TravelStream™ news feed for member mary_zell on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mary_zell en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:28:19 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187971620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187971620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187971620/tpod.html Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:28:19 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Sarande, Albania

The next morning I made my way to meet Adam, the next PVC on my itinerary. I had gotten in touch with him through CS. I caught an 8 AM furghon to Sarande, which wasn't a bad trip at all. Only 1.5 hours. Adam actually lives in Delvina, a small town about halfway between Gjirokaster and Saranda, but during the summer he's in Saranda almost every day. Saranda is a beach resort town, with a good number of highrise hotels, but not most are set back a bit from the water so it's not as ugly as it could be. Unlike, for example, most of Bulgaria's Black Sea. And the boardwalk/promenade area isn't completely ruined by development. Saranda is also so far south it's quite close to the Greek border; in fact, you can see the island of Corfu just across from the city.Although the trip wasn't bad I was feeling a bit off, probably from the prolonged heat, so I just lay on the sand in the shade and took a couple swims til about 2 pm when I met Adam and another PCV Katie for pizza and beer. We went swimming for about an hour and then met 3 other PCVs who had spent the day down in Butrint, some ruins about an hour south of Sarande. We took a furghon back to Adam's place in Delvina to shower and drink some beer and wine. Then back again to Saranda, where we hid our backpacks in some bushes, got dinner (more suvlach) and more beer and watched the Albanians promenade along the boardwalk. I should take a minute and explain the Albanian evening promenade - information coming from various PCVs. It's the big social activity in every town outside Tirana to put on your best and walk up and down either a boardwalk or a particular street for a few hours after dark. Boys mostly stick with boys and girls with girls, even older married men and women often split up. And even though premarital sex is pretty taboo outside Tirana, 'putting on their best' for many girls means dressing like prostitues. On the one hand it's about getting out and talking with friends, which i can understand in a small town with nothing else to do, at the same time trying to look good for the opposite sex. A lot of PCVs spend many evenings watching the promenades and commenting on the clothing choices.So the original reason for going to Sarande was camp out in an abandoned building about a 40 minute walk south of the city near to a fun club. John, one of the PCVs, explained that Albania has weird property laws which give ownership rights to anyone who builds on a piece of land, instead of someone just buying the land. Because of this there are tons of half finished buildings which the 'owners' knew they didn't have the money to finish, but wanted to lay claim to the land. Apparently the PCVs do this a lot in Albania and don't think anything of it, my reaction was, you guys are wild and crazy, us Bulgarian pcvs are pussies. i guess.well it was quite a walk down to this place, compounded by the excessive lying - 'oh, it's about a 10 minute walk,' 'oh, just a bit more,' - i just wished i had put my walking shoes on instead of flip flops. In the end only half of the group went down to the club, the rest of us stayed on the roof, drinking beer and talking, and watching the ferries arriving in Corfu and others departing for Italy. We fell asleep in our sleeping bags under the stars.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187882760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187882760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187882760/tpod.html Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:06:21 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Gjirokaster, Albania

