Tag Archives: Bulgaria

Southern Bulgaria 2015

We were so lucky during the second half our trip through Bulgaria. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into and didn’t know what to expect. We were in the mountains in southern Bulgaria and were able to visit some really cool caves, meet some awesome people, stay in some neat places, and go on some great hikes in gorgeous scenery.

We had no idea Bulgaria was so beautiful. We were here at the right time to see all the mountain flowers in bloom and we had good weather throughout. Tourism isn’t quite in swing yet so we had a chance to talk to our hosts and learn about their lives in Bulgaria. Much like everywhere else they were concerned about the same big three.

Bulgaria is made for outdoors activities. They have different mountain types throughout the country, from rolling mountains like the Appalachians to rugged mountains like the Pacific NW. The tallest mountain is around 9,000ft so pretty much everywhere is traversable by foot and the trailheads are easily accessed by car. Great views can be had pretty quickly, we would only hike for 30min to 1hr before trails would open up and give great views making the reward:effort ratio off the chart. Even the most popular trails are not crowded because of the time of year so we had a lot of time by hiking by ourselves enjoying nature in peace.

There are chalets, huts, and lodges people can stay at while hiking through the mountains. They range from basic (walls & door) to electricity, cafeteria, heat, hot water, internet, etc. We only stayed in one chalet and it was a great time. If/when we come back, I would definitely spend more time hiking and spend more nights in the mountains.

The hosts we had in the mountain areas were really cool. In one guesthouse we were pretty much the only guests. The guesthouse was in the middle of nowhere and had no internet so we were hanging out in the dining area killing time before dinner. We were sitting chatting with our host while the TV played traditional Bulgarian music. Soon Jacquelyn found herself learning traditional Bulgarian dance from the host! One of the nights we stayed near Rila Lakes I went out to photograph the night sky around 11PM. The chalet man, an awesome guy named Martin, came out to see what I was doing. We ended up chatting until 2AM while drinking his homemade rakia, a brandy like drink. That was the night I learned I cannot drink like a Bulgarian.

I would have loved to stay in Bulgaria longer, go on more hikes, and explore more of the mountains.  Bulgaria has all the attributes we like and is definitely near the top of our favorite countries we’ve visited. Who would have thought? :).

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

 

Northern Bulgaria 2015

Bulgaria is a strange country. We’ve been to some strange places but Bulgaria stands out as being the most odd in the bunch. We really are enjoying our time in Bulgaria; we are driving a big circle around the country and we’ve noticed the northern part is pretty different than the southern part so I’ve decided to break this up into two parts. We are in the south now and that will part will come once we’ve left Bulgaria.

So Bulgaria is a weird country for a handful of reasons but I want to stress how much we are enjoying our time here. We’ve had some phenomenal experiences that cannot be replicated anywhere else. Bulgaria has all the attributes we enjoy: the people are kind and generous, the sights are magnificent, stellar hiking, the price is right, and all the roads are pretty much paved. There is one huge difference in Bulgaria vs. everywhere else we’ve traveled: the seclusion and the ability to enjoy activities in solitude. It’s truly remarkable!

With that said, it’s a “make your own adventure” place. There’s not a lot of information online, the country really isn’t foreign tourist friendly as spoken English is not common and the few English information boards we find are often useless. There are some wonderful sights we visited that have 2-5 TripAdvisor reviews and no other information online. It’s like international tourism is just starting and they are figuring out all the things they need to make multinational tourism work.

There’s a problem we regularly encounter and we’ve given it the name “the last 5%”. It seems as though there’s enough information for us to get close to the things we want to do but the last 5% of needed information, be it knowing the hours of operation, the cost, the location, part of the route, activities at the destination, etc., are unknown. There’s always enough information to get very close but we have to figure out the last 5% on the way, when we arrive, or while we’re doing the activity. The best example is when we wanted to visit a tourism information center to get a map for a hike only to find out the road became undrivable and we had to walk the last 15min to the center. We were fortunate someone had put the GPS coordinates for the center on TripAdvisor otherwise we would have never found the place! It also applies to our dealings with people and businesses. The first clue things were different in Bulgaria is when we picked up our rental car from Enterprise with ¾’s of a fuel tank, “this is how we things work in Bulgaria” the sales agent after I expressed surprised for not getting a full tank. It’s not necessarily bad, just odd and different.

Bulgaria is super chill; pretty much everyone is really laid back. Once again we are driving around everywhere exploring and stopping to check out cool things we find while roaming around. Just like in Romania, we find ourselves trespassing a lot to see different things but we don’t really know a better way. We may not find the people we need to pay or find the actual entrance for the place we’re trying to visit. No one really cares. The Bulgarian people are very enterprising. It seems wherever a congregation of people could possibly be there is a shop selling food or trinkets. I had remarked to Jacquelyn that I was seeing a lot of women on the side of the road and it was really strange to see all these women dressed like they are going to a nightclub waiting for buses out in the middle of nowhere . She replied, “Chris, they are prostitutes”. Then it made sense; Jacquelyn’s comprehension skills are one of the many reasons why I keep her around J.

For about the first week we had bad luck with food, it was like we were living in bizzaro world. Things we ordered were nothing like what we envisioned. Everything we ordered seemed to be drenched in cheese, oil, cream or all of those items. One time we thought we were ordering cheese bread only to find we ordered two slices of deep fried cheese each about the size of Texas Toast. The most hilarious mix up occurred when I ordered a “local salad” only to get all the ingredients unprepared on a plate! Jacquelyn ordered a different type of salad and hers came prepared. There was no price difference between our salads so I wasn’t even able to save money due to the lack of preparation! It took a lot of mistakes but we’re now ordering absolutely delicious food and have come to thoroughly enjoy traditional Bulgarian food.

Now, on to the things that make Bulgaria uniquely awesome. There are so many Roman/Turkish/Bulgarian historical sights all throughout this small country a person could probably spend months touring around and never see it all. Outside of Sofia and a couple other touristy areas, there’s pretty much no one visiting the sights, especially international tourists. We thought Romania had a dearth of tourist but we regularly find ourselves alone. There is a lot of great hiking around the country. We went to an area called Belogradchick near the Serbia/Romania border and found an area a lot like where I grew up in the Black Hills – similar trees and rolling mountains but sandstone instead of granite. It was awesome to have some alone time on the trail and enjoy nature free from the ruckus of humanity. The solitude and seclusion has been absolutely amazing and rejuvenating. There are a lot of natural wonders that are beautiful like massive caves, mountains, and waterfalls. We had no idea Bulgaria had such diverse sights to visit

There are still a lot of communist relics littered about and they are endlessly fascinating to us. Just driving down the highway we’d see abandoned monuments with massive statues dedicated to the people and the workers. Socialism started in the early 1920s and there was an monument built by the communists on the site of the first socialist meeting. The monument, called Buzludzha, was used as a meeting place during communism and since been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. Before we visited we had asked many locals how to find the place and how to get in; almost all the locals thought we were insane for wanting to visit. Since it’s technically closed we were only able to get in after crawling through a hole someone made in a wall. Once we were in it was very eerie and enough of the décor remains to give a flavor for how the building looked when it was in use. It was a surreal experience

We thought the first half of our time in Bulgaria was really cool and fun but the second half is just as good if not better but that’s for next time :).

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.