• 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.

Friends – please use the contact page. Write your questions, I’d try to help everyone. So far I’ve helped tourists from Belgium, USA, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey with ideas, contacts, etc.  I know that information in English or any other language except Bulgarian  is a bit hard to find sometimes. And I’ll do whatever I can to make your vacation, travel, hike around Bulgaria better settled.

So – if you need information on Bulgaria, Bulgarian mountains, travelling in Bulgaria, hiking around, or just information on the country itself: feel free to use the Contact page, or drop me a few lines at alex (_AT_) technobeast.net (the spaces, underscores, AT and brackets should be substituted with the @ sign, I hope you know that)

Good luck

Alex

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.

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.

I made it the whole time… with slight help of painkillers on our way back.

I’m posting a link to my Picasa Gallery – ~LINK~

I did:

• Equip myself better for high mountain conditions
• Climb the three highest Bulgarian mountains a number of times
• Try to climb mt. Elbrus
• Bicycle a lot
• Did some fitness till August
• Visit several interesting concerts
• Try to become a better person

I did not:

• Climb mt. Elbrus
• Take care of myself better, which resulted in two major traumas – ankle and knee
• Preserve my weight after the tear of the meniscus

That’s about it – in short.

I wish you all a wonderfull 2009.

Saturday morning. 7:30 AM – the GPS tells us where to go. It’s settled for Brasov, as first goal. We crossed the Danube bridge without any complications and through Giurgiu move north to Bucharest and on. Compared to Bulgaria, these people have great roads – always improving and not a single hole, even at the mountains. That impressed me. The car stood perfect on the asphalt at all speeds.

Anyways, we reached passed Sinaia, Brasov and headed to the Bran castle – or as they call it “Dracula castle”. To tell you honestly – there was nothing Draculese about it. Simple castle with lots of historic objects in it. But the bazar in front of it – all Draculese. Bran citizens exploit the Dracula myth and try to squeeze what they can from it. And they do it good – we had fun at the bazar, at the haunted Dracula dungeon (or whatever it was called). In the evening we went to a big pub on a hill next to Bran, called Vila Bran… nice place.

Sunday morning we said goodbye to our hostess and left for Sibiu. Across the mountains again we watched the frozen land (it was -7 degrees Celsius) with the melting frost on it. Like a fairy tale. Beautiful.

About 10-11 AM we reached the city that was announced as European capital of culture for 2007. Amazing one, if I may describe it that way – stunning views, old buildings, towers, churches, etc. Loved it. We walked around for a couple of hours… and started our journey back.

LOL… that’s it – really short… really…

Some pictures – as always can be found at my Picasa Web Galery