rila mountains to mt. olympus

after spending a few days in sofia, we headed to rila mountains, where were hoping to spend 2 nights and 3 days of hiking -- conditions permitting. bulgaria, as well as other countries and some US states, have these great hut systems set up where hikers/etc. can stay for the night and eat all meals during their stay. we hoped they would turn out as we had heard, and they did.

the first day in the rila moutain was couple hour hike; the majority of it trying to hitch a ride to the trailhead in a small town just below the entrance into the mountains. anyway we made it to the lona hut, which is at about 1600 meters. the person running the hut was an older-ish guy name gorosch, whom we later found could hold his own singing traditional bulgarian tunes. so we stayed the night and ate supper and breakfast with him. we took off the next morning for the 7 lakes hut, which we heard was about 4 hours away. ...it's kind of annoying that all trails are marked with hours rather than a distance. we woke up early to a beautiful blue sky (the kind we were hoping for in romania) and headed to the 7 lakes. the 7 lakes area are exactly that, 7 lakes scattered in a fairly small area, considering the size of the mountain range, right in the middle of the mountains. they were amazing to say the least. by the time we reached the 7 lakes hut it had only been a fraction of the 4 hours which we were told it took to get there, so we put our packs down at the hut and headed out for the day to see the different lakes. after reaching about 2600 meters, and seeing all the lakes, we looked down the opposite side of the range and noticed another hut in the far off distance. we knew the ivan vazor hut was somewhere semi-close, but not as close as it actually appeared to be. so we sat around, resting and whatnot, when we decided to hike back down to the 7 lakes hut to grab our packs and hike back to where were, and then onto the hut we saw in the distance. well, we made it, but not without being absolutely dead tired. we stayed at ivan vazor, ate a few meals, and then headed off the next morning to our final destination: rila monastery. ...another early morning, another day of hiking, and another day of being absolutely beat when finally crawling into bed -- after a bus ride to thessaloniki.

levi chopping wood at lovna


random


several of the 7 lakes

seeing ivan vazov in the distance

we stayed in thessaloniki for 2 nights without any specific plans other than wanting to see the city. and we did just that. and for the bonus, we stayed with someone we met when we got off the bus arriving in thessaloniki, giving our accommodations budget a bit of a boost. after the 2nd night we heading to litochoro, which would be our starting point to climb mt. olympus.

we woke up the 1st morning on litochoro with clouds and endless fog in the mountains -- reminiscent of romania. our morale took a hit. so we bummed around the town trying to find out about the conditions on the mountain, etc. no one knew anything. then around 2pm or so we saw some hikers and asked them where they had been hiking and what the conditions where like. so had summit-ed the mountain and said the sun had actually been out above the clouds. morale was on the up and up. we packed up with food and headed to the trailhead. the fog didn't allow us to see everything we wanted to, but it didn't rain and the sun did actually shine through the clouds. we made it to the area we wanted to and setup camp for the night. when we woke up sunday morning it was nothing but blue sky. we were on the trail before 8am and had reached the summit around noon. it was up, up, and then a bit more in that direction. the views/etc. were like those on the postcards you can buy around litochoro. so anyway, we ate lunch at the summit and then headed back down to the half-way point where we had started that morning. since it was the weekend and the weather was so nice there were loads of people sightseeing and hiking around -- we were sure our hitch-hiking skills would get us back to town. and they did.

not happy with the weather


campsite


the throne of zues


nearing the summit

right now we're likely in transit to macedonia.

traveling: week 1

all the traveling from conil to bucharest to chisinau went well. i met levi at the bucharest airport, we hoped in a taxi, got on the train, and rode 13 hrs to chisinau -- the train was definitely a soviet area beauty. and we actually had to switch wheels when we got to the moldovian border to fit the different tracks -- this consisted of unhooking the wheels, hydraulically lifting the train cars, putting the new wheels on the track, hooking them back up, and continuing on our way. we then spent 2 days in chisinau with pat, exploring the city, and after that took a mini-bus to brasov, romania. brasov is a fairly touristy city, being in the transylvania region with lots of historic churches and castles. our plan was to spend a night there and then go on the to bucegi mountains, which happened, although the 2 nights we were planning to camp in the mountains didn't so much happen.

the morning we set out it in bran was drizzling and uber foggy. by the time we got to 2700-ish meters there was snow on the ground, and snowing, and foggier than when we started. at that point we were about 3 hours into the 5 hour hike, daylight was not on our side, and conditions were getting worse. we had contemplated turning around a couple times, but kept thinking it would get better, but it didn't, so we finally decided it was the smart decision to turn around. turning around sucks, but we didn't so much want to be caught in the mountains. so we went back to bran for the night, and after waking up with almost worse weather, decided we would take the extra day weren't hiking in romania, since we abandoned the hike, and add it in somewhere along the way. we left that morning for bucharest, where would catch an overnight train to sofia, bulgaria.

we arrived in sofia at 6am yesterday morning, found our hostel, and then set out exploring the city. turns out that sofia is sweet! we hit a few markets, tasted the local cuisine, and mainly tried to get a bit of a feel of the city -- which we feel like we did. this morning we took a bus out of the city into the rila mountain; our extra day gained from leaving romania early will likely be used here. weather permitting, we'll spend 2 nights in the mountains around the fish lakes, and then head to mt. olympus in greece. but who knows what will happen.


and here are just a few pix i'll throw on here:

chisinau, moldova


brasov, romania


the dirtbags


foggy drizzle


pat not impressed with the decision to turn around


sofia, bulgaria