Weekend trip to Sandanski

Sandanski Pirin Folk Festival

View from hotel

Saturday afternoon 2 other American girls and I left for Sandanski, not far from the Greece border. The weekend did not start off so great, because we had to wait 2 hours for a bus since it was a holiday weekend and all the buses were really full. Once we got on a bus we hand to stand up for the entire 2 hour trip to Sandanski which was not horrible but it's also not on the top of my favorite things to do list. Once we got to Sandanski we looked into checking into one of the fancy resort hotels at about 140 leva a night, but then decided against it. Randomly a lady saw us with our suitcases and took up around the corner to a house/restaurant in which the owner rents out a spare room with a queen and a twin bed. So for 80 leva (40 Euro) we rented out this room for 2 nights. The first night we were so tired that we ate dinner and went straight to bed. The next day one of the girls went back to Blagoevgrad and Jennifer (in the picture above) and I went in search of what Sandanski is famous for: hot springs. After debating out options we deicide to go to the park hot springs. We searched a while and could not find them, so we ended up going to a hotel and using their swimming pool with the hot spring water. I guess I was expecting what I've experienced in the past with hot springs, but this water was not very warm and we only stayed about an hour. I was pretty disappointed since that was the main reason I'd come to Sandanski, but at least the weekend that we were there the Folk Festival was going on which only happens once a year! For 5 leva we went to the outdoor theater and experienced 3 hours of Baltic music it was really amazing and great to watch but after 3 hours we began to wonder when it would end, and we left to grab dinner. After dinner we were ready to go out clubbing in Sandanski, but we quickly learned that in Sandanski a Sunday night is not a night to go out (everything is empty!!) So we headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 12. Monday we walked around town a bit more, went to a market and made our way back to Blagoevgrad. While we did not make it to Melnik (a famous wine town) I still think we had a nice, quick trip to a near by town. A lot of people I know went to places like Athens and Istanbul for the long weekend. But to me if I was spending the money to go to Athens I would not want to spend only 2 full days there. I'd much rather get to know Bulgaria at this point of my study abroad then jetting off to places like Athens and Istanbul. Next weekend the school has organizes a weekend trip to a few villages nearby and it cost 30 leva. I'm thinking about going but am not sure. =)