Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Well this was my second trip to Borovets, very different but just as enjoyable as last year.
The secret to enjoying Borovets is to not to expect too much, and seeing the lighter side of life. We went four handed this year having gone two handed last year. We warned the others to expect basic and take everything else as a bonus. With that in mind everyone had a great time.
We went with Balkan and stayed at the Zodiac. The transfer was quite chaotic, with the coach delayed while a couple tried to find their lost luggage and then we all had to get off and move to another coach when it was discovered that the suspension on our coach was buggered. Even this proved to be amusing when the first number on the new coaches radio was "always look on the bright side of life" which left everyone collapsed in laughter.
The Zodiac had also messed our booking up. We had paid for a superior room but for the first night had to stay in a basic room above a nightclub. It did mean we had a taste of both rooms, the basic rooms have a "wet" bathroom, ie a shower that is not enclosed, and if you are above the hotel disco is a bit noisy. The superior rooms were better. A nice balcony, an enclosed shower etc..... but neither have hairdryers, which was a problem for my one hair
The food, was well, Rila standard, ie we were happy enough to munch on egg and toast in the morning but were not too fussed on missing out on the deep fried lucky dip food. But we had factored this into our spending and found some good, indifferent and bad restaurants and service around town. We were all single so it would be a bit more expensive for a family.
I was concerned that the Zodiac would be a bit far out of town, and I did miss the Rila convenience of being able to pop into my room and swap clothes if I felt too hot, cold etc, so it meant a disorganised person having to be a bit more organised. However, there were always taxis on tap in both directions, and we paid 10lev each trip (between four). The hotel does run a free bus in both directions for an hour in the morning and in the afternoon, but our routine of hot chocolate and brandy, usually topped up with a free hot brandy meant we never got the free bus home.
Apart from the hot chocolates our post nap apres ski was a good laugh. Highlights included the singers in the Happy Duck who can get the crowd going with an impressive range of songs, and some great pronounciations. Our fave was "I'm loving Asians", their Robbie Williams cover. we also loved the karaoke announcer in the Black Cat ?? by the Rila who sounds like Cartman from South Park. In terms of organised trips the skidoos were also brilliant, but the horse and carriage ride was an absolute waste of money, with the horses producing smells which I'd never experienced in my life before.
The skiing lessons were a good laugh, and after two visits I still can't stop !!! The instructor was great and patient and really pushed us. Sensibly one girl who was far behind the rest of the class moved to another group, so keep that in mind if you feel you are out of your depth, and another person took a private lesson, which seemed cheap at £10 an hour.
Just like last year the conditons were a little icy, but without knowing anything about skiing, I was happy to experience these conditions while I had an instructor with me to explain what to do, I'm guessing that when I eventually do ski on my own in good conditions it will be a lot easier. The gondola was down for the second half of the week which wipes out a huge area of the resort, and does mean it is very busy on the lower slopes, but again it improved my control !!!.
I have just found that my gloves have been stolen out of my luggage, so make sure you lock your bags up, but they are welcome to them I had pretty much ripped them up when I made friends with a tree on my last day !!!
Anyway enjoy your trips if you are going soon, the two new members of our group are already looking forward to a return trip (but hopefully to a hotel closer to the centre), and we already have a couple of new people asking to come along next year

John