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.

Sunday, early morning in Dragalevtsi, Sofia. Only one crazy person is walking around, looking at the houses, going to a 24/7 store to buy a newspaper and Pepsi. Yeah, that’s me – I like to wake up in the mornings

A little bit after that the group is ready and we all go to Boyana church (Боянска църква) – one of the Bulgarian UNESCO World Heritage objects. The orthodox church is famous for the paintings (frescos or whatever they are called) from 13th century – absolutely preserved. A bad fact is that you can only enter for 10 minutes and no more than 8 people at a time – after all it’s relatively small church. The park around the church, however is absolutely great. Many trees, paths, some preserved gravestones. Next to the church is the grave of Queen Eleonora – the wife of the Bulgarian king Ferdinand I.

Around 10AM we are already on the road E79 south of Sofia. Our direction – Rilski monastery. Well, not exactly. First we had to attack the first gas station that had something like a bakery

Rilski monastery welcomes us with a crowd….literally. Hundreds of people have decided to use this beautiful day for going to the Biggest Bulgarian monastery – built in the 10th century, another UNESCO World Heritage object. The interesting facts – from the original monastery only the defending tower has been preserved (just behind the dome of the main church on the picture below). The monastery itself has been burned many times – the last one in 1833.

Somewhere in the afternoon already we continue to Melnik. We are not in a hurry like last time – we have reservation in Melnik, we can take our time. So we decide why not go to Rupite, in Petrich, again. It’s a special, lovely place for me – kind of recharges me. Both the nature there, the views, everything makes you just better. The place is famous for the Bulgarian foreseer Vanga (Баба Ванга) who lived there all her life – in a small house, helping people with her visions. The phenomena Vanga, by the way, is specifically admired in Russia. Many books have been published about her there. Next to the house there’s a thermal spring, nearby you can see the hill of an ex-volcano – Kozhuh planina (Kozhuh mountain).

As we arrived in Melnik and registered in the hotel, we had some more time. So a walk around this cute small town will be a great thing before dinner. Melnik is the smallest Bulgarian town with just 208 registered settlers. Known for the great wine, the sand pyramids there, the warm weather Melnik has been a favorite of mine for a while.

Hmmm…. I think this pretty much sums all for the second day. Or general overall description I am not that good at it. But I’ll try to continue with the third day tomorrow.

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.

This is a short photo story of our trip last month.

This was the last mountain trip till Elbrus trip. I’ll continue working out in Rousse with simple exercises.

Some photos from the mountain, arranged as a photo-diary – at my Picasa Web Albums

A short photo diary of the trip can be found at my Google Picasa Albums: HERE

Pictures from it are uploaded to my Picasa Web albums
This activity was planned by Ivan Ganev – a mountain gid, to check the preparation of a group, that was going to climb the volcanoes in Turkey (in fact they should already be on their way up now). But there were a couple of other people, preparing themselves for Mont Blanc, Elburs (guess who ), etc higher level of mountaineering things.

13th: So we gathered at Vasil Levski staduim in the early morning (06:00) of June 13th and headed to Pirin mountain and Vihren hut. 3 hours later we were ready to start hiking up from Vihren hut. Rain, freezing rain, fog, strong winds were a part of our climb, but a couple of hours later we found ourselves on the third highest peak on the Balkans. This was my first ascent of it, so I was pretty happy.

14th: it was Musala peak in turn. I’ll miss it as an explanation and will mention, that I had some rest in the hut, took some pictures. The rest I’ll leave to those who were there to resolve.

15th: We climber Botev peak with perfect weather till we were half way up. Then it started raining, a little bit after that – freezing rain. Then thunders, fog, etc…. all till we were down to our cars. But anyways – Botev was hiked this day too

Well, with 2 out 3 it was not a bad adventure after all. I felt myself in perfect condition and managed to preserve my energy, keep straight pace, etc – all the things I feel important.