Apartment block

Drainage face

Looking into fountain

Street color

View from top of Belogradchik fortress

Left to right: Happy tourists: Chrissy, Bubbe, Philippe, Vic - at entrance to Belogradchik Fortress

Left to right: Julieta and Leonard Pascanu, Federatia Filatelica Romana

MM Francisc Ambruc, http://www.revenues.ro and http://www.fip-revenue.org, Bucuresti, Romania

Earl has to get up at 4am to go to the airport.  Had a leisurely breakfast with Sherif.  Then strolled over to the bus station for the noon schedule.  It was a five hour bus ride from Sofia to Smolyan.  Don't know where the guidebook got the idea that it was 3.5 hours.  On the bus, a woman got on from Plovdiv and tried to chat to me in Bulgarian.  She was from the bani bani village and was only on the bus for about half an hour.  Was surprized that it takes 15 hours to fly to America.  Says she could never do that!

Anyway, found a pension for 30 leva including breakfast and free internet down the road from the bus station.  Didn't have a lot of time to check around for a cheaper place or a home stay as it was already after 5pm and tourist information is in another part of town. Smolyan is 8 km long so not so easy to walk from one part to another. At least the hostess here speaks English.

Supposedly there is a german also here at the pension so may be available for joint excursions to Yagodina and Trigrad which would make a cheaper outing for all concerned.  I'm not sure whether to stay here or move onto a smaller town.  It might be easier to stay put and just do day trips from here.

Appears the Three Fir-tree hotel/pension (http://www.trieli.hit.bg/zanasus.htm) is listed in Rough Guide and Lonely Planet guide books. My first edition LP is from 2002 so didn't list it.  

Have a light dinner of nettle soup.

Wandered off around 9:30 to hike out to the local waterfall canyon.  Supposedly a 4 hour walk.  I managed to stretch it to 8 hours.

Needless to say my feet are tired. Also saw defunct trout farm and mineral springs.  A little mouse like creature ran across my path.  Huddled up like a hamster but had a long tail.  Otherwise only saw bugs.  Nice bugs. Mating bugs.  No biting bugs.  A little rain but always stopped after a few minutes. Kept the weather interesting.Fellow here at the pension is Stefan from Stuttgart. He is 38 and did the waterfall hike yesterday. Today he did the difficult journey to see a cave south of here which required hitchhiking part of the way. We both agreed that the bridges on the waterfall canyon trail were dodgy.  After I crossed my third bridge I decided to head back as there was a fork in the trail and I wasn't sure which path circled back. The lady of the pension (Milena) is willing to take Stefan and me on tours.  Tomorrow is a nearby castle ruin for 30 leva.  Then going to bite the bullet and take the tour from here to Yagodina and Trigrad for 60 leva.  Otherwise it would take 3 days to travel there and back.  So it doesn't look like I will have any leva leftover.

Potato soup tonight. Hopefully I can lose some weight this trip.

First tour with  Мilena Yurukova, manager of "Three Fir-Tree House".  She drives Stefan and me through Smolyan and tells us about the area's industries of tobacco, wood, dairy and carpets.

The legendary musician, Orpheus of Thrace, is honored in the Rhodopi. 

There are many statues of him and Eurydice.  The Rhodopi is 18,000 km, a coniferous and mixed forested region.  Villages are built on southern slopes to catch the sun.  Agriculture these days is mostly potatoes and beans.  Wells to springs are created as special memorials to the deceased with wishes for good health mixed with remembrance.

 We hike up to the fortress which also has thracian overtones and enjoy a hail storm.

Melina knows all the plants and their various tea, medicinal or herbal properties.  She takes us to a mineral spring and shows me the pine tree she uses to create syrup. On the way back we stop for lunch at a cafeteria and I amuse Melina by getting schembe chorba, along with kebache, hot peppers and cuke/tomato salad.

Up at 7:30 to catch tour at 8 am. Milena's younger son who is 26, Dmitri, drives us today.  First stop is Shiroka Luka which is traditional town under the throes of development so is a strange mixture of old and new. Onwards to Trigrad's Devil Throat cave which features a tremendous underground waterfall and 300 steps up.  The scenery there is gorgeous.   Saw some birdwatchers from England doing their thing waiting for a wall creeper to come back to its nest.  Ate lamb rodopi style for lunch which consisted of numerous lamb bits (l detected liver among them) fried with onions and peppers.  They also had lamb lung corba soup on the menu. A mosque in each small town here.  The road gets narrow driving to the caves.  We then went to another cave (Yagodina) and voted against going in.  Stefan had been to one already Wednesday and I have been to several and we didn't feel the 7.5 leva and 45 minutes was necessary for life.  Then we went to Devin to the mineral springs spa and checked out their swimming pool, jacuzzi and hot tub.  Came back and crashed for an hour.  Didn't do as much as yesterday but feeling worn out.  Maybe soaking in the hot tub made me tired.  Milena's 36 year old son is visiting town on holiday.  He works in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Visited Neviastata and Turluka Rocks this morning.Supposedly Easy Hike.  Bulgarians have a wonderful sense of humor.
This is where a supposed young comely Bulgarian maiden jumped off the cliff rather than become part of the Sultan's harem so the rock is called "The Bride"Admittedly, it started out very easy. Nice trail. Even signs to tell you the names of flora and fauna.  Picnic tables.  Signs stating don't get any closer than 3 meters to the edge.  All fine and good. Then Milena took us off trail to go to the other side of the mountain and things got really interesting.  The only person I think I know who would do this hike would be Diana.  Thank goodness I had a walking stick.  Milena is 58 but has been hiking this mountain since she was a child.Anyway I survived and then went to have wonderful fresh grilled trout at a lakeside restaurant.  My splurge meal at 7.50 leva.  Then went to Planetarium where they have a show in English at 2pm but not enough people so waited for the Bulgarian show at 3pm. A big group of school kids came so I walked in as well and got away without paying the 5 leva.  The big laugh, apex of the show was when they stated that the Bulgarian folk music went on Voyager along with Beethoven, etc.

