Casa Milla 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 ...

... cobs. So much for grape vines needing temperate climes though - they were all doing fine here. One thing that did keep Kel and I amused was actually trying to see the scenery at some points as the bus had no heating so we were literally scraping the frost off with our fingernails for much of it to be able to see out! And Kel wondered why I never took my ski ********** for the entire trip! We were impressed with our driver's ...

So after two days we left Sofia in the morning for game reserve Iskar.This reserve is situated south of Sofia near Rila mountains.In this reserve we had really good time; we were riding horses,eating barbecue,going on a safari with some old Russian 4 WD; where we saw red deers (Cervus eleaphus), fallow deers (Dama dama),and mouflons. After we spent all day easy going we continued our trip to Borovetz mnt.resort on the slopes of Rila ...

... 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.

... and how little we might accomplish in that time. my hope is to leave all my students with the confidence to keep learning english on their own and the basic grammer principles (forming a sentence and conjugating the verbs) hammered into their heads so one day they can go on and have full on conversations in english. but i doubt i'll be here to see it if that does happen. Besides teaching, I think things are going really well in Belitsa. My ...

... the community's priorites, not our own. And there's also a chance that we laid a foundation for a future collaboration between the community center and kids at the school (Galia seemed pretty interested in doing some kind of display about the storks during the next school year) - unfortunately, the school director doesn't get along with either the community center people or the town hall people so that relationship might not have come about otherwise.

... have books because they can't afford them. Overall I thot the class went really well, they were all on really good behavior which probably won't last. The teachers tell them to be extra good, since they see us as guests and want to show off the school, Dessi (teacher Dessi) says it's a holdover from Soviet days. Plus the kids were good cause we're the town celebrities, which will probably wear off. Anyway I thot my teaching went well, but I wish ...