Bulgaria day 8: Homeward bound, more urban exploring and a summary

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Bulgaria day 8: Homeward bound, more urban exploring and a summary



Last day and a few hours to kill so we decide to go for a walk around Borovets....well there are a few pokestops and Pokegyms to take as well. Our watches are also screaming at us to do more exercise as well.

We did manage to do some more urban exploring but the one building we walked into (there was no door!) looked like it had someone living there despite its dilapidated state. They could either afford ski boots or had acquired them but we didn’t stay long enough to find out.

We returned the key to a box near reception in the main building but I refused to even look at the receptionist after previous experiences there. Claire managed the drive back to the car rental place where the usual nerves set in as they check the car for damage. All clear though and we were soon being whisked to Sofia airport where I got searched having failed to make it through despite having nothing on me. The search was quite intimate but he was wearing gloves so I suppose he thinks that’s okay.

Don’t come to Sofia airport hoping to have one last bit of Bulgarian food. All there is in Terminal two are different branches of the same cafe and none of them had the lasagne we had hoped for let alone anything Bulgarian. The pizzas were blander than a bland thing in bland town on bland day.

So...the summary.....

This was going to be a relaxing holiday. The apartments have a pool so we could spend some time there, maybe have a jacuzzi and do a few trips out. Hmmm...

When we found out that our apartment is actually privately owned and that each pool visit would be £5 each we made other plans. This resulted in lots of walking, mountain hikes, some actual climbing and our usual holiday full of fun and adventure.

The apartment was great and very spacious but having no toilet paper when we got here caused quite a lot of trouble (see earlier blog), the plug thingy in the bathroom sink never worked so we brushed our teeth in the kitchen sink and we only had our sheets changed the day before we left (but not the towels strangely). Great location though.

Borovets is a bit like Kos, just for tourists but you don’t have to go far to find places where the locals actually live. There are some great places to eat with local dishes but I can imagine it being quite awful when the British lager louts get here in the Winter.

Driving here is....interesting...The roads are okay but every so often there’s a pothole that most of the time you can’t avoid as someone is coming the other way...and usually when you’re travelling at speed. Listed as some of the most dangerous roads in Europe you can sort of see why as peole overtake with bends too close for comfort. There are no happy mediums with drivers here, they either go hurtling past you or are so slow wuou wonder whethr you’d be better off walking. The roads aren’t too busy but with the price of fuel nearly as high as our extortionate price back home I would image not many people can afford to drive. For those interested in transport there are still a lot of Ladas around here. They may have been the butt of many jokes way back when but they were obviously built to last.

I’ve really enjoyed Bulgaria. There are some wonderful places to see even though they take a long time to get to due to winding roads. It’s wonderful up here in the mountains, more trees and greenery than you could ever hope for and some spectacular scenery. The weather hasn’t always been kind to us but we knew that would happen before we got here.

It’s been pretty cheap and we’ve afforded meals out more than we expected. We still have money left out of £600 and that includes paying for the hire car and the petrol for all our long drives. We’ve eaten in touristy places really so I bet you could do it even cheaper, particularly if you can read Cyrillic. The only really expensive thing is the aformentioned petrol.

One of the highlights of the trip has been us venturing into urban exploring as there have been so many empty buildings. The main ones mentioned online are too far away so there may be another trip here for that one day....maybe...



Last word....parents, if your spawn of satan child is screaming on a plane and kicking the seats in front constantly try and stop them! Don’t justlet them keep kicking for a start! Nearly three and a half hours of hell later and the abysmal parents didn’t even look sorry as a whole row of passengers sat with their fingers in their ears.

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