Early the next morning I walked out to see the bridge in Berat, and then caught a 9:30 AM bus south to Gjirokaster. The day before Katie had arranged for me to sleep with Margaret, a PCV there. Well it was very unfortunate the bus left so late (it was the only one) because the trip was miserable. Katie had told me to try to get a seat in the first row because the driver left the doors open and I would get some breeze. Those were taken, so i was 3 rows back. The windows didn't open and there was no air of course. On top of the intense heat the driver played loud Albanian wedding music (think drums) which hurt my head even with earplugs in. On some bits of the road the paving wasn't very good, but the real reason the trip was so slow was the narrow road zig zagged up and over steep mountains. Most of the 5.5 hour trip I just sat and thought how miserable I was. The only highlight was when an elder woman sat next to me for about an hour and we struck up a conversation in Albanian (mostly pointing,) where was I from, if I was alone (she said shum mir, very good, when I said I was,) and I showed her on my guidebook maps where I was travelling in Albania and where I live in Bulgaria.Once in Gjirokaster Margaret met me where the bus dropped me off and took me back to her place. We spent about an hour talking. She is an awesome woman. Over 50, but looks much younger. Has lived all over the world and is better physical shape than I am. She does triathalons at home in the States. Then i went up alone to the castle which overlooks the town. It is worth seeing, but I think the highlight of Gjirokaster is the windy cobblestoned streets in the old town (just below the castle) and the beautiful white houses with grey slate roofs on the hills. This time i did wear my walking shoes - the streets are slippery.When I got back to Margaret's her site mate Stacy was there, another Albania PCV Andrew, and his friend Craig visitting from PC Ukraine. We talked some about Albanian culture and compared notes on our respective programs. We got a cheap dinner nearby. I had a delecious suvlach (we call it a gyro in America.) I often ate suvlach in Albania and I was very impressed. You find it all over the Balkans, and the only ones i've had to rival the Albanian ones I had in Athens. The Bulgarian version (called duners) are particularly crap.Around 9:30 pm I went back to shower and go to bed as I was exhausted from my trip earlier, while Margaret and Stacy helped Craig to catch an overnight bus to Athens. Fortunately Gjirokaster had water all day, it was so refreshing to shower just before bed, even if I did start sweating again immediately. I passed out before 11 despite the heat.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187772420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187772420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187772420/tpod.html Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:32:15 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Berat, Albania

My last morning in Pogradec I was expecting to drive to Elbasan early, but there were more problems with Lelya needing to make some photocopiees but had to wait for the electricity to come back on. Every day the electricity had been out from about 8 AM to 2 PM or so. In fact, many cafes and shops had large noisy generators outside so that they could still be open during the day. Didn't make for a very peaceful cup of coffee. When I learned that piece of news I said, Mary, autobus, Elbasan. They fed me some breakfast and Lelya, Anjela's little brother and Malvina walked me to the center and put me on a furghon (mini-bus) headed towards Tirana.I had been nervous to travel in Albania, after reading that there aren't any bus or furghon schedules, and that it can be a bit crazy and confusing, but this trip was very easy. At Elbasan my driver passed me along to another driver, who drove to just a turnabout in the middle of nowhere and flagged down a 3rd furghon to Berat. The whole trip took 3.5 hours and cost 750 leke. It was easy but hot - if I had known Lelya wouldn't be able to drive me I would have started the trip around 6 AM, not only to have a cooler trip but also more time in Berat.My host Katie, a peace corps volunteer teaching English (like me!!) met me in the bus station and we dropped my stuff at her beautiful apartment. We talked a bit - we really clicked, it's funny how much we had in common. Same age, same peace corps program, same start and finish dates. Around 2:30 we met some Albanian friends of hers and had a light lunch.After lunch we went home to take a shower around 4. Albania is in the middle of a terrible drought, so in certain parts including Berat, in addition to losing power every day like normal, they only have water a couple hours every day. In fact power shortages are getting a lot worse too since most power is hydro-electric. We had to shower between 4 and 6 pm, even though we just started sweating again immediately afterwards. The electricity came on at 5:30 so Katie put in a load of laundry, including some of my clothes, and even hung them all up for me later when i was out sightseeing.Katie had a class to teach at 6, and around 7 pm I headed up to the citadel - I wasn't in a huge hurry to sightsee in the heat. On the way I saw the Leaden Mosque, plain but nice. On the way up to the citadel I was really sweating - the climb wasn't so bad, it was just SO hot. Once at the top I was totally blown away. My guide book had really undersold this. It said an inhabited citadel, I didn't know exactly what to expect. Well it's a huge castle with a village of people living inside, another volunteer told me later about 800 people. Inside the castle walls are windy streets, houses, shops and cafes built from the original interior walls plus new materials. The only problem was it got dark around 8:30, way before I was done wandering inside. There are no streetlights, a little creepy actually. I made my way down to the town, slipping on the cobble stoned streets in my flip-flops, back to Katie's place.That night we had dinner at Katie's site mate's apartment. His place is absolutely huge, it's rediculous. There were several other PCVs (peace corps volunteers) in town as well. It was fun to compare notes - PC Bulgaria vs. PC Albania. In general the PCVs here seem a closer bunch, they party together and date eachother more than we do. And it seems the problems they have working with Albanians are similar to ours but in a more extreme form - mainly apathy. Anyway Katie and I went home around 1 AM and fell asleep in the heat - thank goodness she has a fan.PS: my camera batteries died just as I was going to the citadel, so all the photos of Berat in this entry are from Katie.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187724360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187724360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187724360/tpod.html Thu, 06 Sep 2007 16:04:20 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Pogradec, Albania

