Unusual Travel Tip

I love photography but unfortunately, I have no talent..or time to practice. So,  when my friend and fantastic photographer Andrey Andree decided to help me out and share his amazing pictures with all of us, I was over the moon. So here are 5 of his magnificent photos from our country and the stories behind them.

Bulgaria might not be one of the most exotic touristy destinations in the world, but my country offers many off-beaten places undiscovered by the mass tourism.  Places where you can forget about you mundane duties, spend some quiet and relaxing time off or  simply marvel at the beauty of the nature.  In this post I will reveal  my 5 most favorite unusual spots and hopefully, through my pictures you will get to know my country better.

1. The mountains..

The high mountains in Bulgaria have to be included in the “must visit” List of every trekking fan, because they offer many picturesque paths and breath-taking views. Some of them are so off-beaten  and detached from the civilization that you can walk with days without meeting anyone. On the other hand there are a number of well known trekking paths which will lead you to fantastic spots where you will most certainly meet some very nice, chatty people and exchange great stories about bears with them.

"The Little Horse"

The peak “the little horse” is famous for its steep slopes (deep more than 1km), the frequent fogs and powerful winds. This is one of the most stunning and enigmatic places in the Mountain Pirin. If you love extreme, adrenaline boosting experiences , a walk there is the right for you. At the same time this peak is just “one step” away from the most popular tourist route in the mountain- the route that leads to the highest peak “Vihren”.

2. The Lakes…

The mountain Rila covered with snow

The Seven Lakes of the Mountain Rila is one of the most visited destinations during the summer and a favorite place for the fans of the spiritual rituals and experiences. But during the winter the Lakes turn into a magnificent and less crowded snow paradise. You can meet few ski/snowboard fans heading to the nearby peaks, looking for some off road, extreme adventures.

3. The culture…

The "Sound and Light" show in Veliko Turnovo, which presents the history of Bulgaria. It's a truely magical experience!

But the charm of Bulgaria is not just in the high mountains- there are so many cultural and historical places waiting to be discovered by the curious tourists. My country intents to develop its Cultural tourism in order  to reveal the beauty of our folk festivals, historical forts and the remains of our past – a story about great kingdoms and powerful rulers.

4. Traditions…

The small beautiful village of Shiroka Luka

Even after 500 years of Turkish occupation we managed to preserve many of our traditional small villages, tucked away in the mountains. In the typical Bulgarian houses you can enjoy the cozy atmosphere, try some finger licking national specialties, embrace and try out our local traditional crafts.

5. The seaside…

The road to the old town in Nesebar

Last but not least is our wonderful seaside – a beautiful mixture of ancient cities, modern resorts, fishing villages and sun kissed sand.  One of my favorite towns on the Black Sea coast, which has captured the ancient splendor and the modern, contemporary luxury, is Nesebar. I particularly love visiting it off the season, when you can just dive into the ancient history of the old town and burry you bare feet in the cold March sand on the nearby beaches.

So, these are my 5 favorite places in my country and the 5 pictures that best reveal their beauty. What do you think of them?

If you like his pictures, you can find some more in his Facebook group: Tourist sites of Bulgaria by Andrey and Dilyana . It’s one of the top 5 groups on Facebook in Bulgaria..and if that’s not a great guarantee for amazing pictures..

As I am stalking some of my favorite blogs all the time, I’ve decided I had to sum up the best from the bests and share it with you. So, on the last day of every month I will post a list of the best 5 posts I’ve come across this month. You might have already forgotten about these posts, so I hope you will feel nice , when you see that they have impressed someone

1. Recipe for my Signature Drink – New Year’s Eve Jelly Shots:

Yummie

Ever since I’ve watched a documentary about smuggling alcohol in jails in form of jelly shots, I was meaning to try them out and surprise my friends. The problem was…I didn’t really know how to do them. So, when Kimberley from Sleeping on Buses made this great post about her signature drink – jelly shots, I couldn’t help but ask for the recipe. And here it is, my favorite January post number one. Check it out!

2. Discovering  Malaysia

Tend to Travel is another one of my favorite travel blogs, where Amar constantly inspires me to travel to faraway places. This month he inspired me with a very interesting post about Malaysia. It’s an absolute must if you’re planning to visit it, because it features a great list of the attractions there + some useful information for travelers.

3. A Soul Climb to the Heavens in Tibet

I absolutely love Andi Perullo and SpunkyGirl Monologues . So a combination of the two of them is always a nice treat. Andy’s guest post is so inspiring and yet so sincere that you can’t just miss it. She writes about one of her dreams that came true- a visit to The Potala Palace in Tibet, which was a huge challenge up to the very last moment.  But if you want to know more, you have to check it out yourself and while you’re on the website, check the other interesting stories on the SpunkyGirl Monologues!

