Finlandia**** Pamporovo

... which was so welcome to me.
My next 2 weeks before I meet Josh in Athens is to see more Bulgaria.
Tomorrow morning I am heading to Varna. I woudl tell you where I plan to go after that, but whats the use in planning? . . Meeting travelers comes with changing plans so like a wave, my plan is to just roll with it and ride it out.

I must mention my main notion on Bulgaria as a country. . .
Having just entered the EU in 2007, it is bustling with ex-pats and ...

The hotel was beautiful above the city and we have enjoyed a nice beer on the terrasse and then a opulent meal inside the restaurant.

The next day was the hard day to drıve long hours to Greece and then Turkey. We have only arrıved at 22:30 in Istanbul. The traffic in Istanbul is challenging as all Turkısh drivers only know one way --> agressively forward as fast and as ...

... know) we moved onto the wedding part of the proceedings where Bronwyn was dragged up to be the bridesmaid (we think) but of course could not understand a single thing they were asking her to do!

After this rather memorable event we took a short 'traditional' horse and cart ride to a lady's house where we were fed lunch and drank some rather bad 'local' raki and wine. Apparently the governemnt handed back traditional rights to villages ...

... que nous avons été accueilli par nos grand mères bulgares pendant quelque jours.
2 dames superbes qui habitent prés de sofia, environ 70 km et que Baltringue a rencontrée deux semaines auparavant dans la montagne de Maz-alat avant que Matthieu prenne le relais.
il le prendra donc pour écrire la suite de cette entrée.
Ber a assez bien résumé la situation je n'ai donc pas grand chose a rajouté si ce n'est que si nos ...

... et moi, comme vous le savez tous, sommes très soigneux de nos affaires et très organisés (;p), nous faisons donc un peu de ménage dans la voiture histoire de tuer le temps libre avant la tombé de la nuit
2 heures après, la nuit fait son apparition. 

Et la malheur!!, des éclaires nous surprennent, ayant anticipé le coup, j'ai pris mon courage a 2 mains (:p) et aménagé tranquillement le coffre de la voiture pour y passer ...

... br>Our first day we just explored the city a little bit. Found the market (do we always do that on the first day?) and took a look at the church now converted into an art museum. We actually only intended to use the toilet in the Museum, but luck turned out that we had arrived on the free day of the week for the museum and so we could take a look around. The museum clearly had "many" visitors. When we entered the wonderfully cool building, a woman sitting at the front ...

... hoped for the best and headed off. We can tell you now that Veliko may not have a thriving Sunday night scene, but it will always have something for those that look.
We ended up down a couple of flights of steps where a live band was playing, the place wasn't busy yet, we grabbed a table and ordered a couple of drinks (1.90lv for a 500ml beer). Slowly but surely as the music went on the place started to fill. By 2am the place was buzzing, by this stage ...

Saturday we crossed over the Danube and into Bulgaria. I hadn't realised they used a different alphabet to English, but it somehow marked our first real change.



We visited a beautiful Bulgarian town called Veliko Tarnovo in the afternoon. Wandered around and had a lovely lunch of a big pizza and drinks (all for about £3!) ate some ice cream and did a spot of shopping. We spent the night in the Dayonovo monastery. It was a little weird and the ...

... signed a petition to strengthen and reinforce the municipality in their standpoint to refuse the use of cyanide in the goldmines there. And today in Svilengrad there will be another first open discussion in the streets to provide the local population with information on the threats of the planned oil pipeline between Bourgas (Bulgaria) and Alexandroupolis (Greece) (www.ecotopiabiketour.net) This journey is a big challenge and ...

... sorts of authentic Bulgarian dishes. After that we went back to the hotel watched some TV ("When Harry met Sally" was on... in English even!) and I made use of the fire place. Pamporovo/Caves - In the morning we left the resort, and headed for two caves we wanted to see. On the way to the first cave we passed by a small and picturesque entirely authentic village called "Shiroka Luka". After that we finally found the cave called "Diavolsko Gurlo" (The Devil's Throat ...