Sofia and Bansko

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Sofia and Bansko day 15 -17 (June 21 - 23)

The truck was still wedged in our street the next morning, so we headed up the stairs with our luggage to walk the long way around to the Bus station. The trip was on a fairly comfortable bus. We sat near a young girl who was a local Bulgarian singer who gave us some tips on Sofia and some insight into Bulgaria.

When we got to Sofia our rooms were in a fairly central area but in a hotel that was fairly tired. I ended up having a day in as I‘d jarred my wrist and it was fairly painful. We had a farewell dinner that night for one of the group who was leaving a few days early. Next morning I walked in the rain along the main street but everything was closed until 10am, so I can’t really say too much about Sofia.

We took a private bus to our next destination. On the way we stopped at the Rila Monastery, which was set in a beautiful mountain area. The monastery building is stunning and set in wonderful mountain area, which was equally stunnging. A storm arrived as we got there, but the rain held off long enough to have a good look around.

Bansko was at the base of an alpine area. A small town but lovely views of the mountain, and some good Bulgarian food. Definitely the place for salads and well cooked pork.

The following day we took and 11km drive that took us over an hour due to the rough tracks. We visited a sanctuary for dancing bears who had been rescued from their harsh lives. The chains that were inserted through their noses and the other methods used to train them, meant that some were still, even after being there for years, a little disturbed. These bears do not have the skills to be returned to the wild, so they are sterilised and given a life as much like being in the wild as can be given.

Around the town we noticed a lot of notices on houses with pictures. At first we thought they for elections, or missing persons but we found out that the tradition was that when someone died their photo and a brief eulogy was placed on the house of the family, but also of friends as a memorial. Some of the notices were for people from over 50 years ago.

That night I had a visitor to my room - a spider. First instinct was to kill it, but I thought that there were no poisonous spiders here so removed it with the old glass and paper trick, but not before taking a photo. It is really nice to be able to wander around the countryside and not worry about snakes and spiders.

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Comments

[tezzakezza]

Glad you're not worrying about the spiders and snakes...how about the bears though!! Sad story about them. Love the monastery..it looks really beautiful! X K