4.  Turkish Hotels for Those with Money to Burn

Casa Dell’arte – Bodrum, just one of the dreams

Wanna be glam in Turkey.. like a G6? Then you have to read this great post by Natalie. She is giving us an inside into the most luxurious and expensive hotels in Turkey. The pictures are amazing, the descriptions make me start checking online for available rooms and for buyers for my kidney (as this is def. the only way for a normal 9-5 gal to afford a room like this). So check this hotels and dream a little..just like me now.

5.  Scary Day in The Sahara Desert

On the top of the car? Just one of the not to miss parts of the story

The last post is an absolute winner. It’s called SCARY DAY IN THE SAHARA DESERT and tells a great story about a very unfortunate journey through the Sahara desert. It is so unfortunate, that is sounds like a Hollywood movie and puts all my bad-luck stories to shame.

* All the pictures in this post are taken from the original posts and the rights belong to the owners of the blogs featured.

There are few religious places in the world that can take your breath away and make you stop and think. One such place is Meteora – a group of six  monasteries in central  Greece built on natural sandstone rock pillars. “Meteora” means “suspended in the air” and this is exactly the impression, these monasteries create. Placed on the high rocks they show us that there is no mountain too high when you want to create something out of love.

Picture: http://www.yambolskytour.com/

I still remember the first time when the tour bus stopped in front of the largest and most visited monastery – Agia Triada. Our noisy group suddenly became quiet and the only sound there was to hear was a “Wow” coming from everyone’s mouth. We were in front of something so stunningly beautiful, so large and at such height that no one could believe it was real.

While climbing the endless stairs  up to the monastery, tour guide told us that the stairs are just a recent improvement from 1920s and before that there was a rather dangerous way of going up and down- large nets have been used to haul up both goods and people. Now, everyone who thought that monks have a boring life should stay quiet because a great leap of faith is required to do this at 550m above the plain. To make it even scarier the ropes have been replaced only when..you know, the Lord lets them break.

Transported in a basket??No, thanks

At  first Meteora was inhabited by few ascetic monks in the 9^th who lived in hollows and fissures in the rock and believed that they are closer to God, mainly because the height kept successfully the intruders away. The inaccessible rock pillars have played a much more important role during the 14^th century when the hermit monks were seeking a retreat from the expanding Turkish occupation. They have built about 20 monasteries but only 6 of them still remain today. The fact that the monasteries were built on the top of the pillars and were only accessible by ropes and baskets made them extremely hard to reach for the Turkish invaders and so the monks have managed to preserve not just themselves but the Orthodox religion as well.

So here we are, finally up in the monastery where we face yet another obstacle- the strict dress code: All shoulders should be covered and women have to wear long skirts. Few long and very colorful pieces of cloth have be given to us and we entered the monastery at last.

At first we inspected the Mensa and the kitchen, where the monks cook and eat, before we were let to another rather creepy attraction: a seller full of skulls which belong to the previous inhabitants of the monastery. We walked around the buildings, admire the beautiful and extremely well kept flower gardens and then there was it- the view…

Great collection, isn't it? Photo by: Tsveti

I have never felt like this before in my life. Being up there and seeing the small village down in the valley and the clouds above it, was simply a divine feeling. It makes you feel like you are where the Gods live, like you are almighty as well. But then you suddenly start to think about the hard life of the monks, about the cold winters, the lack of basic necessities and about going up and down in a dodgy basket. Then you start to truly appreciate this place; appreciate the enormous amount of effort  put in building it, preserving it through the centuries and of course in living there.

St. Stephan monastery

We took a small tour around the other monasteries some of which were on even higher pillars. Five of them are inhabited by men and one by women.

Now, going back to the memories and thinking about Meteora, makes me want to return there. What the monks and nuns did at Meteora- building something so monumental and stunningly beautiful at this height by using only ropes and baskets, is my example of strong will and much stronger love.

One of my lovely friends and a very experienced blogger had one hell of trip from Finland to Canada this winter. She was one of those travel victims we heard about on the news, hoping that they will get home for Christmas. She agreed to share a part of her pre-Christmas airport drama with us and to tell us why she went to Russia without having a visa.

Believe me, that’s a funny one!

Irina is Romanian-born, Canadian-raised, university graduate, who lives with her amazing boyfriend Juha in Finland! And if that’s not crazy enough, just listen to the story about their recent adventures:

We live in Tampere, so we took the 1:45am bus to Helsinki and got there around 4am. The airport doors were open but there was no one at any of the check-in counters to take our bags. We waited an hour or so before dropping off our bags and heading through the security check. Our flight was supposed to leave for Frankfurt at 6:30am but around 7am, the pilot got on the loud speaker and told us the weather situation was bad in Frankfurt. About 15 out of the usual 50 flights an hour were permitted to land so there was no way we were taking off before 10am. Later on, we found out that our 8:30am flight to Frankfurt had been cancelled.

