We are starting writing this post in a small inn where we
have just finished a hearty traditional Bulgarian feed and the live Bulgarian
music has begun which is enchanting and Ottoman inspired. The musicians are
dancing around a table, with the drummer playing the drum over his head, the
restaurant owner rattling the cow bells adorning the ceiling, and the ladies are up
and belly dancing (we don’t have the camera!!). This little pub is a part of
the Inn where we are lodging while visiting the ski town of Bansko. We have
endured quite the ‘adventure’ getting to Bulgaria, I suppose it is a story for
the grandkids but one that we honestly would rather not have in our story
collection.
The most awful day
Where to begin? The objective - we had to get from Kotor,
Montenegro to Sofia, Bulgaria in one day. The challenge – doing the objective.
Why was it a challenge – because there is extremely limited transport options,
you need to go through 3 countries, and you can’t book anything in advance –
unless you want to fly and spend all your money.
We researched and researched options until we finally
believed according to the company website we found buses that ran. We were to
catch the 5am bus to Podgorica, the 8:15am to Nis, Serbia and then the 4:30pm
to Sofia. We told ourselves, sure it’s a long day, but we can do it! We wake at
4am and are on the bus to Podgorica at 5am arriving at 7:30am. We ask for
tickets to Nis at 8:15 she stares at us blankly and says “10am”, we say “no,
8:15” she tells us there is no 8:15 and 10am is the earliest, and lets us know
its a 9 hour journey. We do the maths and realise the 4:30pm bus in Nis is not
achievable as we will arrive at 7pm. We explore every other option with her, there
is nothing, so we buy the tickets, and cross our fingers for a good outcome in
Nis. We kill the 2.5 hours in a dingy bus station café and board our very used
coach at 10am. The first 5 hours is taken up watching shows on the laptop until
the battery gives in and we stare out the window to sometimes pretty gloomy
sights across Serbia. There is practically nobody else on the bus yet it takes
us 9.5 hours to make it to Nis.
On arrival in Nis we run out of the bus, and Simon goes to
check tickets while Amy minds the bags. I watch as Simon uses every inch of
body language available to get his message across, I can’t hear anything but it
doesn’t look good. The next thing I know he is off with some local and he
vanishes for 10 minutes. He returns to tell me there are no buses except for
one at 4am in the morning, a train at 2am and the other option is a taxi. We
can take one to the border for $100 (way more than we budgeted for the entire
journey) and catch a cheap taxi on the other side of the border, or we can go
all the way to Sofia but for $220 (this is out of the question). We are out of
other options so we go with the taxi to the border. On approach the man who
spoke English was gone, so we had to pull out every trick we knew to talk to
taxi drivers who knew no English and had no concept of the word ‘border’. The
only success we had was using my left hand to say Serbia, and my right hand to
say Bulgaria and then I took one hand and drew a line through the middle. They
all nodded and we heard “ah, ah, ah”. Phew! We settle on a price using the
calculator on our phone so they can write it down to be clear. We jump in the
car and hit the road feeling relaxed and confident again, even though our driver
speaks as much English as we do Serbian. 1.5 hours later he drops us about 400
metres from the border, he couldn’t get closer without going through.
