Bulgaria

Right before we left for Turkey we decided that we should rent a car and drive to Bulgaria.  There are places to ski in Turkey, but they are more crowded and they are on the Asian side.  So on the fourth day of our trip we packed two bags, dragged them down the 51-stair spiral staircase, braved the hill, and hopped the train to the airport to pick up our car.  We reserved a BIG car so that all five of us and our luggage would fit.  Welllll, it was big relative to the last rent car we got in Europe, but it wasn't exactly a sedan.  It was a four door Renault and it was crowded....BUT, the girls were troopers and off we went to drive to Bulgaria.  We paid extra to get a navigation system so that we would have to worry about being lost.  Again, why we thought it would be like it is everywhere else, I don't know.  The navigation system was only for Turkey....no other countries.  Uff.  We had to stop and get gasoline anyway (they give the car to you on empty here???) so we bought a map.  I have now honed my map reading skills. 

It didn't take very long to reach the border.  Once we were out of the city and in country it became apparent that NO ONE spoke any English at all.  We stopped at McDonalds (the only place we could find) and got lunch. THAT was a huge ordeal...because not only do they not speak English, but you apparently can even point to a picture and order.  I think she was just nervous because there was the huge language barrier.  When I went back up to the counter to get sauce for Maddie's nuggets I was thankful that there was someone in the line that could speak a little English and translated for me!  There was a Starbucks and a little bakery attached to the McDonalds so we also went there to get various sundries.  We spent the first 4 or 5 days visiting all Starbucks on a quest to find two "Istanbul" mugs....one for me and one for a friend.  Even if they had had the mugs at this particular Starbucks I am not sure they would have understood me!  The funny thing is that all the Starbucks take Euro, Lira, AND USD....weird.

When we got to the border we thought we would just FLY on through!  At the Saudi/Bahrain border we have a few stops and it has never taken more than 20 minutes for us.  Yeahhhhh....it was interesting.  There were no less than 7 different checkpoints and we got searched more than once.  When we make our way to say the fourth checkpoint the guy asks us for our "green card."  Unfortunately the window was on my side so I was the lucky one to answer his questions.  We didn't know what a green card was and he didn't speak any English so he called a colleague over to explain.  Apparently, just like in Saudi, you have to have insurance when you cross the border.  We were going from a non-EU country to an EU country.  So we pull over and John goes in to some building for about 20 minutes and then comes out with a green slip of paper.  The shortest amount of time you can buy insurance for is one month (in Saudi it's good for 3 days).  It cost something like $120.  Three more checkpoints, a couple more searches, and we are finally through the border...there was ZERO traffic and it still took over an hour.  Once we were on the other side in Bulgaria there were allllll these little portable buildings where you were supposed to buy vignettes.  We didn't know what a vignette was because the sign explaining them was written in Bulgarian.  As best as John could figure out you needed one to drive on the roads there...not sure.  So we had to stop and buy one, but they were only sold in Euro so he had to first change his money to Euro...which is what we thought Bulgaria traded in, but it isn't.  So now we got our insurance and our vignette....$150 poorer and two hours later we were on our way to ski!

The countryside wasn't very pretty....well, it was covered in a blanket of white snow so, in that sense, it was pretty.  It looked much like you would think a former communist country would look...it was kind of sad.  We drove through lots of small one street towns before getting to Plovdiv...the first real big city. Buy the time we got to Plovdiv it was dark and we had to rely on MY map reading skills to get us to the ski resort....THAT is never good.  It gets dark around 4:30-5:00pm so we really didn't get an early enough start as it turns out.  Navigating the snow covered roads in Bulgaria where NO street signs are in English in the dark really wasn't the best laid plan.  As we started south in to the mountains there were several ominous signs with pictures of tires with chains on them.  That was a bit unsettling as we had the smallest Renault known to man...and no snow tires.  As we were driving up the mountains we were following instructions that we printed from the resorts website using google maps...we will never use google maps again.  Yeah, we made a very fatal error and turned off the beaten path to follow said instructions and ended up in the middle of nowhere trying to go up a mountain of snow and ice.  We stopped once to ask directions of some random worker wearing a hardhat and holding a machine that was making a loud noise...it was bizarre because it was late and he was standing on the "street"...he also apparently had a huge earring as well.  I was too flustered and worried to notice.  He spoke NO ENGLISH, of course.  He managed to point us in a direction using sign language and Bulgarian.  We stayed on this course until we got to a part of the mountain where our car just couldn't make it.  We were slipping and sliding and getting a little stuck in the snow....I was terrified as we were on a snowy, icy, dark road winding up the Balkan mountains.  We are essentially from TEXAS and have little business driving a Renault toy car up the Balkan mountains.  Uff. 

We decided to turn around...just short of me getting out and pushing (which would never happen) we weren't making it up that mountain.  We made it back down a ways and saw an open "establishment"...not sure if it was a bar or restaurant....it was weird...but we stopped and brought our map inside to ask for help.  I really don't know what we were thinking.  We were stopped at a tiny "bar" in Laki, Bulgaria where 7 men and one woman were all sitting around getting drunk (which is apparently all they do there) and we thought there was going to be an English-speaker in the bunch!?!?!?  Wellll, we asked questions in English and they answered in Bulgarian...this went on for a while until they showed us on the map how to get to Pamporovo (which is where we were going).  We told them that it was too snowy and our car wouldn't make it and they "signed" us other directions.  We finally decided that we were going to go BACK to the place of the fatal error and get BACK on the beaten path. 

