Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hello all, have you missed us?
I've been a bit busy the last couple of days, I've looked in on the forum, but not really had the time to write a report.

Where to start?.......I suppose the beginning would be good.
We met Christine and her family on the transfer bus, along with few others who post on here. Chatting away seemed to make the time fly, and in no time we were in the Murgavets. After a few texts back and forward, we met the pink Pamper in person. He arrived fashionably late, and then made me drink vodka til 6 in the morning, he is a bad man !!
Organising our friends, and the kids, was a breeze, even with a hangover. We were soon skiing the blue at the back of the mountain. I took a tumble right in front of Lisa (who now has another nickname, more about that later), who promptly did her first parallel turn to avoid me......result!. We spent the rest of the day flying up and down this slope, in fact most of the week. Apres ski in the Markony was as good as ever, nice to see some friends again. It started snowing on Monday afternoon, and didn't really stop all week. Monday/Tuesday must have seen at least a foot of fresh snow. On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning about 2:30 am our hotel room lit up with a flash, and in the time it took me to open my eyes, the bang followed. That was close thinks I, yeah right !, right on the four man chair which was out of action til at least we left. I don't know if it's been fixed yet. A fair amount of fresh fell that night, so we were taking it easy on Wednesday. The thunderstorm returned. Thinking the kids would be crapping themselves, we jumped on the three man chair, to see if we could find them. As we stepped into the bottom station, a bolt struck nearby, knocking the power out (again). We jumped into a chair, and set off. Now we had a grandstand view of the top of the mountain, which made it even easier to see the lightning striking around the Snejanka tower . The lift stopped about 4/5 times as the power was tripped by the surges from the strikes..........not funny!. When we got to the top, we wanted off it straight away. We bumped into snowshack Ted, who suggested the quickest way, was straight down the red run. Lisa wasn't keen, until another strike came down close by. As we got to the red run, she looked at it with that look that says "are you bloody mad?, do you REALLY want me to go down there?". Another strike VERY close made up her mind. I had trouble keeping up with her. I managed to video the storm from the hotel room later on.
The rest of the weeks skiing just got better, even though fresh snow fell every night, making a little tiring on the legs first thing. The week ended for me doing "the wall", really fluffy powder at the top, which your legs disappear into, and STEEP........great feeling when I'd done it. I fell over a couple of times, and it wasn't elegant, but I did it.
All in all, another excellent week. We are not happy to be home again, and are already planning next years trip.
For those that are interested, I used the cashpoint in the lobby of the Murgavets, and drew 6 lots of 200 Lev. £420 spends on everything including gifts for friends and family, and keeping our little ones sugar level up with cokes/crisps (I'm sure she's a fly)
Lisa's new nickname?
Pamp Pete, and Angie had a Bulgariaski t-shirt made up for her. The name on it is "Banknote's loose change"

Banknote

Thanks all of you.
I've already started editing the video footage. We didn't get as much as we wanted, usually because we were having too much fun, or it was snowing, and I didn't want to knacker my camcorder. Still managing to do some good edits though. I'll set up an email address later on, just for people that want me to send them a copy (don't want mine spammed into oblivion)
Yes Judith, the pink pamper is quite something to behold. The suit really is eye watering. We've got photos, I'll post them on my website when I get the chance. Haven't booked just yet, but started looking. There might be a very big crowd of us going next year. Already looking forward to seeing you all in 2006.

Banknote

Good to hear from you, Banknote! How's Lisa? Up to her ears in washing like me or not

Glad you got the storm. Tim went up to Cosmos to film it but by then it was all but over that time, he slept through a lot of it

I'm looking into next year. Are you sticking with same tour co. I'm thinking about Stephie, she can book into ski school at 7 with me but I'm abit worried it'll be too tiring 4 her. Wondered whether the Ballkan kindergarten did much sking.

Very upset taking off from Plovdiv but I'm glad we left when we did. Our new friends didn't arrive home til 5.30 Mon am, they were due to leave 4 hrs after us

Hi Christine, yep, lisa was busy washing a pile the size of the north face of the eiger. We are looking into next year already, the problem we have, is getting two weeks. Inghams don't do two weeks, crystal do, but are more expensive. We will get a quote from this site shortly. It would suit us to stay at the Markony, good company, great food, and the kids can muck about right outside.
The storm was quite exciting Ally, with hindsight, we wouldn't have missed it for the world. It will certainly stick in my memory for sure. The three boarders who were in our party, told us that when they went up the chairlift, it stopped after a big flash, and static was discharging from the cable, down the support stanchion next to them !!!!!! yikes!!. The kids weren't phased by it at all, just us adults.......typical !. Pete, as far as I know is fine, he was "unwell" in the not so small hours of sunday morning, that'll teach him to force feed me vodka . I got in bed at 6am , I slept well on Sunday night I can tell you.
I've got a fair bit of footage of the lightning storm, but I'm going to have to edit the sound. Loose change and I, had eaten something that was repeating........... . As we were out on the balcony videoing it, our daughter came to have a look. When she went because she was cold, she was about to lock the door behind her. Spending the night on the balcony wouldn't have been a laugh.
Something I forgot. On the Friday night, we didn't want a big beery night, as it's a long haul back to Devon the following night. We decided to give the chinese a try. I'm normally loathe to recommend food that isn't local, but I have to here. We had sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken strips, and a sizzling dish, along with a big rice, and drinks. There was enough food to feed four of us, but we gave it our best shot. The bill came to 40 Lev !!!!!!! which is the cheapest chinese meal I've ever had, and it was FANTASTIC.

Banknote