We get
out into -4 degrees with our packs and walk literally over ice and through
snow, nearly slipping on several occasions. There is no pedestrian entry to the
Serbian exit so we have to walk on the main car road in pitch black and border
control gives us a pretty strange look and we get asked a few questions, mainly
“how did you get here?”. You can see them looking at each other and saying
something in Serbian we think it went a little like this, “What the hell are they doing walking out here”, “haha, yeah
don’t they know its -4, nobody goes out in this”, “yeah, who walks through a
border anyways”, “stupid tourists”. We continue through the snow trying not to
get run over, or slip onto the entry into Bulgaria. We get the same looks and
questions at this checkpoint and when we ask where a taxi will be they shrug
and point and say “maybe one will be there, maybe not”. There were no taxis,
its 9:30pm and we have no idea where we are or what our options are. We keep
walking and come across a servo that is open. We ask about a taxi to Sofia, and
they start talking price so we assume they have one or know a driver. They
start at 50 euros, this is too much, they tell us it takes 1.5 hours and it’s a
really tough road, we go down to 30 telling them its only 50kms away, they
shutdown. I tell them we have no more than 40 on us which isn’t far from the
truth and they agree. I presume they will call a taxi. We were wrong, he piles
our stuff into his little 2 door Holden Barina and off we go. I feel a sudden
unease come over me, but we have no other option we are literally in the middle
of nowhere. Here we are in Bulgaria squished in a tiny Barina with a guy we
don’t know. Forty five minutes in he stops and he says this is as far as he can
go because he doesn’t have the sticker to go into Sofia which costs money. We
tell him this is not what we agreed, we agreed to go to Sofia, he doesn’t care
and points to the Metro across the road. It’s weird because we are in the
middle of nowhere yet there is a huge Metro sign. He says it only cost 1 euro
each and it runs 24 hours. I am furious and don’t believe him and ask him to
take us and show us, he says he can’t because the parking costs money.
We exit the car, pay him his undeserved money and walk to
the Metro. It’s a Metro that’s for sure, but a Metro here is a Costco. That’s
right we are in the middle of nowhere at a megastore, there is no train. We
have just paid this guy 40 euros, it was a 45 minute journey not 1.5hours and
the road was perfectly normal, and we are at Costco and not in Sofia - we have
been scammed. I start to cry, but Simon keeps it together as we walk into this
store seeking help. The first 2 people don’t speak a word of English as we say
“taxi, taxi” and make a phone with our hands. Finally the manager arrives and
with her small English she orders a taxi and hustles us outside as they lock
the doors. We literally arrived 5 minutes before this place closed. The taxi
comes and we travel 20 minutes to our hotel. We have been up for 21 hours, we
are nearly $300 down on what should have been a $100 journey, our faith in
humanity is at a low, we are shaken, relieved, exhausted, and a whole bunch of
other emotions. We walk into our nice hotel room – our only one saving grace,
and collapse. We open a bottle of wine given to us in Bosnia, and in that first
mouthful our day was summed up – it was terrible. We threw the wine out, looked
at each other and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Welcome to Bulgaria we think.
Sofia, The Rila
Monastery and Bansko
We awoke feeling utterly exhausted almost as though all the
busses from yesterday had run us over, and still not quite believing what had
transpired the day before. After the longest of showers we made our way down to
breakfast, which was perfect.
Initially we had planned to do a day trip to Rila monastery
which is the #1 thing to see in Bulgaria but feeling the way we were, and there
was no way we could get there by public transport today and would need to seek
alternate options. After yesterday’s experience we weren’t keen to put much
faith in the system and risk being stuck again, so we just had to re-group and
wait till tomorrow. Exiting the warmth of our hotel into -5 degrees and nearly
slipped on the ice under our feet. There was snow lining the footpaths, but
again it was not going to fall on us, none the less we enjoyed playing in it.
It was clear we were tourists with our faces lighting up like 5 year olds as we
threw snow balls at each in fits of laughter. Amy even did a snow angel on a
flower bed in the middle of the central park. We wandered the streets of this
very modern capital, with its big designer brands stores and atmospheric cafes
lining its main strip, accompanied by some pretty impressive pieces of
historical architecture. We sought warmth in a mug of hot chocolate, with Simon
warming his non-gloved hands after all that snowballing.
After a lazy afternoon we found a great gourmet burger place
with all the comforts and tastes of the western world and felt completely
ashamed in delighting in familiarity. Their milkshakes were incredible!
After looking at every transport option available to get to
Rila we were in a hard place, we couldn’t bring ourselves to trust the system
or to pay the price tag of a personal driver for the day so we decided to hire
a car. Yes, the first left hand drive experience, on the wrong side of the road.
