were going to be open or not. So after about an hour of harrassing the Hotel staff to keep ringing to find out about the lifts, it was official, the Gondola lift to the top of Mount Vitosha was open. Hip hip, horray.

Assuming there was enough snow for snowboarding and skiing we went up to the top on the gondola and straight to the ski/snowboard hire only to find out that the lift was only open for sightseeing. Dissappointed about this we decided to make the most of our time on the mountain. After a short stroll we found what we thought to be a suitable area for some off piste Snowboarding (for anyone that is unsure of what this is -

Reaching for a tail grab!!

Me showing off my skills.

it is a snowboarding term for off the main tracks/ski slopes). So Ryan, Moffy, Parko and I threw ourselves down the hill (through the grass and rocks) a couple of times (pictures below) and called the quits and headed back down the mountain.

Vitosha is the highest mountain in Bulgaria (I read that somewhere), so it's not surprising we were above the clouds, but as soon as we got below them, the view of the capital city, Sofia, was awesome. This had almost everyone trying to stick their arms out of the small gondola window (about 20x20cm) with a camera outstretched trying to get a snap. This was a lot harder than it sounds, especially when you can't see what you are actually pointing the camera at. Most of the time it ended up being a photo of the lift cables, or the clouds directly above Sofia.

The day ended with a 3 course meal at the hotel restaurant. Towards the end of the night, we received a suprise visit from Santa. We all got a chance to sit on Santas knee and receive a present. After all, it wouldn't be Christmas if Santa didn't come!!!

Unfortunately

Christmas trees on Mt Vitosha

View from the gondola, riding back down Mt. Vitosha.

for some reason Dean wasn't around to receive his gift. When he mysteriously returned after Santa had left, Dean found his present waitig for him at his seat!!!

Additional photos below

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