I slept very well and was up the next morning by 8:30 AM. Got changed and packed, since I thought we'd be leaving by 10. The day before Lelya had invited me to stay one night in Elbasan at her house, where she was from. I agreed and sent an SMS to Katie, my CS host in Berat, to let her know I'd be a day late. Lelya wasn't around so I went for a short walk, this time with my camera.When I get back I met Malvina, her younger sister Ola and another friend, Anula. Anula's English is especially good. Well Lelya still wasn't around, doing some business in another town actually, so I went with the girls to the market and then for coffee at a really nice hotel on the beach. The girls are really smart and ambitious - both Malvina and Aluna will start university, Malvina studying to be a doctor, Aluna a lawyer. It seems like Albania is on the verge of a change, with girls in their twenties and younger the first to have the chance to study and have ambitious careers. They were also really curious about America and about me travelling alone, whether it was dangerous to travel by myself. And they kept treating me, for coffee and for ice cream, I didn't protest too much since I know in their culture it verges on an insult if you refuse.It was 1 pm when I got back to the house and Lelya was still nowhere to be seen. She came back at 2 with Anjela's little brother and said, how about we stay in Pogradec tonight, and then tomorrow night in Elbasan? I said I definitely had to be in Berat tomorrow morning, so she said she would drive me to Elbasan the next morning and I would continue to Berat, and I agreed. I was a bit frusterated but at least I was having a really great time with the family and neighbor girls so I didn't let it bother me too much.We had some lunch and then I went to the beach with the kids. We really bonded more that day, holding hands, swimming around with them on my back. That night back at home I had a long conversation with Lelya and Anjela's mom, without a translator. It's amazing what you can get across with gestures and a bit of creative drawing. Around 9:30 pm I went out with Malvina and Ola, and their younger brother Ermes. They emphasized how late it was for them to be out, that they usually go home around this time - especially the girls. We just had coffee and were home by 10. Once home we had a quick dinner with the family, then bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187627340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187627340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187627340/tpod.html Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:20:09 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Pogradec, Albania

