Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Got back this morning at 0300hrs. First time to Bulgaria, having boarded for 5 years elswhere. Some good points and some not so good to report.
Firstly,for anyone travelling without ski/board/passes/tuition packs etc i cannot recomend the Albena Ski School highly enough. It's situated opposite the Samokov and the manager, Valentino is a genuine man. He charged us £95.00 per adult and £73 per child for all kit, passes and tuition if you wanted it, these were genuine tourist lift passes and not the cheaper ones for the locals. USE HIM HE IS GOOD!!. Spoke to a family we met who had paid £35 each per day for just 2 hours lessons and bought all there instructors drinks and meals! Don't make there mistake.

Secondly the Red Dragon restaurant is worthy of mention as it really is as good as any in britain. The portions are huge - be warned.

Thirdly i was unlucky enough to fall on ice and break my wrist, the medical centre behind the Albena shi school is 24hrs and were good, i paid a thirty pounds excess on insurance and everything was hassle free except from no anaesthetic when resetting my wrist!!! Never had as much pain!!!!!!!

Fourthly there is a lot of talk on here about clothes for sale in resort etc, i don't personally mind the odd copy garment but in general the quality was so poor i didnt bother, that includes the ski jackets etc, dont go looking for good copies. I did buy board boots though which were £87.00 and very comfy, though after one day the side of one was coming away and the shop wasnt interested at all so dont buy from the cunningly named ' Ski Shop' they have two shops, one next to the gondola station and one on the road to the nursery slopes. They told me to send the boots to germany for repair! To be continued on next posting.....

My daughter also broke her wrist 2 years ago and they also repositioned it without anaesthetic. She still remembers the pain, although it lasted just a couple of seconds. I did not know what was going to happen, so could not prevent it. It looks like the usual practise to reposition wrists is with no anaesthetic, it appears too much hassle for them. If you brake bones, you could ask in advance to have anaesthetic if any repositioning is needed, but whether this will ever work, I don't know. On a brighter side, the pain was very short and the man got it spot on with a single sharp pull.
My daughter's account of the pain: "The chidrens' hospital looked like an abbatoir I wouldn't have been suprised if there was blood splattered on the walls. And that was just the chidren's hospital! I didn't scream but the doctor still covered my mouth anyway."
OK, trying to be truthful, I will leave her account unchanged although it is clearly coloured by emotions. She refers to the children's wing in the fracture clinic in Sofia (Pirogov). With hindside I should have taken her to a private fracture clinic in Sofia. And I am sure the facilities in the ski resorts are not that grim, so don't be completely put off going skiiing there. In fact she has skiied since, and even on the same run, so no long-term psychological damage has been done, and it is always good fun when we describe this experience to friends.
Anyone else for an account on broken bones?

Hi George

Our accident was in Sunny Beach 2 years ago! Daz had a broken wrist and Bougas hospital is grim. They just repositioned it without anasthetic then slapped some grey plaster on without the nice cosy lining we are used to over here. Antibiotics were in short supply. We spent 7 days in the hospital (NOT TO BE RECOMMENDED) and another 4 days before flying home. As soon as on UK soil headed for our A & E. They couldn't beleive the state of his wrist especially the sores from the constant itching. Nice staff, shame about the facilities!!!

Caz