Archive for the ‘Adventure’ Category

Adventures in Bulgaria

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

I have earlier written about the beautiful Bulgarian nature and have also been trekking a lot in the mountains around Sofia. Lately the weather have been really good here which have given me the opportunity also to do a lot of outdoor sports, instead of the indoor climbing I mostly did during the colder part of the year. Some weeks ago for example I was to the opening of the rafting season in Bulgaria. Last weekend, I was checking out the climbing sites in and around Plovdiv. One of them is just 50 meters from the town walking area, and another was about 30 minutes drive from the city. The common thing with them all is that the level of climbing is very advanced, which can be one of the reasons that most of the best climbers in Bulgaria is from Plovdiv and it’s climbing club with only about 10 people in it.

Check out the pictures below from the weekend, and the web site www.bulgaria-adventures.com which I will officially launch in some weeks from now.

Vertical crimp climbing Plovdiv

Climber and belayer

Plovdiv tepeta climbing

Two climbers on rock wall

Homemade bridge over river

Climber preparing jump

Bulgarian rock climber

Hanging climber

Lead climber

Brjanovshtitza climber

Toprope climbing high

Climbing dog

Climber with hand chalk

Climber handhold

Climber with forest background

Climber and   trees

Curved climber

Climber clipping

Brjanovshtitza climbing

Brjanovshtitza rock view

Brjanovshtitza climbing rock wall

Climbing rope foot edging

Climbing hut on mountain wall

Climber gravical high vertical

Climbing silhouette

Rafting opening season in Kresna

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Just back to Bulgaria and the first weekend happen to be the opening season of rafting, great! One of my friends was earlier in the Bulgarian rafting team and last weekend I joined her to do the first rafting of the year. Below you can see the pictures from these days.

Microphones in mountain

Trekking in the beautiful nature with mountains

Blurred rafters below

Descent into raft

Green kayak in stream

Kayak head down

Overview from mountain

Paddling rafters

Raft in stream

Rafters far below

Rafters with green nature

Rafters paddling

Rafting for beginners (lesson)

Rafting lesson

Rafting seen from above

Stream

Yellow kayak in stream

Trees in different colors

Cloud and trees

Green salamander (amphibian)

Veliko Ternovo + status update

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

I realize it was a while since i wrote here. I’ve now moved back to Sofia about two weeks ago and have done a lot of things, but most of all, spending time with my friends here. On top of this one friend from Milan came to visit Bulgaria, and we rented a car for a day trip to Veliko Ternovo. This is the old capital of Bulgaria and a very beautiful picturesque city. Below you will find some of my pictures from this trip.

Tomorrow I will go on a trip to visit friends & family in Italy, Sweden & Denmark. When I return to Sofia I will write a blog post with tips on how to pack your travel bag small & efficient.

Veliko Ternovo river

Veliko Ternovo - house near river

Triple locked box in Veliko Ternovo

Blocked window in Veliko Ternovo

Not so homeless dog in Veliko Ternovo

Balcony with clothes in Veliko Ternovo

Interesting view in Veliko Ternovo

Different place to have a WC - Veliko Ternovo

Beautiful view in Veliko Ternovo

Sunset - end of car trip to Veliko Ternovo

The mountains and caves around Sofia

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

I love trekking and when I have not been exploring my new home town Sofia I have done trips to the mountains. Two beautiful places that I want to tell you about are Lakatnik and Skakavitsa.

Lakatnik is about one hour outside of Sofia and there is a train stop which is perfect to start your trekking from. You will cross a bridge over the Iskar river and then walk up through a beautiful forest with an incredible panoramic view. After about one hour you reach one of the many caves you can find here. These natural caves date back to around 130,000 BP and have different difficult levels that suit both beginners and experienced cavers. If you don’t like cave’s (or bats) you can just enjoy the fascinating view! This mountain also has some perfect walls for climbing if you know what you are doing.

