River Lodge 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 ...

... 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 ...

... is www.hotel-magi.hit.bg and you can email them at hotel.magi.velingrad@abv.bg The rooms are quaint, separate bathroom and heated. Still find it strange to just stand inside the bathroom and turn on the shower without having to stand in either a bath or shower bay. Will give an update on the food soon as we have eaten. Went to a nice restaurant for our dinner, it even had a live gypsy band playing. Had a great selection of ...

... that is suited to each species. It is the largest park of its kind in Europe and now covers over 120,000sqm. The bears were cute but it was heart wrenching to see and quite depressing. A lot of the bears were trained to dance by being forced to stand on a heated piece of metal, forcing them to shift their feet or "dance" to avoid burns. Due to this type of training, they started to "dance ...

... since supper was a long way away! Found a cafeteria style place and had some pork and sauerkraut stew, thumbs up! Wandered around Sophia a bit more and then went back to catch the bus. On our way to Bansko, we stopped at the Rila Monastery, the largest Eastern Orthodox Monastery in Bulgaria. It was an amazing place. Got the weirdest feeling when I was there, not good or bad, just weird. I bought a wooden painted Icon, love it but I will need to cut back on ...

... The day started early and by 10 am I was on a school bus with the different dance and singing groups, including the grown up men and women in their folk costumes, and 2 groups of girls who were in modern dance groups. I knew over half of the girls from my summer classes. On the way to razlog the men started up some folk songs with their instruments and passed around a bottle of rakia, and made me take a couple sips in front of my primary age ...

... with Desi translating and Galia proceeded to tell me that one of the girls in my 11th class said I had thrown a book at her like she was a dog. Well at first I didn't know what she was talking about, but I remembered that that morning I had been demonstrating phrasal verbs (like turn on, pick up, etc) and I had said 'hey stefka, look out!' and pretended to throw my dictionary at her. I still didn't understand why they would say that, and said we needed to find out what ...

... older kids you can get into more interesting things, and I have ideas for cool extracurricular activities I can start like a school newspaper, in English or Bulgarian I haven't decided. The only 'weird' thing we've had to adjust to so far is the showers. The bathroom has a tile floor, a toilet, sink, a shower head and a drain in the floor. There's no separate shower structure or even a curtain. It wasn't a big deal, I just had to rescue the toilet ...