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| From New Years 2009 |
We relaxed quite a bit in the apartment and walked around the cute town. As we were walking around on the 1st we spotted bigfoot!
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| From New Years 2009 |
Actually this is a part of an old Bulgarian called "Kukeri" (See: Article).
Although we did not ski, we took the gondola up to the main area that the ski lifts started from and brought our sleds with us. The snow was pretty compacted, which meant for quite fast sledding! After we had spent $5 on hot cocoa and $6 on a hot dog we decided to head back the mountain. All around the town there were vendors selling all sorts of typical Bulgarian souvenirs including table cloths, socks, bags and rugs.
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| From New Years 2009 |
For the midnight celebration the city held a concert with a few famous Bulgarian singers. As you probably know by now, traditional Bulgarian concerts include the traditional Bulgarian dance the "horo". It is a fairly easy dance that includes holding hands in a circle and kicking your feet in unison with everyone else. There are easy dances and harder dances. For NYE they have a special dance and we were looking forward to learning it. But instead several Bulgarians dancing the horo, we found a bunch of drunk foreigners attempting to dance it. Their attempts were quite unsuccessful and at some points a little offensive because the alcohol had taken away a certain cultural tact. Oh well. We danced anyways.
On the way back from Bansko we rode on a train through the mountains. It was quite a beautiful ride, perhaps one of the most beautiful scenic routes in all of BG. A great trip overall and one that we won't soon forget!
Now for a few more cool pics!
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| From New Years 2009 |
How else to spend free time but with Settlers!
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| From New Years 2009 |
On the way up the mountain.
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| From New Years 2009 |
Footsteps in the snow.
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| From New Years 2009 |
Sledding!
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| From New Years 2009 |
Not a fair fight.
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| From New Years 2009 |
On the way home (thanks Jess for the pic!).
