King Samuil Spa & Resort Complex 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 ...

... good few feet deep in snow - ya! The central church was awash with brightly coloured, intricately detailed murals, which were fantastic to look at but honestly you could spend ages and still not take everything in them in! We walked arond checking the place out and wondering what it would be like to live there. Through one of the entrance gates we found some little shops and got to buy some lovely locally made pottery which ...

The Hotel Magi is situated in the heart of Velingrad on Cvedinenie Boulevard. It is a 4 storey hotel with quaint little rooms. Prices are good, 30 leva for single room, 40 for double room and 50 for a triple. Wireless internet is available, but the signal is not the best when you are in the rooms at the far end of the hotel. It boasts a bar and cafe on the ground floor which is open to public assess as well as for its patrons. Its ...

... 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 ...

Today was a holiday, which meant i didn't have to go to work (during the first 2 weeks of September all the teachers have to physically be at the school every morning, they sit around and do a bunch of paperwork - since i don't have paperwork i just sit around.) It also meant I was invited by Ivan, the leader of the men's folk group run by the chitalishte (community center) to go with the chitalishte to Razlog, the larger town a 20 minute drive ...

... Spaz blamed it on Galia. He even called Galia in the hospital in Sofia (the capital) when she was there with her daughter. So this causes some problems when Galia meets with us to arrange our schedule for the next several days, but she doesn't know what Spaz wants to do for a lesson plan. Finally, the most fun story: One day a couple weeks ago Galia came over to the community center where we have our Bulgarian lesson plans and said she had to talk to me urgently. So we sat ...

... training in groups of 8, which was really fun. We worked on the alphabet, greetings, counting and money. Then we had a presentation from our program directors, so all the primary TEFL in one room and the secondary teachers in another. That was the only boring part of the day. Oh, bit of a change, I found out yesterday that I am actually a secondary (highschool) teacher. When I got my invitation they sent me the wrong leaflet. Oops. I'm happy tho ...