Bulgaria Trip Part I: Rila Mountains

Bulgaria Summer Trip: Part I

Acting somewhat on impulse, we identified Bulgaria as one of those "formerly forbidden, now open and available, and therefore interesting" places. Jay's solo work trip down here in May 18 confirmed it so we took the show on the road to check out this former Soviet-dominated republic.

First stop was in the Rila Mountains south of the capital of Sofia where we lucked into a beautiful day for an outstanding hike around a series of seven alpine lakes. A route about 6 miles in length, the kids managed it without problems. Well mostly. We were caught in a sudden rainstorm near the top of the hike, but pushed onward to bag the seventh lake, even though this meant leaving Jasper behind to hide under a rock in his t-shirt and shorts (he was also freaked out by the thunder). Cody followed along but kept muttering, exasperated, to himself "What the heck, parents can't just leave behind their kids!"

In the end everyone survived, there was no hypothermia, and we enjoyed one of the scenic highlights of the country. It was so amazing to have a big hike like this, since there are no mountains like this near Berlin of course. So the trip was off to a great start.

Chairlift to the ridgeline start of the hike.

Adding to the hiking cairns near the top of the ridgeline. Beautiful flat meadow stretched out everywhere beyond.

The meadows up here were soft, expansive, and filled with wildflowers.

At some point we starting documenting the lakes by holding up fingers to correspond to which lake number we stood at.

Cody's red sweatpants, which should have been retired awhile ago, have brushed rocks, street cobbles and jungle gyms all over this continent.

Jay resurrected his LL Bean 1990-issue Anorak for this trip. It worked on me as a college student travelling thru Europe then, and it still works now! And in TEAL.

Downtown Sapareva Banya, sulfur-smelling hot springs in the downtown park. Sulphur eats down the concrete so they have to rebuild the fountain every few years.

Lots of projects get started here that never get finished. This looks like a big hotel complex just off the central park which now serves as a grazing compound for some local horses.

Bulgarian script is Cyrillic, similar to Russian. It has 30 characters and was developed around 1000 AD. It is deliciously foreign-looking and mysterious!