Bulgaria

Bulgaria-Greece

We arrived in Sofia after a grand weekend in Mallorca. It is a different world in Sofia. Charlie’s good friend Amy who is Bulgarian/American generously offered the use of her grandmother’s apartment in Sofia. We are very lucky to have had this option as it saved us a ton of cash. This is Bulgaria, however, and the first 24 hours in a cold, hot water-free apartment which hadn’t been lived in for a few years was, to say the least, an eye-opening introduction to the Balkans for Rawson. Charlie was on it the first morning and heated a big pot of water on the stove for a small bath for his new bride. This won him lots and lots of brownie points (thanks Nancy for all the good parenting). Luckily, the hot water DID start working (apparently it was the spring “prophylactics” process in the neighborhood where they blast clean the pipes). Uh, OK. We had nice weather the first evening of getting reacquainted with the city. Rawson’s first taste of Bulgarian food did not disappoint. It was just as good as Charlie has said all this time. Seeking out Pizza Ugo was easy, but it had been seriously remodeled in 11 years. Gone was the overheated little basement joint with a modest patio. Totally modern and enclosed patio was a great reentry into Bulgaria and we were looking forward to the coming weeks.

We spent Monday until Saturday morning in Sofia. During the days we toured around the city checking out old haunts of Charlie’s and getting our fill of Shopska salad and Rakia. At night, we visited with friends and talked about old times. However, the weather did not hold up for us. The city of Sofia is quite well situated at the base of Vitosha, a snowcapped mountain. We got a glimpse of the mountain the first day, but the mountain remained socked in clouds for the remainder of the week. Sofia in grey weather is not nearly as nice. Rawson found the contrast between the couture advertisements and shops, high end cars and SUV’s and the broken sidewalks and crumbling facades almost sad. Most of the shops were empty of customers, not unlike the rest of the world. As Charlie had prepared Rawson, the Bulgarian people at first blush can come across a little rough and unfriendly. However, once you crack the surface, or establish a friendship, they are amazingly warm and generous. Rawson got to see the extent of Bulgarian hospitality in all of our time spent Doichin and Maya Doichinov, old friends of Charlie’s.

We stayed in Friday night with some nice Bulgarian wine and cheese and took in a downloaded movie in anticipation of the weekend with Doichin and Maya at a mountain biking competition. We rented a car and headed to the Valley of the Roses, central Bulgaria. Along the way we stopped off in Koprivshtitsa, a 17^th century preserved town in the Sredna Gora mountains. The town played a critical role in the beginning of the Bulgarian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1876. The Bulgarian writer and revolutionary hero Lyuben Karevelov (also the name of the street Charlie and Gannon lived on all those years ago) was arrested in Koprivshtitsa and a local Bulgaria fired the “first shot” of the April Uprising against the Ottomans, killing the first Turk and setting off the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire. We happened to show up just in time to see the reenactment of this battle, as it was Bulgaria’s Memorial Day of sorts. We had a fabulous show including emulated Turks on horseback storming the town, the first actual shot, the hanging of the bad guy and lot and lots of Bulgarian folk dancing, all of this in true 19^th century costume. It was spectacular. We shared a table at lunch with one of the “actors” and got a firsthand look at ALL of his guns, as well as a history lesson. What a fabulous stop. OK off to the races….. Doichin is one of Charlie’s closest Bulgarian friends from his days here in Bulgaria. Doi is a former mountain biking star and now has his own business, mostly making high end mountain bikes and importing and selling associated adventure sport gear. This competition is the biggest and most important in Bulgaria and about 50% of the competitors were riding Doi’s “RAM” bikes. Sick downhill speed fix. Another treat was after the competition when Charlie jumped up to play Hacky Sack with some Bulgarian kids. The titanium hip moves just fine and he impressed the almost 20 year olds with his revitalized skills. We headed to Bogdan Hostel a little ways away which is owned by some of Doi’s friends for the evening. Niko and Svilena own and run this true farm house and they are raising horses and growing all of the fresh veggies that feed the guests for the entire summer. Svilena is Bulgarian but has just moved back from LA after a 9 year stint. Her English is phenomenal, as is her coffee. Doi grilled up some of the best Trout we’ve ever had. Many thanks to our amazing hosts, Niko and Svilena, for putting us for the night! Sunday we all got up and went for a hike on the property before taking off over the Shipka Pass to Etara (outside Gabrevo), an 18^th century preserved town, for lunch and to see how things were way back when. It was very quaint but PACKED with Bulgarian tourists due to the long holiday “weekend” (Friday-Wednesday). We had just enough time before meeting Doi and Maya back at his parent’s country home to make it to Veliko Tarnovo to check out the castle which makes this ancient Bulgarian capital (1 of 3 in BG). We shot up the road and checked out this quaint town, saw the beautiful castle, had a cop take a photo of us and were off to Golyamo Dryanovo where Doi’s family’s villa is. For Bulgarians it is very typical to have a small house out in the country somewhere for spending weekends during the summer. We arrived prior to our friends, so Charlie grabbed his fly rod and we headed to the nearby pond where Doi had spoken about huge fish. Not understanding the process Doi had tried to explain, we bypassed cabin with the HUGE, mean Rottweiler and Charlie started casting. After about 10 minutes a man in his 60’s came over to explain that this was a private pond and he must ask permission and pay a small fee to fish. In Charlie’s Bulgarian, which has come a long way, he explained to the gentleman that he had misunderstood that you only need to pay AFTER for whatever he caught. The man was friendly and took an interest in Charlie’s fishing gear. He and Charlie discussed the fly rod and agreed it was suited best for Trout when the guy chuckled and said, in his most polite Bulgarian “put that thing away” referring to Charlie’s fly rod which would catch nothing on this pond. The full extent of Charlie’s futile effort was clear when the guy took us over to the cabin and began “chumming” the water for monster carp. Yeah, guess flies won’t stand a chance against dog food and bread!