I slept so well the night before, Al has the most comfortable beds, and so much space, including a guest bedroom and guest bathroom! In the morning I had time for a coffee with Al at home, then we went and had fish chowder for breakfast. Instead of the famous Ohrid trout, which is endangered altho many restaurants still serve it, we had California trout raised in a nearby resorvoir. I took an hour to walk out and see the Sv. Jovan monastery, very sweet and perched on a cliff, dramatic setting. I liked it a lot better than Sv. Naum from yesterday. Walked a bit more through the Old Town and got some day time photos. Then I went back to Al's and had to hurry to get my bus to the Albanian border, about 10 km further south than Sv. Naum on the southern side of the lake.This was going to be my first border crossing on foot, and i was nerdily excited about that. My bus made a stop first at Sv. Naum, and I was surprised to be the only one staying on until the border. A bit later I was dropped off at the Macedonian border. It proved to be the easiest border crossing of my life. I was the 5th in line, 2 others were also crossing on foot. I struck up a conversation with this couple in Macedonian by asking them the time. They turned out to be a really lovely couple, the man (Bairam) Macedonian from Ohrid, and his wife (Sanije) was Albanian from Pogradec the Albanian town just on the other side of the border. After getting my exit stamp from the Macedonians we had to walk about 10 minutes to the Albanian check point, and we chatted, when they learned I was going to Pogradec they told me to go in their taxi so I wouldn't get screwed on the price. If I was alone the driver would want 10 or maybe 20 euro (I had been told by Al to bargain and the best price I could get would be 5 euro.) So I thought, great, I really have awesome luck - I can talk to them in Macedonian, and they speak Albanian of course and know the local deal. I ended up paying 100 MKD, about 1.50 euro.During the ride to Pogradec we talked more and when Sanije found out I was planning to spend the night there, to find a private room, she got really excited and invited me to stay with them. I thought, why not. We went to her sister-in-law's house and had Turkish style coffee, the same as they drink in Bulgaria, with the grounds still in the bottom. When we were finished we turned over our cups and once the dregs dried we had our fortunes told by Sanije's sister Lelya, the apparent expert. Sanije translated into Macedonian for me. Apparently after my return to America from Bulgaria I'll get engaged. My parents are facing a serious decision, maybe about the house or money, they'll make the right decision and their lives will improve (not likely, as they are divorced, kept that to myself.) And I've been thinking about a certain boy lately (true,) and he either is also thinking about me or isn't thinking about me, didn't understand that point.At the house I also met Anjela,13 years old, Sanije's niece from her brother - we were at Anjela's mom's house. A bit later I wanted to go out to the beach (Pogradec is on the Albanian side of Lake Ohrid) so they sent Anjela to show me the way, even tho it was literally 2 blocks. We found a good place. Anjela didn't have a swim suit so I tried to tell her I was OK by myself (pointing to myself, saying mir - good - and waving goodbye,) but she wasn't getting it. Fortunately a minute later a sweet woman struck up a conversation with me, she spoke some English, and I asked her to tell Anjela for me. Anjela was very surprised I could find my way back and a bit worried to leave me alone. That happens a lot and I find it amusing when I travel - I mean, if I made it from Ohrid to Pogradec by myself that morning, I can probably make it 2 blocks back to the house. So she left, I went for a quick swim (the water was filled with algea which I'm sure is from pollution) and had just fallen asleep on the beach when Anjela was back to pick me up. I could have easily stayed longer at the beach but didn't want to make a fuss, so I went back to the house.Back at the house I changed, then went out wandering the neighborhood. My real aim was to get some food since I hadn't had any lunch, and it was about 5 pm. I saw a few nice streets, but mostly decrepit houses and lots of trash in the streets and in the creek. I was wondering about 5 blocks away from the beach, clearly not the best area. I came back to the house just in time to say goodbye to Bairam and Sanije, who were going back to Ohrid, and to take some photos. After that I was on my own with no translator.After Bairam and Sanije left I went with Lelya, Sanije's sister, and Anjela's little brother to have a cold drink by the beach. That is my favourite part of Pogradec, the cafes set up on the grass along the beach. It was pretty fun to be trying to communicate in Albanian, but also frusterating as it is completely unrelated to any other language. It took her about 15 minutes to explain the concept of brother and sister in order to ask me if I have one.Back at the house I met a bunch of the neighbor kids in the courtyard. 2 girls, who are sisters, spoke some Englsih, especially the older one Malvina. All the smaller kids crowded around as well, really curious. Then inside we had a simple dinner (I tried to learn some of the words for the foods) and later I took my first bucket bath. I actually impressed myself by getting all the shampoo out of my hair. I think practice in the Turkish hamaams helped. Before bed we spent about an hour looking at the pictures in my guide book with Anjela's little brother (9 years old) and Anjela dancing around with her aunt, Lelya, and both kids watching me write in my journal, impressed with the English.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187540640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187540640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187540640/tpod.html Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:35:30 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Ohrid, Macedonia

