The drive into Bulgaria had been an interesting one. We had ended up needing to 3 border
crossings this day. When entering Serbia we were questioned quite thoroughly and I was
made to get out and speak with the guy at the back of the car. He then started flicking
through every page of my passport and questioning me on each place I had visited, why
and when. I then had to show him what we had in the car and at one point he asked how
much money we had and I said 1,000 EUR. He misheard me and shouted 5,000 EUR and I
quickly corrected him before ending up in too much of a situation. Thankfully we were
allowed to pass and all before he had reached the Kosovo stamp which we know would cause
us issues when entering Serbia if seen.
Our first stop in Bulgaria was in the city of Sofia. However we arrived late and had to
leave early and so we spent no time at all in the capital really. Having said that we
ended up grabbing diner in the hotel and this turned out to be really well made Bulgarian
cuisine. I had a huge meat plate containing sausage, beef, chicken and lamb fried on a hot
plate with vegetables. Kat had a cheese dish stuffed with veg almost like a pastry. I then
withdraw some cash and wondered why the ATM had such a low limit. Turned out I had done the
maths wrong and we had ended up withdrawing 4 times the amount I thought I had. :|
Seven Lakes was our first and biggest trek of our trip. We had planned quite a few different things into our days
and one of these was this trek in Bulgaria. In order to do the trek we had to head off early from Sofia in order
to reach the start of the trek. We took the scenic direct route which was a fantastic rural drive; Kat struggled
as she usually does in the morning though on windy roads. Looking pale and close to vomiting while simultaneously
munching down on a pack of Mentos.
After about 2 hours we arrived at the cable car station which was going to take us 20 minutes 2 miles up the hill
to the ski lodge and starting point of the trail. From here we headed up on the trail for about 4 hours passing
each of the lakes on the way. The view over the first lake was stunning and gave us a taste of what we were in for.
From here we moved up through the 2nd and 3rd lakes before we hiked further through the 3rd and 4th. We stopped on
the banks of the 4th to enjoy some snacks in the sun before we took on the ice sheets and brutal, near vertical
ascent up to the 5th lake. This lake was partially frozen despite it being mid-June by this stage but it mad for a
beautiful spot to stop and enjoy some lunch and the sun glistened off it with mind warping reflections.
From here we could have chosen to carry on up a very steep pass, but the fog had moved in by now and we decided
that we really didn’t want to stay in our accommodation we had booked for that night as the accommodation was in a
ghost town with no food options or shops around. Even the supposed hot springs appeared to be non-existent.
On the way down we decided to take the scenic route skerting around by the shore line of several of the lakes we
had seen. This turned into a massive long cut and was much warmer. We hardly saw any people walking on this trail
and we very nearly took the wrong fork on several occassions. It did make for nice alternate views we wouldn't have
seen otherwise though.
Upon reaching the bottom we jumped in the car and drove another 5 hours across Bulgaria to reach the town of Sunny
Beach. This meant that we now had 2 full days instead of an afternoon and 1 day.
We hadn’t expected much from the beach or the town, but it was a nice change from the rural areas and mountains. It also happened to coincide with my 29th Birthday which was nice. We didn’t do a lot during our time here except relax on the beach. The beach wasn’t Mexico or Caribbean nice but it was a big step up from back home in England. It was also quite busy and there were some other English people around here. The sun was quite strong here and both of us got a good bit burnt despite not being out in the sun for that long. The temperatures had continued to be in the mid 30’s and we’d just about managed to escape the rain. I wouldn’t say I’d have come direct to sunny beach for a beach holiday but it was nice as a short layover on our route.
We hadn’t found Bulgaria as cheap as we had been expecting. Accommodation was very cheap, but food and drink not
so much. Same with sun beds. All in all though we had thoroughly enjoyed Bulgaria and it was the country we had
spent the longest in during our eastern European road trip. We had also found Bulgaria a lot less touristy than
we had imagined it would be. Things like the seven lakes had only a handful of foreigners, despite being the
biggest tourist attraction and being reachable from Sofia by public transport / tours.
Next we headed north through the rural countryside on route to Romania.
