This entry is a bit out of order, because I did something unusual on this trip. I originally planned for nearly two weeks in Istanbul, with the intention to take a few days of that time to escape outside of the city and see some of the Turkish countryside. Specifically, I wanted to see Cappadocia. But when I started to plan that leg of the trip, I realized getting there was actually quite a logistical pain. There weren't many public transportation options available, and so the only viable option was a flight to a nearby town and then a rental car.
At that point, I realized that I was pretty close to Bulgaria, where my friend Vassil lives. I've never visited Bulgaria, and after confirming that Vassil would be around, I booked the trip! So instead of my normally linear blog posts as a bounce around, this one occurred in the middle of my longer stay in Istanbul.
It turns out that fate was working on my side this time. Istanbul is a beautiful city, but a concrete jungle that is absolutely packed. Escaping that chaos for a while to the comparably slower, smaller city of Bulgaria was really nice. Furthermore, it gave me the opportunity to go for a longer hike and see some mountains. That was really nice, after a few weeks of being confined to city life.
Here was the main city center of Sofia, where crowds would gather to stroll the streets and eat, drink and go shopping.One evening I met Vassil and some friends for a couple of beers in the park. The sunset reflecting off the nearby church was quite beautiful.And the famous Vassil! It was great to see him again. He had recently broken his arm from a nasty bicycle collision, but was otherwise doing really well. His startup company, Mirror 360 was doing really well and he seemed very happy with his transition from Microsoft in Seattle to Mirror 360 back home in Bulgaria.Vassil was working, but recommended a nearby hike for me to check out during the day. It was exactly what I needed, some time by myself in nature.There was a beautiful overlook of some surrounding cities. The red roofs contrasting with the greenery nearby was really scenic.Speaking of colorful contrasts, part of the hike had these moss-covered rocks scattered around. It reminded me of Colorado, where you can frequently see similar lime-green moss growing in small patches on rocks.Another view of the moss-colored rocks scattering the hillside.And speaking of Colorado, the hike was up an abandoned ski resort. It reminded me of home in Colorado, which made me homesick in a great way.Another photo of some of the abandoned lift equipment. It was really cool to see all the abandoned and rusted out equipment and buildings.Here's one of the abandoned buildings. I wasn't quite sure what this building was. It seemed a bit more "residential" than just a utility building...but rather small.I crawled inside the building from the broken out windows, which was a little sketchy. But worth it, just for these cool photos looking back out onto the mountains.Same shot, different window! I couldn't decide which of the photos I liked best, so just decided to share both :)Probably the strangest thing I've seen on a hike. Three young men, carrying a single chicken. As far as I could tell, there were no residential areas anywhere nearby.As I got closer to the top of the mountain, my camera started to suffer from some pretty bad vignetting. But I'm not really mad...it made for a cool effect!Perhaps one of my favorite photos from the hike.After the hike, I indulged in some home cooked food from a restaurant at the base of the mountain. It was really similar to tzatziki, with some nice bread that was vaguely similar to pita. Both were different enough to be their own things, but still comparable. And then some ground meat sausage, which was really delicious. 10 / 10 post-hike meal!