Back at the villa we cooked up some more fish for dinner and had a grand time with Maya, Doi and Laura (their 5.5 year old daughter). After breakfast on Monday we took off toward Greece to meet up with some other friends in Athens, George and Laura Valais. We stopped for the night in a lovely little town, Litochoro, nestled at the base of famous Mount Olympus. We found a B&B, had a wonderful dinner in a fish restaurant (where Charlie had been 12 years earlier when he and Anthony had hike the mountain) and made a perfect evening. Tuesday’s plans were to hike the mountain, but it was socked in with rain clouds and we decided we had had our share of rain hikes in Patagonia to last a little longer. So, we headed towards Athens with a stop for lunch on the Pelion peninsula south of Volos, which is filled with coastal fishing villages. The Pelion peninsula is historically significant in that it’s said to be the only place in Greece that remained free of Ottoman rule due to the steep mountains and remote hilltop villages. We had planned on eating in one of these hilltop villages, Milies. However we arrived just after 2 busloads of high school kids and decided that was NOT the atmosphere we have in mind. Who likes hanging out with big groups of high school kids besides other high school kids? We rerouted to Afissos for lunch on the water, which was divine. We had timed things just right and have missed all of the tourists, so we had this paradise all to ourselves. Off to Athens to meet up with George and Laura!

We had two splendid nights outside of Athens with Charlie’s dear friends, George and Laura and their two lovely children, Jenie and Anton. Between the two of them we were fed some of the best meals of our trip! The first night Laura cooked up a classic Greek dish with celery leaves, lettuce and pork in an egg lemon sauce. The 2^nd night George fired up the grill and prepared an exquisite squid and massive fish, which we forget the name of now. During the day, and in between thunder storms, we visited the Acropolis and ancient sites around Athens. Well worth the long drive to Athens. Thanks for putting us up and showing us the Greek hospitality your country is deservedly well known for!

Back to Bulgaria! We spent the first night in Melnik, the heart of Bulgarian wine country. What a lovely ancient village, which was part of the First Bulgarian Empire in the 300s, not 1300s and is now the smallest town in Bulgaria with about 250 permanent residents. We stumbled upon a family winery where we tasted some wine and enjoyed the sun over the stunning natural sand pyramids. We had a traditional Bulgarian dinner and were off to bed at Kustata Nya Toni. A “kushta” is like a guest house in Bulgarian, usually smaller, often basic and family run.

Friday morning we downed some coffee and headed to Bansko, the #1 ski resort in Bulgaria. Archeology traces the inhabitants of Bansko back to the Roman Empire. Several structures outside of the town date to 100 BC. Charlie visited Bansko when he lived in Bulgaria, and it’s come a LONG way. Although the central square remains the same, the town has grown significantly around the center and sports several luxury hotels here as well as many new developments. Many of which are still under construction (too bad the economy has brought most of that to a screeching halt). We found a beautiful “kushta” above the restaurant where we had lunch, and at a quarter of the price of the Kempenski Grand which quoted us 150 EUR for the night, and the hotel is empty. We are glad we waited as it was arguably the nicest hotel we have had on the trip (beside the luxury retreat at Estancia Cristina in Patagonia).

Our final weekend in Bulgaria was spent stopping through Rila Monastery in (yes) the Rila Mountains, in route back to Sofia. The Rila Monastery is the most famous of the many Bulgarian monasteries. Nestled way up in the mountains, the architecture is simply spectacular. Ivan Rilska (after whom it is named) actually lived a hermits life in a cave in the 9^th century just up hiking trail from the modern (13^th century) buildings. The original structures were built by his students who hiked up the trail daily to learn from Rila. The current building were restored in the in the late 15^th century having been destroyed by Ottoman raiders earlier in the century. One last stop; Plovdiv. Plovdiv is one of the previous capitals of Bulgaria. In recent years some Roman ruins were uncovered in the city center. Plovdiv’s architecture has been heavily influenced by the western Europeans and is quite charming. A nice lunch on the main pedestrian stretch of downtown and back to Sofia. On our final day in Sofia we hiked on Vitosha, the mountain that overlooks the city. It’s like a wilderness paradise right outside of the city. Even in mid-May there was still a good amount of snow cover preventing us from doing the more serious hiking we had hoped for. But, hiking in the beauty of Vitosha is still just that!

We got to spend a good deal of time with Doichin and Maya during our time in Bulgaria, which was a real treat for both of us. We look forward to returning the hospitality when they come visit us.

We’re off to Turkey for the next two weeks and will be joined by some friends from San Francisco in Istanbul at the end of our stay. As we leave Bulgaria we also leave the last country on our trip where we (rather Charlie) speak their language. This should be interesting…..