Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi
we just got back from Bansko & had an excellent weeks skiiing. It snowed on the saturday night we arrived & gave great conditions higher up to middle of the moutain for most of the week. It was getting a bit icy laterally though. The Tomba is a testing run when the condtions are good and mega fun to come down as are all the runs I tried. The ski road was pretty sparse in terms of decent snow though so we caught the Gondola down the mountain most days. All the ski lifts seemed to be open all of the time other than the last saturday when the Gondola sustained a software glitch. We mamaged to catch a bus up the moutain for 20 levs instead.The gondola was busy although we got up there early (0800) & at worst waited 15 mins to get on. I would reccomend getting there early (obviously!). They also have barriers & gates to funnel peple in with a bit more safety. I had no problems with aggressive people trying to push in. In saying that my brother experienced it once.We booked our lessons with Method ski school & I cannot rate them highly enough. They are a bit more expensive but keep group sizes low and the level of tuition is the best I have had. I learned loads about my body postition and technique and they have given me much food for thought for next time. Cheers to Ed our instructor! Our friends completed a learn to ski package with Ulen & they also had a great time. The goup size started off in my opinion too, large with around 15, but whittled down to 9 by mid week. They managed to ski from the top of the Mountain by Friday & were left with a great sense of achievment. They are allready talking about coming back next year. The Bulgarian people I found friendy & as someone has previously posted respond well if you at least try to say the very basics in Bulgarian. They will also point out your miss pronouciations! We ate out every night mostly down the Old part of town. I have to say the food was very good, although I am steering clear of meat for the rest of this week! The Kempinski has a very good Italian restaurant for something different although prices are not far off what you might expect to pay over here. The happy end is good for apres ski from around 4-6pm and pretty lively later on at night. We went on Friday & Sat night where they had a band on who were excellent. They played everything from Tina turner to Depeche mode. Also the dancing girls in the Happy End were excellent (come on around 5pm!) although my wife liked the Dancing Cowboy!There is loads of building work going on at the moment and for the forseable future. It looks ugly & errs on the side of over development, although only time will tell what it will end up like. However we came out last year & knew what to expect & we did not let it detract from our holiday. Overall for half term week we all had a great time. I may even be back in March for a week if the conditions improve and my wife allows me (3rd ski holday this year is pushing it though).

Turpers boy