• We traveled so much – two big trips around Bulgaria, many small ones too, one trip to Turkey (Istanbul), some trips in Romania, one big trip Bulgaria-Germany, a trip weekend in France….
• We moved to Germany – at some time we decided that it would be a good thing to continue living together in Germany… so it was done
• I found a new job in Berlin – again Software Quality Assurance. A very good company, great team, wonderful colleagues. So far, so good. I am very happy with this luck
• We found a great apartment in Berlin – honestly, this is a hell rental-market here. For one apartment so many people apply with documents. And in the center the prices are extremely high, but the noise… well.
• Mü got accepted to study what she wanted on first place.
• I finally started doing something about myself – a bit of running, conscious eating, etc. So far I’m down 10 kg. Not too much – I got a long way to be back in the shape I was. But at least it’s a start.

What do I want in 2012 (Alex)?

• Lose at least 10 more kg – nothing more to say here.
• Get running seriously – hopefully I will be able to attend a couple of run events… nothing much 5k, 10k maybe. A thing to give some adrenaline, some belief in myself.
• Do some hiking – that’s a funny thing to say in flat Berlin. But if situation allows – travel is OK
• As I said travel – in the TODO list should be at least some new countries and people. I don’t yet know what – Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Czech republic… all countries I haven’t seen yet. Hope Mü wants to do these with me
• Mountains – I’m afraid to make big plans here. And small mountains are included in the hiking. But I still dream about high peaks, crampons in the summer, fresh, thin air. No words here, just wishes. Alps are nearby, that is a good thing.

And we started early Sunday morning, at 3 AM. Me, Mü and Dido. Three friends and one car. 5 something hours later we were at Borovets. Fog, drizzling, nasty weather. Considering rain has been with us for all our trip until now… we started thinking: Do we really want to go in the mud of the Musala pathway. I got the idea of asking the lift people how the weather was ‘up there’. They told that it’s cold, but it’s clear, however very unstable. So…. why not – pay 10 leva each for a ski-lift ticket and be driven quickly up. This saved us 3 hours of muddy uphill. When we dropped and Yastrebets (2369 m), the weather was like that:

The first 30-40 minutes until Musala hut were great – no rain, almost no wind. Just before the hut it started raining very little. We stopped for some rest, some warm soup. And decided to continue, even though the rain continued. Rain, fog, wind, for the next 1 1/2 hours. Just before we got to the “Ledeno ezero” shelter (or hut now) it stopped raining and the weather cleared a little bit.

The hut was completely empty, excluding the host and the woman that helps her. The many tourists and groups we met already were somewhere down the mountain. Understandable – after all the ski-lift doesn’t work on Monday and Tuesday, and they didn’t want to go all the way down Musala pathway (steep downhill). It was very cold, even for Musala, even for beginning of July. This year the “summer” up there is coming a little bit late. So we got a very small room (usually used for special guests only ) with a heater. The bad news is that it’s with two beds only, but we’ll make it somehow. The rest of the day was pretty much eat, sleep a bit, eat some more, sleep some more. And this until 6 AM the other day. Oh, great sun, sneaking from the small window of our room.

I had to jump and try to wake the others – of course, we have so many things ahead of us for the day. But our joy didn’t go for longer – clouds, fog, chill wind again got around the high mountain.

Still, it was doable. And we started up. Just to make it 5 minutes before Musala peak. A steep, frozen uphill with a lot of snow still remaining. This is where me and Mü headed down and Dido stormed up the summit. When we got down I called him – he made it safe, took a pic and is heading down now.

Some rest, packing quickly and we had to head down to Borovets. Our car was waiting there for us.

But not before one last picture with the shelter as background:

And we got to the resort just in time for a perfect weather down the mountain – no fog, no rain, just great. Unfortunately our muscles were already sore, so…. enough mountain trip, instead we’ll transfer that to our ‘auto-tourism’, in which we are already so good…. but for this – later.

