Ida Hotel 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 ...

A lot of Americans celebrated and had fun on this day but not me. I went to the central bus station on time to catch an early bus but somehow the cashier sold me a wrong ticket so I missed the bus, and then she refused to give me the refund. The first really unpleasant experience for this trip. And the day didn't get much better after this. I ended up catching a later bus to Bansko, but because of that I ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

After our late arrival, everyone materialized at around 10am, milled around for a while, asked what we were doing, milled around some more, went away, came back and we finally made it to the gondola station at around 11am. Parking was easy, there is a big car park at the gondola station, plenty of spaces, parking was 5lev for the day. Hiring skis was the next part - this was an adventure in itself. There is a big ski hire ...

... managed to free, and is now home to, 25 bears. Even though the training of bears has been prohibited in Bulgaria since 1998, as of May 2007, there were still 3 registered dancing bears held in captivity. Fortunately, in June of 2007, these last 3 bears were transferred to the park and there are now (officially) no dancing bears in Bulgaria. The park tries to provide the bears with a natural ...

Had a lazy morning since we weren't leaving Sophia until 2. Got moving just before noon and then went in search of food. Quick piece of pizza, of course covered in Ketchup. I'm actually starting to get used to the ketchup on pizza slices! Then I tried to do some travelers errands. Browsed some stores and bought a bracelet for my mama while I waited for my pictures to be burnt to a CD. Made friends with the girls at the picture shop and then went to find more ...

... so much. Some of my adults learn very fast (a few are starting at a higher level, even tho we begin with the alphabet on day one,) and I have a couple in each group who learn painfully slow. I refuse to leave behind the slow learners, so it makes teaching the group challenging. So on Wednesdays at this time I have a Bulgarian lesson with Maria, one of the Bulgarian teachers at the school. We are getting to be really good friends. She ...

... my family did that tho. On Saturday morning Desi's whole side of the family including her brother, his wife and their daughter Viki, got a ride to the cemetery. We brought a huge feast of food. Once we got there we lit candles and stick them in the dirt in front of the headstone, and laid out all of the food and drinks on the ground where Desi's father is buried. I didn't want to ask for explanations, but it seemed like it was to share a meal with him ...

... for midnight, it seemed kind of social, a lot of people were even having a cigarette. While we were waiting we also bought tall thin candles to light. My family's not very religious, but they still do all the orthodox traditions. At midnight a monk rang some bells outisde, and we all walked around the church. We were supposed to go around 3 times but only went once, I didn't get a clear answer out of Dessi later about that. Then we listened to some monks ...