When we finally got back on the road to Pamporovo it really didn't take us too long to get there.  People passed us like this little mountain road was the autobahn!  Scary!  I was a nervous wreck by the time we got to the resort.  I was praying that it wasn't a dump...we had had a long day and we deserved a break!

We parked, checked in, and asked if they would keep the restaurant open long enough for us to get something to eat as we had been travelling all day with nothing to eat.  As we were unloading our stuff and going up to the room ONE of the girls busted it on the ice (I won't tell you who, but she knows who she is).  It wasn't funny AT ALL, but she couldn't stop laughing....which meant that I couldn't stop laughing...which was completely inappropriate for the situation!  Uff...while we were there for two days there were at least THREE falls...I didn't fall luckily, but I fell in Turkey so maybe God was being kind.

We got to the restaurant...which smelled like an ashtray because EVERY SINGLE European in the world smokes.  We all ordered...which can be challenging for poor Maddie...and ate.  I asked the really sweet waitress to point to something Bulgarian on the menu because I wanted to try something that was native to their country.  Turns out they eat a LOT of potatoes and cheese.  I got a big huge potato dish...it looked and tasted like a hashbrown pancake.  It was delicious.

The next day we get all dressed to go to the slopes...hop the 5 minute shuttle to the lifts...and off we go.  We get there and John and the girls are getting their rental equipment on and John goes to pay with his credit card and, as it turns out, they don't take credit.  No credit...only LEVS.  Well, at this point we have USD, Saudi Riyal, and Turkish Lira...no Bulgarian LEVS.  I ask and the nearest "bankamatic" is in town...so the ski guy negotiates a deal with a taxi driver and off I go to the city center to get some LEVS.  The taxi driver was driving some old beater with no chains on the tires and he was whipping through those turns and curves like he was Mario Andretti.  He spoke NO English, of course.  The first place we stopped and I got out and went in only to find the "bankamat" was out of service.  Uff...starting to panic as the next town is quite a bit away I get in and tell the taxi driver in sign and yelling "out of service...no work" and he talks to some local workers and finds another one at another resort.  Off we go to the other resort...I get my LEVS...and back to the slopes. 

The slopes there are beautiful.  The greens are more like blues in America, but it is awesome.  The trails are VERY long and there are several towns and restaurants to stop at along the trail.  They don't have blues...it is only green, red and black.  It isn't very crowded there and apparently it is a resort town for upper middle class Europeans...not Americans.  We did find a lot of workers that spoke English, but they were always shocked that we were from America. 

Madeline wasn't too keen on skiing.  We haven't been in years since we went to Santa Fe and she was very young.  She was a trooper and decided to do it...with not so good results...but I am proud of her for trying.  Her dad was the real trooper as he had to walk/ski down the mountain with her!

We decided to stay an extra night in Bulgaria rather than try to brave the mountain road again in the dark.  I also wanted to be able to see the views in the daylight.  The next morning we started off to Plovdiv early so we could get back to Turkey before it was too late.  As it turns out, Bulgaria in the daytime is just as depressing and scary as Bulgaria in the night time (lol).  There is not much there.  We were going to attempt to find a Starbucks so I could get my mug, but the only Starbucks in Plovdiv is in the airport so I decided against it. 

Getting back across the border we thought was going to be easy...notsomuch.  We got to the passport control checkpoint and policeman checking our visa said in very broken English to go to B3 and pointed towards a building that had a huge B3 on it because we needed a visa.  We had multi-entry visas in our passports, but since he didn't speak English, he didn't understand us.  In retrospect, I wish I had tried harder to make him understand.  We were in a long traffic line so I decided to take all five passports and walk to B3 and let John pull up and wait.  I get to B3 and NOTHING is in English.  There was a grumpy old policeman out on the other side of the building taking a smoke break so I went out and asked him what to do...he spoke NO English, of course.  He directed me to platform 53 as best he could.  I walk to platform 53 on the OTHER side of the border and find a man inside a booth and present my passports and problem to him.  He speaks almost NO English, of course, but luckily there was another man in there that spoke a little.  They read our visas and tell me, "You are good."  Yessss, I KNOW, but the border patrol on the other side of the border won't let us in...Uff, that was another 10 minutes of sign language and broken English.  Platform 53 sends me back to the police station at B3 where I find a nice young policeman that seemingly speaks English...looks can be deceiving.  He spoke better English than most, but still not great.  I explained my problem and he deemed us "good."  Yes, I know we are good, but they won't let us in...Uff...finally after a call or two he sends me BACK out to the border and I walk through passport control, get our passports stamped, and then walk through the vehicle check, and finally we were through.  Uff...it shouldn't have been that hard.

Three hours of driving later we were back in Istanbul and we found a mall...all is well!