Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Photo’s at http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/2723116
(please watch a slide show, it looks better)

Got back from Bansko on the 4th after a weeks holiday.

Well what can i say.......

The Gondola was shut on 2 days of my holiday due to high wind and too much snow
and i still had a much better time than I was expecting to have , and I was expecting to have a very very good time!
The road transfer was an experience but personally i enjoyed it. Just a shame it was night and we couldn't see the absolutely beautiful scenery around us (which we saw on the way back). Got to the accommodation that we booked which was the cheapest we could find on this site. Brierly lodge House is a beautiful little cottage in the old town of Bansko. I would more than happily stay there again.

My friends who were hiring their snowboard equipment had a range to choose from. This went from expensive, very good quality equipment, to cheap, not so good equipment with no cues to worry about so they got what they could afford and ended up with middle of the range stuff which was more than adequate, and for a very good price. Cues for passes were reasonable, perfectly happy. Cues for the gondola were reasonable, perfectly happy. Some of my friends got lessons for two hours on two days, we just found a hire shop and organised them then. The instructor was very good and very friendly, my friends improved considerably for their first time on snow(you will see this in my photo's if they are ready to put on the net.)

The conditions from day to day were very changeable going from beautiful sunny days when we were just in our jumpers to cold and very snowy days . Unfortunately all the snow and the conditions started to cause avalanches so precautions had to be taken and they shut off the ski area to cause a controlled avalanche. i was gutted at the time but hey, you can't have everything. We spent the day walking round all of Bansko , the old town is a beautiful place, everybody should walk round there at least once during their stay, and stop in at one of the small mehana's on the way. I have to mention at this point the small mehana a few doors up from Brierly lodge house, somewhere just off the main street in the old town.This is the friendliest restaurant i have ever been in. Alex the owner and runner of the place is a very cool guy and excellent host. He has now become a friend to all of our party and we will look forward to seeing him next year. The next day we woke up to beautiful blue skies and beautiful snow conditions. Fresh Powder!!! Had an excellent day, and made another Bulgarian friend who works in the mountain restaurant at Shilingarnika. He too is now a good friend who we will keep in contact with. Very friendly lot these Bulgarians. The next day we woke up to strong winds and the gondola being shut off again. we still enjoyed most of a days good boarding, playing about and drinking and ,,,,,,, and learning some tricks on a jump. Some lifts were then opened. Bit of perseverance and a positive attitude, usually does the trick . This day was the first of the public holiday, a very good atmosphere in the air. The next day was also the public holiday and the slopes were opened again. We were first on the slopes as usual due to me, the motivator, i got a few F*** O**'s in the morning’s but it paid off. After a couple of runs the area around the top of the gondola was packed with people standing around talking and having fun, again a very good atmosphere. The cues for some of the lifts were quite a bit bigger (Because they were nigh on non existent before hand) but they were not too much bother and didn't affect the day's enjoyment. The slopes were also a little more crowded but even less noticeably than the cues.

All of the food we ate was exceptional except for one thing, which we learnt very quickly on making the mistake. Don’t order Italian food in a Bulgarian restaurant, pizza was o.k. but the lasagne had gurkins in and wasn't particularly nice. It’s a stupid thing to do anyway because the local food is exquisite. Try the chicken hearts, i'm not joking Sorry to go against the grain, but the Lions bar is the most horrible place I found in Bansko, as soon as I walked in I wanted to leave. It was just like being back in England again, sorry.

The last day being saturday and i had time for half a day's boarding before we had to leave for the flight. This day i went on my own because all had enjoyed ‘last day on holiday itis’, and enjoyed a beautiful meal and a lot of alcohol, but no hangover can stop me when snowboarding is on the cards. Again i made some friends with some brief acquaintances from the day before, two Bulgarian lads who had come to bansko for a weekends boarding. We enjoyed absolutely beautiful conditions. The wind had blown a lot of the snow off the very top slopes but had sorted a lot of the lower slopes with some nice powdery stuff at either side of the slopes. This day i must have spent 5 to 10 minutes at most on pisted slopes at most. There is some very good and very easily accessible off piste runs in bansko, a good range of steep and narrow including some very cool natural hafpipes and bowls to beautiful runs through sparse tree's. Ohhhhhh it's sending a rush through my back as i think about it now . Fair enough I was lucky with the snow conditions but this was an all round excellent holiday anyhow.
Well that’s about it I think. I am already saving money up to back to Bulgaria next year. Hope you found my report enjoyablw and informative. And liked my pics too.