Verrückte Abenteuer in Bulgarien

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Halloween in Bulgaria

While technically I spent October 31^st taking a bus from Budapest to Vienna, I still celebrated Halloween when I came back to Bulgaria, albeit it was the 2^nd and 3^rd of November. One good thing about going to an American University is that they celebrate Halloween! Even though there where no pumpkin carving contest, apple cider, or trick or treating I still had a good time! My parents were kind enough to send me a care package to Austria that included my German dirndl that I’d wanted to wear for Halloween. So the night I came back from Vienna my roommate, whose one of the RA's in my building had planned out a nice costume Halloween party, with lots of yummy sweets to eat! Then the night after that I dressed up again and went to another Halloween party. So I did manage to have a wee bit of Halloween here!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Seven Rila Lakes /Седем рилски езера

Living in Southwestern Bulgaria, I’m blessed to live near the Rila Mountains. About an hour drive away by car, is the famous Rila Monastery, and breathtaking Scenery full of hiking trails. The seven Rila lakes is one of the more famous places to go hiking. On a bright sunny day the trails are full of tourist. So on Sunday a group of us headed out to go hiking. 4 different types of public transportation and an amazingly bumpy road later, we were at the base where we planned to hike around: the 7 lakes. The weather was not looking in out favor but we were still excited to go hiking! If anything I enjoyed the overcast weather. It made the mountains look mysterious and full of surprises. After 15 minuets of hiking up a big hill, which I prefer to call a mountain I questioned every beer and chocolate bar I’ve ever had in my life and why I never visit a running machine! But the hike did get better because we came to flat land and the views were breathtaking.

Everyone said it reminded them of Lord of the Rings scenery, so maybe it looks like New Zealand. I could not get over how incredibly breathtaking it was. I compared it to being in a National Geographic magazine, definitely one of the top 10 things I’ve done in my life. The weather turned from ok to horrible when it started to become windy and hailing but I took it on smiling even if the hail against my face felt like needles. Half the group turned around to go back to the main building to take cover. But the rest of us trudged on! We managed to see 5 out of the 7 lakes. The 2 we did not see were up a big mountain that we decided not to climb. After hiking we went to the main building, we were all so cold! For 3 leva I got a bowl of chicken soup and a cup of tea which really hit the spot! It cost 27 leva roundtrip for transportation each, and on the way back the people who drove the jeeps to the top of the mountains arranged for us to have a van take us straight back to Blagoevgrad, for only 2 leva more each. The best part was that we did not have to wait for 4 different types of transportation!

I’m definitely planning to head back to the Rila Mountains, but I think I’ll wait until spring. = )

The road!

We took 2 jeeps to the top. One was Russian from 1961, the other German.

Overcast day, but still amazing.

The Crew from AUBG: Russia, Spain, Bulgaria & USA

After the long hike: Chicken Soup & Tea

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Monday, September 27, 2010

Varna

Before the weather turned cold I wanted to make it to Varna to check out the Black Sea. So on Thursday after classes 3 other American girls and I hopped on a bus to Sofia and then from Sofia a bus to Varna. 9 hours later we arrived at 5am in Varna. We decided to find a cheap hotel and a 15 leva taxi ride later landed us on the outskirts of the city at a 35 leva a night 2 twin bedroom..for 4 girls. A few hours later we left the hotel at 10 and went to the city center in search of a hostel and food! We finally found a hostel after hours of searching only because the hostel we wanted to stay at had been shut down and we did not know that. After checking in the hostel we explored the city the remainder of the day. The next day we went to the beach and spent a bit of time sunbathing and swimming although the weather was in the 70’s. We also explored Roman ruins, churches and did a bit of shopping. I was a bit bummed because we came to late in the season, and all the clubs and bars on the beach were closed but we still had a nice time.

Sunday morning we got back on a bus to Sofia, and arrived back in Blago around 9:30pm. I have a new found hatred for riding on a bus, and would much rather take a train. But from what I’ve heard it’s better/safer to take the buses then to take the train here. Overall it was a good trip, and I’m glad we got a chance to go to Varna! =)

The Black Sea

Black Sea

The Roman Thermae

Opera House

Homeless animals of Bulgaria.

Coming here I was expecting homeless animals on the street but definitely not to the extent I’ve seen it here. Everyday walking to class I see homeless cats and dogs. Now I’m beginning to recognize the dogs and there's even 2 of then that always stay together. If you pay a bit of attention to the dogs they will follow you around everywhere you go and wait for you outside a store when you go in. At first I was nervous about the stray dogs but I’ve never felt unsafe around them, if fact I think there pretty sweet animals. What can be annoying is when your sitting outside of a restaurant eating and then 2 dogs, or cats and dogs get in fights right under your table or near it. That’s happen twice and I was somewhat uneasy about it. But for the most part they really are nice animals.

Going to Varna this weekend I was amazed at how many strays there were. It felt way worse then in Blagoevgrad. At one point there was a street with at least 20 dogs and cats, it felt like most of them were puppies. On the same street I saw, in what felt like slow motion a BMW with about 5 dogs around it slowly going only to run over a dogs 2 legs. The sound was horrible and I felt so bad for the dog. I’m not sure what happen to it, but I did see the owner of the BMW pullover but I don’t know what he did. On another occasion in my second week in Blagoevgrad I saw a dog get run over and quiver in the street, until it stopped. The car did not stop. I was really shaken up over these two incidents and I really wonder if in a month I’ve seen this twice, how many times a day does this happen here?! I don’t understand why the Bulgarian government can’t make a program to neuter the animals at least so this stops being a cycle! I realize that Bulgaria has a lot of other issues to deal with from corruption, the Roma, orphanages and so on. But for me I think this is a major issue that should be addressed. I’ve seen that some of the dogs have red tags on their ears and I’ve been told that this means they’ve received shots but I’m not sure if this means they’ve been neutered, but from the look of how many animals are on the streets I really am thinking they have not been neutered. I’ve never been an animal person, but I want to adopt a dog so bad!