After sleeping 4 hours I was up to pack up my bag and bring it over to Al's apartment. He has a beautiful place just outside the walls of the Old Town. After that I met Ben at the port and ran to get some burek and yoghurt drink (iryan in Bulgarian) to take with us on our boat - he held the boat for us while I got the breakfast and literally ran the 3 blocks back to the port. The boat trip was beautiful and took us from the north side of Lake Ohrid, where Ohrid town is, down to the south side to see the Sveti Naum Monastery. 1.5 hours, 200 dinars. The monastery is cute but not as amazing as Lonely Planet made it sound. It was also packed with tourists, in retrospect right after 2 ferry boats arrive is probably not the best time to visit. We had some delicious lunch near the monastery, then headed north again. We didn't know the bus schedule (should've asked around, oh well.) Tried to hitch, but all the cars were packed, so ended up taking a taxi for 200 dinars total to Gradishte, not a bad price. Gradishte is about halfway back towards Ohrid and is 4 beautiful pebble beaches next to a camp site. We spent about 5 hours at the beach. It was beautiful clear blue water, and the weather was hot enough to make it worth it to keep going in. Refreshing every time. Around 7 we met Al, who had been there for a few hours, at a trendy bar on one of the other beaches. We had a beer and watched the sunset, then took a bus back to Ohrid. Al cooked a good spicy dinner for the 3 of us. We had some good conversation and I was passed out in bed by 12.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187454720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187454720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1187454720/tpod.html Sat, 25 Aug 2007 06:39:50 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Ohrid, Macedonia

My two week vacation from the peace corps has finally begun. I've been looking forward to this since my last trip ended in April. Last night I took the night bus from Sofia to Ohrid. Took almost 11 hours. Fortunately I got 2 seats to myself, unfortunately across the aisle from me a man was sporadically throwing up into a plastic bag all night. The border crossing came around 10 pm, took about an hour, pretty painless. Only annoying factor was we had to unload our bags twice for customs, on both sides of the border, fortunately they just peeked in most bags.Arrived in Ohrid at 4:45 AM local time. was surprised to learn that Macedonia is an hour ahead of Bulgaria. as i was blinking and looking around sleepily I was invited to sit with a group of people outside at a cafe. I hung out with these drunk happy people for about an hour, but refused their beer - it was too early for me, tho late for them. I did share some of my Bulgarian rakia I brought with me. One girl spoke great English, and with the rest of them I was able to speak Bulgarian with little problems. Bulgarian and Macedonian are rediculously close to eachother, like 2 dialects of the same langauge. an added bonus is that my dialect from Belitsa, which is pretty strong since it developed isolated in the mountains, lies somewhere inbetween Bulgarian and Macedonian.Around 6 AM i headed down to the center of town and to the lake, about a 20 minute walk. Lake Ohrid is about half the size of Lake Tahoe, so pretty big. Hung out at the port for 2 hours, ate some day old banitsa and even fell asleep for a bit. I didn't think I had a CS or HC host so i found a lady to rent me a private room for 500 MKD (around 8 euro.) I walked around the old town a bit and went for a swim in town. my first impressions of ohrid: really sweet, great old town with cobble stone streets to wander. But it didn't really grab me at first. Maybe because it's so similar to Bulgaria, it's not exciting enough. I can communicate easily and all the houses have the same red tiled roofs as in Bulgaria.Later that afternoon I met Al and Ben, the two peace corps volunteers who live in Ohrid. It sounds like they're both doing great work - Al has been key in developing Ohrid's tourism, and Ben is doing cross border work among Macedonians, Albanians and Greeks. Got some of the dirt on Peace Corps Macedonia and on the local government. Unfortunately I learned too late that Al did have a bed for me - 2 guests were no shows, the cardinal sin of hospitalityclub/couchsurfing. so we made plans for me to spend the next night at his apartment. Also I learned to late that it's not the best idea to swim in town, as the water isn't the cleanest. There are some lovely beaches tho a bus ride from town. We spent about 4 hours talking and drinking beer and made plans to meet later that night.I went home to shower, got a quick dinner (hamburger) and then did some night wandering for about an hour and a half. the old town is very beautiful at night. I met Al and Ben at the pier at 9:30 pm along with Al's HC guest from Germany (not the one that didn't show, a different guy.) We took a 'night cruise' out on Lake Ohrid for 100 MKD, really nice, perfect weather. Then I went out all night, the first half just with Ben and the second with all 4 guys. Ohrid has a good bar scene, especially on weekends, there's a big tourist scene so the bars are packed. I wasn't in bed til 4 AM. i couldn't believe that I had only been in Ohrid one day, it seemed like the longest day of my life (i guess it was almost a 24 hour day,) which is probably why this seems like the longest blog entry of my life as well.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186898940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186898940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186898940/tpod.html Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:45:43 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Belitsa, Bulgaria