Weather still nice and cool for the most part as soon as it gets warmer it rains and then it is cool again.  Had excellent weather for hike this morning otherwise we could not have done it.

Last day here in Smolyan.  Stefan moved on to Burgas. Went first to find bus station at 9am and buy ticket to Sofia for 10am tomorrow which means I'll get into Sofia around 2pm.

Then went to find your tablecloth as Melina told me where to find one. It's 40 leva.  I don't know if that is a good price or not, but bought it anyway. Went back to the pension to drop off the tablecloth. (Checking my notes -- tablecloth in Sofia last September was 45 leva so I got a deal).

Then off to find Rhodope Regional History Museum which is inconveniently placed high on hill above the main street about 2 km from the pension. My first thoughts were "You've got to be kidding, what jokers these Bulgarians are. Who's going to climb up the mountain to see a museum?"So I trekked up and found only a block of apartments. Came back down and rechecked my notes and asked a pedestrian.  Yup, its up the hill. I guess I should have turned left instead of right where the path forked. A SIGN WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE.  I'm sure there's a secret road for tourist buses.  It was getting hot so I shucked my vest and stuffed it into my backpack and proceeded up the hill once again.

This time I found the museum which is closed from 12 to 1 -- it was 12:10 pm.  However, the door was open and it was air conditioned inside so I went inside and sat.  Eventually the manager came by and after figuring out that I wasn't with a group went ahead and let me inside.  LOVELY museum and I had the place to myself.  English translations plus a detailed page for each exhibit in various languages if folks are interested in reading more.  Great costumes, folk art, etc.  Got the postcard and pechat. That makes five for this trip.  The manager also gifts me a couple of souvenir medal pins.

Right across the entrance a stone's throw is the Art Gallery so went there as well.  The manager from the Regional Museum hunted up the manager for the gallery so they could open the door for me.  I tried to buy a card there but the woman just gives me the card as a gift souvenir.

No McD or KFC in this region yet.  Have now seen the magical head shake for DA a couple of times and the nodding NE once. 

Milena shows me her tea brew of elderberry flowers which is soaked with lemon for 24 hours in spring water. Sugar is added and it is not boiled.  

Today was a lot of experience sharing. First with Ken Gillham from Perth Australia who is a stock photographer and passing through Smolyan today. So we chatted during breakfast.

Then on the bus, Jan and David Peacham  from Sussex, England  jumped on and we chatted all the way to Sofia.  They decided to stay at the Arte Hotel  near the center of Sofia for 90 euros (breakfast 10 euros more).  It had very good a/c and its location at Dondukov Street is close to the palace. They treated me to a beer.  It was fun comparing notes.

Too hot to walk so took the tram back to Vic's. Poor 10 year old Chrissy is suffering from chicken pox, day 6.  Of course she is concerned about her appearance and prone to crying fits.

Just had two plates of moussaka. I was hungry for some reason.

Got into Vienna and checked in. Vic recommended zoo at Schonbrunn so I went there this afternoon.  GREAT zoo -- supposedly the oldest in Europe. There's an aquarium, interactive bats, insects, birds.
Unfortunately, my camera battery died early into the zoo.
Too bad as I saw some great bugs and beautiful birds. Had bratwurst which was like knockwurst and chips which were like sliced french fries for 6,30 euros at the zoo. That plus 2,20 each way for the tram and 12 euros for the zoo entrance shot my budget for the day so I had some free pasta here at the hostel for dinner. I think Earl would like Vienna.  It has plenty of stuff to do and it is mostly flat to walk and good transportation. Travel Shack folks tell me the bike tour is ON for tomorrow so that will occupy me.

Just got back from the bike tour in Wachau Valley .  It was very nice and I got directions so I can do it on my own by train and boat next time we come to Wien.  Most of the bike ride was fairly easy considering there were a few hills.  The tour normally costs 59 euros so it was a nice award.A bunch of American college graduates (2 girls from Texas, 2 guys from Madison, Wisconsin and the rest of the guys were from upstate NY) were on the tour. They all got plastered.  A 31 year old surgeon from Brazil kept me company.  There was also a young couple from Ireland and a 1st G Indian from London.  13 of us plus our guide. The BBQ lunch was very good with sausage wrapped in bacon stuffed with cheese, bratwurst and pork, steaks, german potato salad, beets and mixed salad.  There was plenty of white wine to taste but I didn't drink much of it.  I also avoided the apricot soaked snappes. Instead, indulged in an ice cream cone and a coca cola light.  Watched the kids play ball in the Danube.  I didn't feel like braving the water.

We got back to town by 19:00 and I went to the Wombar to collect my free beer.  Chatted with a guy from San Antonio and a fellow from New Zealand.  Interesting question posed to me -- if it was my last day on earth and could go anywhere in the world, where would I go?

Side note: The fellow from Brazil had boarded the plane flight that took off before the one that went down over the Atlantic.  He was lucky as his flight had been overbooked. Seven people from his flight were put on that fatal journey.

I met a fellow from Norway with a substantial hat yesterday at breakfast.  He's still around today but moving on.  So am I.  Caught the 8.40 bus to the airport. It's drizzly out so cooler than yesterday.  The weather won't be very nice for the bike tour people today.  Flight connections were tight but only because the boarding ticket listed its time an hour before the actual flight.  Had enough space on the plane to stretch out for the long flight.  Listened to several hours of "Wait wait don't tell me" that I had downloaded into my I-pod.  Got back to Miami at 18:00 and blasted by the heat getting off the plane.