Lakatnik - crossing over the Iskar river

Lakatnik - crossing over the Iskar river

Locals we met on the way walking up the mountain

Locals we met on the way walking up the mountain

The river again following the mountain

The river again following the mountain

One of the Lakatnik caves with an incredible view

One of the Lakatnik caves with an incredible view

Portrait photographing on high heights

Portrait photographing on high heights

Beautiful view over the foggy forest

Beautiful view over the foggy forest

Skakavista is two hours from Sofia and is most easy to reach by car. If you don’t have a car available you can also take two buses to get there. Skakavista is perfect for a weekend trip as there is a big hut up in the mountain (within 1-2 hours walk) where you can stay if the weather is not suited for tenting. This place is most famous because of it’s beautiful waterfall and on the other side of the mountain it’s lakes. In the winter the waterfall is turned into ice and great for ice climbing. If you are here in the summer you can instead take a dip in the small river that goes down the mountain.

Skakavitsa - view of one of the mountains

Skakavitsa - view of one of the mountains

Ice on the mountain wall

Ice on the mountain wall

Beautiful ice formations in the river

Beautiful ice formations in the river

More river and ice

More river and ice

Skakavitsa river coming from the waterfall

Skakavitsa river coming from the waterfall

The Skakavitsa waterfall, with periodical ice breaks

The Skakavitsa waterfall, with periodical ice breaks

Both these places are great both for beginners and advanced trekkers because you can find varied level of difficult tracks.

Day trip to Ronda

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

A week in Fuengirola is a little bit too much, so one day I took a short trip to Ronda. This small town is located high up in the mountains and is known mostly because of Ernest Hemingway writing about it’s beauty and the 120 meter tall bridge that you have to cross to get into the old town. I had been there before and went there now mostly to show the town too some people, but this time we took a different way back home and it turned out to be the best part of the whole trip! The roads were newly renovated and great to drive on, if you don’t easily get road sickness as there were almost no straight lines but only curves the whole way. The view was breathtaking and started with a desert landscape which soon changed into high beautiful mountains and a protected nature area with the name Sierra de Las Nievas. If it hadn’t been for the darkness catching in on us we would have spent more time just walking and driving around there.

The beautiful 120 meters tall bridge

The beautiful 120 meters tall bridge

One of the beautiful views from Ronda's parks

One of the beautiful views from Ronda's parks

More breathtaking views from inside Ronda

More breathtaking views from inside Ronda

Ronda's bullfighting arena

Ronda's bullfighting arena

Outside Ronda on the way back home - desert

Outside Ronda on the way back home - desert

More desert but starting to get greener

More desert but starting to get greener

Sierra de Las Nievas - national park

Sierra de Las Nievas - national park

Statue found in Sierra de Las Nievas

Statue found in Sierra de Las Nievas

Statue's (and mine) shadow with beautiful view

Statue's (and mine) shadow with beautiful view over the mountains and the city Coin far away

The city coin with a really "local" feeling

The city Coin with a really "local" feeling

The Sacromonte caves in Granada

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

For the last week I have been traveling and meeting people so I’m a little bit late with the postings in this blog. Anyway, one week ago I went to Granada (on my path Torrevieja -> Granada -> Fuengirola -> Madrid -> Sofia). I was supposed to meet and stay at one CouchSurfers place, but she never answered my calls so I found a cheap central hostel instead. For me it’s always worth living central in a city just to save time, if not the bus/metro-ride itself is interesting or the area you have found. In New York for example I lived in the outskirts of Manhattan in wonderful Spanish Harlem which is a must see in my eyes, and still close to the Hyde Park and the rest of New York if you have good walking boots.

Ok so now back to the topic. Granada was just lovely as every Spanish person I’ve ever met before have told me. A lot of tourists of course, but still very easy to find “hidden” spots you can have for yourself or to spend time with locals. One of the highlights of the city was my walk up to the hills in Sacromonte. There are a lot of people here living for free in caves where they have furniture and all the living capacities they need. I had heard that there was a museum where you can see one of these caves, but I could not find it and just climbed up the hills random. Suddenly I was lucky and walked straight into the area where all these caves are.

