Hotel Vihren Palace Ski & Spa Resort Bansko

... kann ich natuerlich ich auch kaum, die Bulgaren haben kyrillisch erfunden). Habe aber den Bus nach Rila in die Berge gefunden und war dort dann am Spaetnachmittag (erneut 60km fuer 2,50 Euro). Habe mich im Kloster einquartiert (10 Euro fuer die Nacht, Duschen gibt es keine), wenn die Tagestouristen weg sind ist es ganz nett. Touristen gibt es naemlich sehr viele ...

... 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.

... back and continued on to Rila Monastery. We arrived early afternoon and found that a room was available so decided to stay overnight at the Monastery. The Monastery is in a forested valley and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was first built in 927 and has 300 monk's cells in buildings surrounding the Nativity Church. It continues to be a working ...

... gorgoeus. In another shop as a reward for saying thankyou to the shopkeeper in Bulgarian she gave us half an apple each! The trip back to Sofia was colder than the trip out as the sun had set so we were all bundled up with our beanies, glove and ski jackets in full use - even the locals were rugged up so I didn't feel too touristy! When we got in a cab in Sofia it was -3'C outside so no wonder the bus was so cold as the ...

... style food to pick from, so I tried chicken with grilled vegetables. Food was excellent as was the service. Walked back to the hotel, it was already 9.30pm so while Damyan & Erina retired to bed I worked on the travel blog. Morning now and I must say it was the best night's sleep I have had for awhile. Even though I got up at 7.00am I still had slept well. Internet connection was up and down as usual so I went downstairs to get ...

... in Bansko, I went for dinner with two of the others. Tried the cold yogurt and cucumber soup that is on every menu, it wasn't bad but wasn't near as good as the cold soup that was in Latvia! Also had a shish or shish kebab to the rest of us, yummy stuff. Came back to the hotel and chilled on the patio for a couple beers again before heading in for an early night before the dreaded 6am start tomorrow.

... 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.

Leading up to the 2nd week of June I met regularly with 3 of my colleagues (Ana, Dora, and Mehmed) and my friend Ana, who teaches at the other school, to plan a week long summer day camp for the primary school kids. The planning process went pretty smoothly, except for one meeting when i was the only one who showed up ...

Well I've been in Belitsa a bit over a week, and things are going really well. I don't know why i was so ******* myself last time i made an entry, i mean i can't expect to be fully integrated in the community after 2 days. anyway since then i've met a lot of people. i've even gone na gosti successfully. in bulgarian 'na gosti' literally means going visiting, and it's a big part of bulgarian culture. basically you can go over to someone's house ...

... can't even understand what he's saying) and the guests, the girls with and shoeboxes and the people in the audience just look like they walked in off the street. I didn't think that show could get any worse. It's amazing. OK I wasn't watching Deal or No Deal for a minute and when I looked up the host is now measuring the girls' breasts with a measuring tape. I don't know why, and Dessi says she doesn't know either. I don't know whats going on. This might be a good ...