Saturday 27 August 2016

Our local pub cat


He is ginger tomcat and one of the clients called him "Harry the Bastard" :)

These pub cats are something I've seen a few times around and by the look are somewhat typical for the British pubs.























Friday 26 August 2016

My new dog, Bulgarian Shepherd (Karakachanka)

Just got this puppy. It suppoused to be Bulgarian shepherd (Karakachanka) and when grown up 80 kg or so. But, for now its small cute baby.







Thursday 25 August 2016

Hitler on souvenirs

Souvenir cups with Hitler
This type of souvenir cups are sold in many Bulgarian resorts.

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Climbing Musala, summit of Mount Rila and highest peak in Eastern Europe


I made this video the other day while climbing Musala, the summit of the Rila mountain range and the highest peak between the Alps and the Caucasus and the highest in Eastern Europe bar the Caucasus. It is 2,925 m (9,596 ft) above the sea level.

Climbing this peak, while not the most difficult experience in my life was still pretty hard and this mostly due to the late start and the need to maintain relatively high speed. And the big luck I had this day was to meet a family of experienced climbers who were setting the appropriate pace. Without them I would have had pretty hard time, because at first I started way too fast and probably would have crumbled before reaching the peak and then, I didn't knew really the way and the chances are that I would have gotten lost at some point. So, big thanks to them and the good luck I had this day.

Now, A bit of information how to get to the peak. First, go to Sofia, the Capital of Bulgaria. Then find "Gara Yug", which means South Station and is next to the metro station "Joliot Curie". There can be find busses every hour going to town called Samokov for 5-6 levs (2-3 pounds), then from Samokov to the village Borovets with mini busses for few levs. The distance is 12 km and taxi will cost 12 levs for example. Once you are in Borovets look for the gondola lifts and go for the one for Yastrebets, it should cost 12 levs for 2 way ticket. If you want more hardcore experience you can start climbing from Borovets, but here I am not going to get in details about that option. Mind that if you want to use the public transport and the gondola lifts you should squeeze the whole exercise between 8 and 18 o'clock and check in advance which days the gondola lift works.

So, from Ystrebets there is wide back road to Musala Hut, which can be taken for 40 min. From there starts the steep part through rocks and boulders to Ledenoto Ezero (Icy Lake) Hut, which takes another 50 min. After that point is the last section, which finishes at the summit itself and takes no more then 30 min. This climb took about 2 hours as far as I can see from the time stamps of the photos that I was taking during the ascent.

So, in conclusion Id like to say that despite the bad weather and the lack of any visibility, getting on this summit was great experience and nice notch on the tourist's belt with conquests.

Sunday 7 August 2016

Flying object over Kopitoto, Bulgaria



This observation was made on 07 August 2016, between 21:05 and 21:10, over "Kopitoto" tower, near Knyazhevo district in Sofia, Bulgaria. Probably is more correct to say over Vitosha mountain.

At first it was a bit further and smaller and looked a bit like plane's lights, but pretty fast it was clear that it moves somewhat irregularly and the light is too big for a plane. Then it looked like plane of fire, accident maybe. Then it got a bit bigger or closer and didn't look like anything, but the speed was probably 100-200 km/h and the distance 1-2 km, but I may be wrong, there was no way to judge it correctly.  Then the light got extinguished and it proved to be dark object somewhat triangularly shaped and spinning, while getting closer and closer and dropping down. Also there was no sound, the speech you can hear is Bulgarian.

I filmed it with Samsung S4, the camera is not very good and it looked much clearer and bigger on live.

I'd like to see a real UFO or extraterrestrials, but here I am 99% convicted its something human-made, maybe some kind of toy or else. I'll appreciate deeply any ideas about what I've just seen.

Friday 5 August 2016

Bankya, small town near Sofia, Bulgaria

Just visited Bankya (In Bulgarian: Банкя), small town around 15 km from the Capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. Honestly, this place doesn't have any exceptional natural formation or anything like that, nor it has any cultural objects of significant note. Relatively interesting are the natural hot mineral water springs and public fountains and baths built on them, but that's about all.

Nonetheless, due to its geographical proximity to Sofia, it was popular destination for weekend trips during the second half of 20th century for many of the inhabitants of the Capital and seems it continues to be popular choice for holidays and city-breaks.

Below I'll post a few pictures from this town.


And below a few more pictures with views from another village in the vicinity - Gradoman