Sacromonte caves in Granada

Sacromonte caves in Granada

The best thing with this area was that it was totally deserted of tourists, apart from a group of 7 young persons I met and joined. These persons were local students that had just arrived 2 weeks before from Canada, France and Poland. After looking at the cave area we had a picnic break and then did some more trekking up the hills for some hours. Finally we found the way back and went to one of the guys apartment. After some drinks and snacks we went on to his favorite Marrakesh restaurant. The food and tee was great, as for the company, but the best thing was the restaurant owner who spoke 7 languages fluent (Arabic, Berber, Spanish, French, English, German and Italian)! He was also able to switch between them without a problem, sometimes in one and the same sentence. And his humor was great, joking around with us and sitting down at our table for a long time with the result that the food became almost cold before we started eating. Great day and evening and always fun with new friends!

More caves in Sacromonte, these even with solar power

More caves in Sacromonte, these even with solar power

Alhambra in Granada, view from the Sacromonte caves

Alhambra in Granada, view from the Sacromonte caves

Picnic and later trekking with Granadian students from Canada, France and Poland

Picnic and later trekking with Granadian students from Canada, France and Poland

Stormy Torrevieja

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Last night I was in a poker tournament at a English hard rock pub, Monroe’s. This place is very relaxed with a good atmosphere and great owners, and filled from floor to ceiling with things connected to Marilyn Monroe. When the poker game was over and we were about to leave, there was a flood outside the door and on every street as far as we could see.

The last week here in Torrevieja have been quite stormy, and one local who is born here told me that she has never seen anything like this before. Because there is no drainage in the streets there are floods every time it rains this much. The city is leaning down to the beach which have been ruined because of the heavy streams of water. Also a lot of cellars and garages are flooded, along with apartments and offices on street level.

Flooded street crossing in the night

Flooded street crossing in the night

Playa del cura flooded in the night

Playa del cura flooded in the night

The day after: Playa del cura destroyed

The day after: Playa del cura destroyed

The day after: Playa los locos also destroyed, with cracked pavement

The day after: Playa los locos also destroyed, with cracked pavement. Confused life guard still on watch, though the beach is gone.

The day after: Destroyed bridge at Cala de los Trabajos

The day after: Destroyed bridge at Cala de los Trabajos

The day after: Flooded street near Cala Cornuda

The day after: Flooded street near Cala Cornuda

The day after: Flooded garage, still pumping out water

The day after: Flooded garage, still pumping out water

Trekking in fog, rain & thunder

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Great Sunday! It started with me getting up early (not my style) to take the first bus to Cartagena. There I met up with friends and CouchSurfers and we went by 4 cars up to a mountain. We parked the cars and directly got the company of two happy wild dogs, who accompanied us the whole day. We started walking and after a while we reached the top of the mountain, just to go down a bit again on the other side of the mountain and to a cabin with an beautiful view. There we stayed, eating whatever we had brought, and chatting. After some hours we were back again at the parking place.

Through the whole trekking it was foggy which later turned into rain and thunder. One of the CouchSurfers asked me if I had enjoyed the trip, referring to the bad weather. Of course I had! I rather take a challenging adventure than an ordinary. You feel more satisfied after, you test your limits and there is more to remember.

Mountain in fog

Mountain in fog

Misty forest half way up on the mountain

Misty forest half way up on the mountain

The small huts that waited for us on the other side of the mountain

The small huts that waited for us on the other side of the mountain

One of the playful wild dogs that followed us the whole day

One of the playful wild dogs that followed us the whole day

A hut with a view

A hut with a view

Mountains following the coast, with hidden beaches on

Mountains following the coast, with hidden beaches on

Too bad this is a closed military area so that not more people can enjoy this place.