Tag Archives: Bulgaria ๐ง๐ฌ
via militaris
This post is about a 22km walk from Dragoman to Dimitrovgrad. I pass the border from Bulgaria into Serbia. People had warned me about the highway to the border: it was under construction, and so it was very narrow and very dusty. Also it was apparently quite busy. the good road I stayed on the […]
Dragoman
This post is about a rest day in Dragoman town in Bulgaria. I wonder about the place name, and some local guys give me an answer. I was still trying to go easy on my knee. Every time I took the stairs I could feel it act up a little, and so I stayed in […]
you should not put ketchup on pizza
This post is about a 33km walk from Republika to Dragoman. The road is bad at first, but then it gets easy, and I run into a few cyclists. The road started out bad. It was very narrow and very busy, and I had to navigate around a lot of water left from the snow […]
snow in late April
This post is about snow in late April in Republika. I stay in and pass the time doing laundry and writing my blog. When I woke up in a roadside guesthouse in the outskirts of Sofia, I found it hard to believe my eyes: it was snowing! Less than 24 hours earlier I had been […]
the squirrel
This is a post about an 11km walk from Sofia to Republika. I have made the decision that I want to walk through Serbia. I knew it was going to be a short walk, but I didn’t know how difficult it was going to be. Big cities were often difficult to navigate on foot, especially […]
new means big
This post is about a visit to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Sofia Synagogue. Both of them are rather large and rather new. There were two more things I wanted to see: the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Synagogue of Sofia. The cathedral, because I had walked past it on my way into town, […]
why so tiny?
This post is about a visit to the Banya Bashi Mosque and the Church of Saint George in Sofia. Both of them are very small. My friends came to take me out to lunch and show me around Sofia. There were quite a few shops and restaurants with Arabic-looking names in the city center. We […]
one sixth of the people
This post is about a 20km walk from Lozen to Sofia. I walk carefully because I am worried about my knee. But I make it to the city. And then I walked. It wasn’t anything like real walking at first. None of that stompie-stompie of before. finding it I treaded carefully, observing my knee, trying […]
organized chaos
This post is about some new walking gear. I spend all day packing my things, wondering what I should send home and what I should keep. The plan was simple: I was going to pack my things in the morning and leave in the afternoon. And so I packed and I packed and I packed. […]
the wondermaker’s new home
This post is about a visit to the Rila Monastery. It’s the biggest and oldest monastery in Bulgaria, but it was rebuilt in the 19th century. We decided it wasn’t time yet for me to leave. And so we had a lazy breakfast, and then we got into my friends’ car and went southwest, into […]
me and the tree
This post is about my return to the village of Lozen in Bulgaria. I take a walk with my friendsย and hang my martenitsa into a tree. After a month and a half in Germany, I finally got back to Bulgaria. I was nervous. Not about my MS: my doctors had put me in an MRI […]
Baba Marta
This post is about me getting my martenitsa in Lozen, Bulgaria. It’s Baba Marta Day and I’m about to Germany for a medical checkup. When I woke up I didn’t know where I was or how I had gotten there. I looked around and remembered that I was in the loft of my friend’s house. […]
the path that I chose
This post is about a 10km walk from the Chapel Of The Virgin Mary to Lozen. I take the wrong way and end up having a difficult day. The night had been surprisingly okay. I got up and put on a pair of dry shoes from the depths of the Caboose. Then I said goodbye […]
WTF bear tracks?
This post is about a 41km walk from Ihtiman to the Chapel Of The Virgin Mary. It is snowing heavily, and I pass a very cold village. When I went out into the parking lot my heart sank. Everything was white, and it kept coming. I zipped up my jacket, put on my gloves, my […]
this is a knoife
This post is about a day of rest at the Motel Ihtiman. I wash some of my socks, I check out a supermarket, and I order an expresso. I was staying at the Motel Ihtiman. It was a highway rest area, which meant that it was a wee bit expensive. But there was an attached […]
that motherfucker Putin
This post is about a 20km walk from the Gate Of Trajan to Ihtiman. Putin has just attacked Ukraine. The mountains are beautiful. I woke up and laid my stuff out to dry. Then I sat down and stared at my phone. That motherfucker Putin had started attacking Ukraine the day before. I made a […]
The Gate Of Trajan
This post is about a 15km walk from Gorno Varshilo to the Gate Of Trajan. I feast at a highway restaurant, then I marvel at a Roman fortress. It was cold when I woke up in the ruins. And I was hungry. I didn’t have a lot to eat on me, and I was out […]
a murdered man
This post is about a 15km walk from the Slavovitsa Winery to Gorno Varshilo. I see Aleksandar Stamboliyski’s villa and sleep in the hills. The wind had been howling and the rain had been beating all through the night. I was happy that I had found shelter in the winery. I had the whole place […]
no healing today
This post is about a 25km walk from Pazardzhik to the Slavovitsa Winery. I want to visit a spiritual center, but no one is home. The day was grey and the weather forecast said that there was going to be rain in the afternoon. the youth I walked out of Pazardzhik, remembering a conversation from […]
good villages
This post is about a 24km walk from Stamboliyski to Pazardzhik. I learn about martenitsi and pass through an interesting village. When I started walking I finally understood why something had felt off about this place: Stamboliyski was a town that had been cut in two. The railroad tracks went right through its center, creating […]