Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi all….

First the holiday bits.

Many will know that I was travelling alone, uneventful outward journey apart from an hour delay in Bristol because of fog. Three and half hour flight to Plovdiv on an airbus 320 (yippee, leg room), same Balkan food (yummee) and gorgeous stewardesses (well actually there was one who smiled). I got latched onto by a Bulgarian lady (???) who was very loud, drank the whole flight and at one point confirmed to me that she was carrying condoms, completely out of context with the conversation we were having, unfortunately the rest of the passengers only heard her reference to the condoms, would have gladly climbed out the emergency door at 35,000 ft. Those of you who have flown to Plovdiv will know the welcome that this modern well managed state of the art international airport provides, those who have not will have to wait for the experience. Cannot complain regarding the reps and their organisation, very easy, directed to relevant buses and on our way. Three and a half hours over the mountains to Bansko without a stop, thank god I had read reports of this and kept well stocked with sarnies and a drink. A long transfer in which I tried to have a conversation with the rep, a young lady with a reasonable grasp of English but I got the feeling that she thought I was hitting on her (am I that obvious ??).
Eventually got into Bansko, as the last and only drop off at the Perun I was quite glad to be greeted by a friendly receptionist, handed some cold food and ushered to my room. Anyone who has read my previous thread from Bansko will be aware of what happened next, anyone who has not, well let me just say that I got lonely and went straight back out again to the nearest bar where I met some young BG guys who did not have a room for the night, it seemed rude to leave before six in the morning. This really set the trend for the week, made a good friend of a guy from the ski hire and spent every evening in the company of Bulgarians, both local and some from the Black Sea coast who were in resort for the season. All the things I discovered will be covered in a later post, some good, some not so good and some downright worrying.
Absolutely no complaints about the skiing, the standard of hire equipment, the piste preparation and lifts, I had a ball. No queues, good manners on piste, good humour in the mountain restaurants and bars, fantastic weather, I really could not fault it. Ok, it did get a little slushy low down at the end of the day, if you were up the mountain early (I did it once thank you) it could be a little hard but overall I was impressed with the commitment given by the pisteurs who could still be seen coming down the mountain at four in the morning.
From the point of having a holiday I had a fantastic time, met some great people both BG and Brits, I will admit re, the Brits, either they had bought an apartment, were buying or were looking, perhaps if they were able to look under the surface as I was then their impression of Bansko may be slightly tainted, as I said I will cover all aspects in a later post.
Regarding food and drink, I loved the food in the Perun, always hot and plentiful, the girls made an effort to have a bit of fun if you made the initial effort, just harmless flirting (especially if backed up with a tip). Ate out a couple of evenings in mehanas way of the beaten track, two courses with beers and a short for less than 20 lev for two. Local bars charging less than 1 lev for a beer, 2 lev to get into a nightclub (nothing if you walk in with the head of the ski school)…
The only minor complaint re. the holiday was the time we had to leave the resort on our return, 4.15 am, absolutely no point in going to bed as the Friday was the diploma presentation (which is a right laugh even if you are not getting a diploma). It is held in the Happy End (tourist prices but still not to bad), a live band and dancing is compulsory. This did mean that I returned home basically missing a nights sleep. I know that for me (I worked out that I actually had 15 hours sleep in six days) it was not so much of a problem but for some others it was, there were some very sombre people on the transfer bus….
Perhaps with my subsequent post where I will cover other areas this post will seem very upbeat, I had two reasons to go to Bansko, the first was to holiday and that was fantastic, the second was to discover (or try to) what is actually happening in Bansko and who is pulling the strings……

To be continued…….

Cheers

steve c

You fail to mention that you stank the coach on the way to the airport with stale alcohol.

Snored all the way to the airport, and kept half the coach awake.

The "Rep" you talked about doesnt just have a "grasp" of english, but speaks better english than most of the tourists and writes with better grammar.
all of our reps reps have graduated from the most prestigious english language school in sofia.

She did not think you were trying to hit on her, but was not the slightest bit interested in a word you were saying.

If i was you, i would be very careful about making comments about individual people.
This is a forum foir expressing your views about the paticular destination in bulgaria you travelled to, not to get personal.

Cheers darlin, i did. Many of the things i got up to are not covered here, nothing illegal or involving animals (well not the four legged ones). It went really quickly considering i spent so much time awake, i had intended to post daily because i know you worry but i did get a little despondent a couple of days in with the things i was discovering. I also was suffering with a case of foot burn (burst blood vessels in the soles of your feet) from skiing to hard, out of condition you see....
Regarding the novel, it may well be. The info i have discovered will interest investers mostly but in time it could and i feel will effect everybody....
It is going to take a while to put it down, some of it is hear-say but i was hearing it from differant quarters, even if there is a grain of truth it will effect my continued investment plans in Bansko, other issues are fact.....