We pick up our car and get an upgrade to a Renault Megane (who knows what we
actually booked – whatever was cheapest), we ask for a GPS – there is no way we
are doing this alone. Things start well, the GPS doesn’t work, and the
assistant tells us there is no other one available unless we go to the other
store at the Airport. We tell him there is no way we are going without
directions and kindly ask him to join us in the car for a personal guide to the
airport, he obliges. Eventually we get the GPS and an hour behind schedule are
on the big open road. Simon does an incredible job of not only perfectly
driving on the wrong side of the road all day long, but also navigating snowy
and icy roads. We find ourselves in the forest surrounds of a National Park taking
in the stunning ice capped mountain views on our way to the Rila Monastery.
The Rila Monastery was started in the 9th century
by a hermit who lived as a religious recluse. His holy life eventually
attracted other hermits and in turn a monastery was created. He eventually rose
to sainthood and became the patron saint of Bulgaria, Saint Ioan Rilski. The
monastery is still active today with accommodation quarters for monks and
travelling men of the cloth. When we arrive we walk through an archway into the
courtyard and gasp. The interior is stunning with its whitewashed façade, central
tower and the ground, rooves and trees coated in snow. Even from the entrance
we can see the incredibly detailed paintings that cover the arcade outside the
chapel. Up close they are meticulously detailed with vibrant colour showing
scenes of the Bible and Bulgarian historic scenes. Inside the chapel (where we
could not take pictures) is a massive gold (not sure if gold or gold coated)
chandelier. Again all over the walls and ceiling is beautifully painted colour
frescoes. We have a quick walk around this interior looking at some of the
depictions and the relics before returning to the snow covered courtyard. In a
new part of the monastery is a museum about its history. We had a look inside
and there were some amazing scriptures, clothes, relics and images from
throughout the monastery’s 1100 year history.
Heading back out on the road we are completely surrounded by
huge snowy mountains, and we feel a pang of excitement run through our bodies.
Arriving to a perfect little homestyle Inn we are warmly welcomed in the
restaurant with their very own special red wine. We don’t particularly like it,
but just as our glasses are finished he brings out another jug full on the
house, we smile and thank him warmly and drink every last mouthful. Dinner is
sublime, nothing fancy just authentic Bulgarian food with big taste that
satisfies and warms you to the core on a -10 evening. Bulgarian food includes
casseroles, hot pots, stews and roast meat.
We wake to -11 degrees outside and hurry down to breakfast,
there is a bucket of water outside frozen solid. First priority of the day is
new gloves for Simon, then we hit the gondola, or should we say the line for
the gondola. We wait and wait along with the rest of Banskos tourists (mostly
from the UK) hoping for their days first run on the slopes. Bansko is getting a
name for itself on the European ski destination list, apparently it is good
skiing, but the big pull factor over Austria, Switzerland or France is the
price. The downside is that Bansko is over developed so there is more
accommodation than there is ski infrastructure leading to big wait times, this
is of course compensated by cheap accommodation prices. Finally on the gondola
we are treated to exquisite views up the mountain, on landing the sky is
brilliant blue and the sun is shining over the freshly laid snow. Sadly today
we are not skiing but just enjoying playing in the snow, and watching people in
action.
Learning to ski quickly gets added to the growing list of things we
want to do when we return to reality. A few hours later we come down and hit
Banskos big club for some drinks and live music singing all the westerners
favourite classics. Finishing off the night with an ice skate, which
unfortunately was not as memorable as the one in Hyde Park.
We drop the car back off in Sofia after a few increased
heart beat moments inner city driving, and jump on a bus to Plovdiv. On the bus we win a prize, they draw my seat
number so I win a return ticket to Sofia. The man who has kindly interpreted
the bus conductor for us, asks us when we will be returning and we tell him we
won’t be and give the free ticket to him.
More to come on Bulgaria as we continue to explore, we are
hoping our next post will be a little more drama free.
Simon and Amy xoxo
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