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.
For the first time when I’m in a new country I miss my “real home”, which for now is Sofia in Bulgaria for me. I miss friends, the wonderful people in general, the nature (most of all the mountains), trekking, sports (indoor climbing and so on), warm thermal springs, the great tasting (and varied) food, drinking coffee while walking and a lot more. I also miss being on the road…
That’s why I will be going to Sofia tonight and stay for about a week. What I don’t miss is the cold weather and I know Sofia is covered in snow right now, while Istanbul will be extra warm this week. But I really don’t care right now, and I also left some winter clothes in storage in Sofia so that shouldn’t be a problem (I didn’t bring them to Istanbul because I thought it would be warmer here).
Too bad my Turkish flatmate couldn’t join me this time, would be fun to show him Bulgaria, but I know there will be more opportunities in the future. And when I come back to Sofia next week I will have visitors from Spain and Sweden which I also look forward to! Until then, enjoy some random pictures below from the last week here in Turkey:
Sunset in Istanbul
Istiklal street in Istanbul, with an ocean of heads
A common sight in Istanbul's suburbs
Building construction in Istanbul with low security for the workers
Kartepe ski resort, about 3 hours from Istanbul
It was a long time since I wrote something in the blog. The reason are many, but mostly because I’ve had a full schedule the two months I have been here in Bulgaria now. I’ve traveled around by car, bus and train, visited small towns, big cities, incredibly friendly & interesting people, been trekking, caving, taking baths in outdoor hot mineral springs, bungee jumping, partying, exploring and learning. I have totally fell in love, both in this country and it’s people.
BUT – I will probably move to Istanbul for 2 months in the beginning of January. There are mainly two reasons for this. First of all I will maybe loose my apartment here in Sofia around New Year’s Eve. Instead of looking for a new apartment here, I will take a break to get a perspective on things, and look for an short term apartment/roommate in Istanbul instead. Also, I need more warm climate than Sofia right now, although this means I will miss the snowboard season here.
First of all I will fly home to my family in Sweden for a week to spend Christmas there. Then back here in Bulgaria for NYE celebrations. Hopefully at this time i have more concrete plans and an apartment.
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
Locals we met on the way walking up the mountain
The river again following the mountain
One of the Lakatnik caves with an incredible view
Portrait photographing on high heights
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
Ice on the mountain wall
Beautiful ice formations in the river
More river and ice
Skakavitsa river coming from the waterfall
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.