I continued a great weekend on Sunday by going for another hike in the Rila mountains. This time I went with Tsveti, one of the students in Belitsa who speaks perfect English. She studies in a neighboring town and we often meet to practice her English. She also is my assistant teacher for my primary summer classes. Anyway we had a great time. First we had to hitchhike the 13 km up to Semkovo, the mountain resort, which was easy in the morning as lots of people go up to spend the day. After that it was a 3 hour walk up, where we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed the view for about an hour, and a 2 hour walk down. On the way down we ran into Ivan, the husband of one of my adult students, and he invited us for a late lunch/early dinner barbacue at the Semkovo hizha (cabin.) So we had a great meal of salad and grilled chicken and steak. Later we caught another ride down to Belitsa, this time with a guy we both knew, the owner of one of the cafes.I'd been sounding out Tsveti on the idea of starting some kind of youth group here in Belitsa, and we talked about it again on Sunday. Going on hikes would be a perfect activity. We'll probably start something up in September. I'll probably regret waiting a whole year before I started something like this, but at least the ball is rolling now (a little bit.)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186725000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186725000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1186725000/tpod.html Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:04:35 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Belitsa, Bulgaria

I had my first guest ever through HC, www.hospitalityclub.org. up til now all of my guests have come through couchsurfing. guido from italy was a great guest. it's always nice to have someone visit, because i see my town through thier eyes and remember how much i like it here. guido had rented a car for his 2 weeks in bulgaria, so the first night he was here we took my friends ana and vlado and drove to bansko to see one night of the International Jall Festival that happens every year. The music was good and I was really impressed with the organization. Bansko was packed and the music went until at least 1 AM, when we left. On thursday guido amused himself while i was at class, and that night we had dinner with my upstairs neighbors, a 3 1/2 hour meal with lots of conversation and jokes. guido and i spent friday morning first browsing the belitsa market, then drove to yakaruda, a town 20 kilometers north, where we ate some fresh delicious banitsa then went to the pool. throughout my region there are lots of hot mineral springs, and they are often used to fill swimming pools with naturally warm water. my favourite one is in yakaruda - i think it is the cleanest of the ones close to belitsa and the setting is just beautiful in the mountains. guido left around 1 pm to drive to sofia and i enjoyed the rest of the day at the pool.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1184517480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1184517480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mary_zell/pcbulgaria/1184517480/tpod.html Tue, 14 Aug 2007 12:52:38 -0400 Next Mission: Peace Corps Bulgaria.

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Belitsa, Bulgaria

This weekend we took a more adventurous hike up into the Rila mountains. we drove up to Semkovo, the mountain resort above my town, and walked from there. There were 5 of us - me, one of my best friends here Ana, her brother Vlado, her best friend Vlado and another friend Dinko. It was about 2 hours up and 1.5 down, including lots of breaks especially cigarette breaks (3 out of 5 of the group smokes.) Once there we cooked a gourmet cookout lunch, and spent 4 hours up there relaxing. so we spent more time at the lake than we actually did hiking. All in all it was a great day, perfect weather and great company.
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