After a nice breakfast we were ready to go to the Rojen monastery. Once again. A great place. This one is much better than the Rilski monastery to go to. If you are not a regular tourist and need something a little bit different for your trip – go there. The views to the mountains are stunning

The next goal for Monday was Kovachevica. But before that we have to cross a mountain pass. Winding roads, sometimes you think that nothing is protecting you from the abyss, that starts just where the asphalt ends. Here and there you can see workers on the road – at least this is a good sign. And one and a half hours later we are in Kovachevica (Ковачевица). It’s one of the most beautiful Bulgarian villages with houses from 18-19 century, exclusively made out of stone – even the roofs. Small cobbled streets can be seen all around the village – most of them I think are not even accessible with a normal car. We even took a small hike to the end of the village. Then a good lunch there – the best fried potatoes we had on our trip.

The day was already going to its end, so we had to find a place to sleep. Since the cave Dyavolsko gyrlo (Дяволско гърло, Devil’s throat) was our next goes – why not sleep in Trigrad. One of the legends says the name of the village comes from the Thracian “Tri ibrie” (Three cities, Три града). It’s famous for the cave, I mentioned above, the Yagodinska cave, the Trigrad gorge (second longest in Bulgaria – 3 km) and the Buinovo gorge (the longest in Bulgaria – 6 km I think). It’s a bit scary the first time you go there – Extremely narrow road…. and then you see a sign “One lane road with opposite direction traffic”. Well, this makes you think and drive as slow as possible.

Anyways, to Trigrad – we found a nice family hotel, called “Triibria” (by the name of the city in Thracian). Very polite owner, nice rooms – what more do you need to have a good rest. In the morning we understood that they had a good cook too – we ordered some breakfast, which was delicious. This made us a bit sorry we didn’t stay for dinner there. Well…. next time.

So, this must be it. The third day already of our trip. I’ll continue with the next day soon.

Again I realize that I repeat the same mistakes over and over again. I still carry weight that is not needed, I never get a good sleep before a trip, I never hydrate properly. Can you guess what this results in? Muscle cramps… dizziness.

I couldn’t get to Mousala this time. Instead I just waited in the hut.

Anyways… lesson learned … I hope.

Awful weather from the very beginning couldn’t stop me and Ivan to try and go to Kupena peak. Although we couldn’t reach it (due to the cold and the thick fog) we climbed to Ambaritsa peak in Stara planina – 2166 meters. I’m extremely happy, because this was Ivan’s first major peak.

So, here I am – standing near the shelter on the top.

on top of Ambaritsa peak

A short photo walk from my three day trip to Rila. This one has been good, considering my physics and form. Haven’t had knee pain during the trip. Lovely weather and stunning views from the mountains around. This one was definitely a good hike.

Well, this short story comes a little late, but as always I have my excuse – lots of work, kinda have common cold, etc. OK, I’m cutting the bullshit off….

We (me, Katya, Iliyan and Niki) started with a 7 hour train trip to Sofia and then 3 1/2 hour bus trip to Bansko. Almost 12 hours after the start we landed in the resort town and got a taxi to Vihren hut. It was lunch time, so we had something to eat, made some coffee and headed for a walk around. A walk is a good name for a 3 hour trip across two lakes: Okoto (The Eye) and Muratovo lake… with some stunning views of peaks around. We got back to the hut at about 5 pm. Dinner, some talking around with other visitors, etc… and we were off to bed at 10 pm. Cold evening, the heating in the bedrooms was poor….

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I woke the band early – about 6 am on Saturday. After a short breakfast, luggage fixing, we headed to Vihren peak at about 7:40. 3 hours later we were at the top. Stayed there for a while to enjoy the views…. it was a beautiful day, perfect weather. After that we had a plan to go to the Koncheto ridge, but the path from the north side of Vihren had lots of snow and ice on it, so we decided to drop from the west side and walk around instead. 2 hours later we were at the saddle between Vihren peak and Kutelo peak. I then decided to give up – the old twisted knee from Elbrus had become a small problem and I thought it was better to not push it further. So I headed down to Bunderitsa hut with a man, who was coming from Koncheto. I was not sorry for that decision – couldn’t make it there, but met a great person, who knew lots of history facts and was a great chat down. We had a couple of beers with him when we went down. Then we met with the group – they had made it to the shelter of Koncheto ridge, and enjoyed it there…. Two of them were first timers on the mountain.

So… that’s about it…. short

Some pictures as always can be found on my Picasa web albums

I’ve uploaded pictures in mu Google Picasa photo album: ~LINK~