Hotel Bisev Bansko

Hallo zusammen,

wie im vorigen Eintrag erwaehnt bin ich zum Rila Kloster gefahren, dem Jerusalem Bulgariens, UNESCO Weltkulturerbe und in 1000m Hoehe in den Pirin Bergen gelegen.

Von Sofia bin ich zunaechst mit dem Bus nach Dupnitsa gefahren, 60km im Sueden, 2,50 Euro fuer die Fahrt. Dupnitsa ist tiefste Provinz, englisch spricht hier niemand (und ...

... late and missed the gondola ride that would take me up to the mountain, so I was stuck in a city where half of it was empty (its major industry is skiing in the winter), having nothing to do. I walked the streets, used the hotel’s wifi to go to internets and relaxed. I ate a simple dinner and tried their "draft wine", I guess it means homemade wine without filtering, and it was cheap and nice.

8th June

Sofia to Rila Monastery

Sunny am 27 degrees Late storm

After breakfast we left our lovely hotel room in Sofia to drive to Rila Monastery. We made one detour to see some sign-posted rock formations where we drove up a goat track for a while, then climbed a hill and got to see a nice view but with no sign of the rock formations ...

So today we were venturing further afield and heading out to Rila a little village in the mountains about 2hrs drive SW from Sofia and to the famous monastery that was in the mountains a bit above the village. First though we had to find a taxi to get us to the bus station to catch the bus out there. Luckily the taxi was the easy bit and the lovely woman at the bus station spoke English and directed us to the correct bus even ...

... the cannons and no queues on these lifts. Again it was sunny and calm with virtually no wind. Got in a good afternoon's skiing, and even took in a couple of black runs having recovered my 7 point wipe out on an off-piste black on Friday (lost both skis, both poles, hat, goggles and MP3 player and then carried on, head-first down the mountain on my stomach!). All in all was a pretty good last days skiing. I like to ski on my own, meeting up with the guys every couple of hours ...

... everyone else early in the afternoon and we set out on the 2hr bus ride to the Dancing Bear Rescue Park in Belitsa. The road there was so rough that even I couldn't sleep, I think my bottom might be bruised from flying of the seat so much. I know my head hurts pretty bad from bouncing off the window the one time I did try to sleep! The Dancing Bears Park in Belista was founded in 2000 and it ...

... Two more hours on the bus and we were in Bansko. Got ready and then we went out for a big group dinner. The restaurant was a traditional place and had a gypsy band playing some music. Had some cured ham type of meat and then and amazing (!!!) rice, sauerkraut and shredded pork dish. Blew the one earlier out of the water! On the way back a couple of us grabbed some 2L bottles of beer (for $1.50!) and sat on the balcony for a couple of hours having some drinks.

If there's anyone out there reading this (and it appears there may be based on the number of hits the site is getting) I thought it was time for a comprehensive account of what it is exactly that I do as a peace corps volunteer, instead of just collections of pictures like my last several entries. So here is my daily schedule - 9 AM - I don't teach in the mornings so I wake up relatively late - the school day starts at 7:30, so my ...

... and sometimes it is the definite article. that's really fun and plural adjectives really suck too. and there's like 5 more different kinds personal pronouns than in english. and 7 groups of verbs in the past simple (7 ways to conjugate verbs depending on what group it's in.) that's not counting irregulars. as difficult as it is tho, i'm learning bulgarian really fast. the whole kocherinovo group is doing really well with the language. it's ...

... excites me whenever I can string together a simple sentence. I know one other PCV here in kocherinovo is already feeling frusterated at not being able to communicate. I don't, at least not yet. I guess having low expectations helps, or at least being realistic. We've been here less than a week, so I don't expect to be able to communicate complicated thoughts or questions and don't even try. At some point I'd like to get to know Dessi well enough so that ...