We were told that there was no way to get to Toronto that day… so we started looking into ways to get over the Atlantic, if at all. It seemed that every single flight going from Europe to North America was booked solid. We were even told that getting to Vancouver on time, by December 25th, did not seem possible!!! Which meant, missing Christmas with my family. We finally decided that the best option would be to fly to St. Petersburg, then transfer to Moscow before leaving for Toronto the next day. This was pretty much our only option, unless we wanted to go hang out at a hotel for the next week in Helsinki and end up nowhere. There was some concern about where we would sleep since we couldn’t leave the airspace but we knew some airports had services to escort those without a visa to the hotel 500m away, where we could spend the night.

We picked up our bags and headed for the check-in desks in the other terminal. The woman at the counter couldn’t get the proper tags to print so she wrote them by hand. I also bought a lock the moment I heard we were going to Russia; I didn’t want to take any chances with my luggage. I was a bit nervous about this baggage tag issue too but figured it would work out.

So we got all our papers in order, went through security and passed through passport checks. We got on our plane to Russia and flew there… it was only 50mins. You could see the communist slabs of concrete from the plane… tall, blasphemous buildings from any architect’s point of view. The city looked huge and the buildings were identical even when 20km apart. As we landed, I counted 9 trucks – at least 5 of them plows driving together down the parallel runway. I remember thinking: “We sure came to the right place. These people know how to deal with snow.” We landed and walking into the terminal: a cold, enclosed space full of employees walking around in green uniforms. Not to seem ignorant, but it felt a lot like a communist country we’d just stepped into. The signs were unclear about where we should head and our only option seemed to be going through customs… which was not an option. We asked a lady at the service desk for help and she checked our passports. We explained our reasons for coming to Russia and she looked at us blankly, looked at our passports again and said “To Russia? Without a visa…”. We followed her down the stairs and watched as our passports switched hands about 7 times before someone came to talk to us. There were a few uniformed women around us whispering and gossiping in Russian around us, presumingly about us.

The first woman came back and took Juha with her to the baggage claim area. We needed to pick up our bags with supervision because we were not allowed into the country. I sat and waited for Juha. When the two came back, bags in hand, we were asked to sit and wait. A nicely dressed man came over from ‘Russia’ (the other side of customs) and spoke to us in excellent English. He was the representative from Finnair and apologetically, he told us his job was to escort us out of the country.

The plane was waiting for us since, by law, if you are denied entry into Russia, you have to go back on the same aircraft you came on. We later found out that there were 2 problems with the Russia plan (and the woman did try to call the Russian border guards but apparently they had the wrong number because no one who picked up spoke any English, let alone Finnish.) The first problem was that, although we are allowed to fly into Russia if we don’t leave the airspace, we can not fly domestic within Russia. For that, you need a transfer visa. We had tried finding a flight direct to Moscow, but it would’ve arrived after our connecting flight left the next day and that would’ve been pointless. The second problem was that there are two different airports in Moscow… or St. Petersburg.. but I’m pretty sure the problem was in Moscow.

A few hours later, here we were back in Helsinki, still not knowing what to do. We have eventually made it Canada but out travel plan looked like this: on the 22 Helsinki – Tallin – Copenhagen – Zurich – and Toronto on the 23rd.
At least we can say now..we went to Russia without a visa!

If you want to hear more about Irina’s adventures as she discovers Finland, its challenging language, unique culture and intriguing inhabitants, here is her blog:

http://parisanaasuomesta.blogspot.com/

Being one of the biggest cities in England and one of the European metropolises,  Manchester is a place you can’t just ignore. Now, I have to be honest, Manchester is not one of the most beautiful cities in terms of  post card beauty. But it has a fantastic, vibrant atmospheres and people how are embracing life. It is definitely worth visiting and worth spending few days there.

There are many great restaurants, excellent shopping opportunities, many cultural events and last but not least, Manchester has always been famous as a wild party destination. I was really fortunate to have friends in Manchester, who were willing to show me around and to give me tips on where to go and what to do. I certainly, don’t think I’ve seen everything in Manchester as there is always something new to discover – another cool bar or funky new restaurant.

1.       Go Shopping at the Trafford centre:

I’m know as a very sick shopaholic and Trafford centre is my paradise! But let’s first start with the superlatives: This is the sixth largest shopping centre  in the UK by retail size, offering job to more then 8, 000 employees and it also houses Europe’s largest food court (The Orient) and the busiest cinema in UK. And if this all doesn’t sound good enough, let me tell you about the architecture!

The main entrance, photo by Ed O'Keeffe

Some people say (and because I know nothing about this, I believe them), that the architectural style resemble rococo and late baroque. This translated to my language means that I was literally struck by the beautiful outdoor and indoor features. Approaching the building, this first thing you see are the majestic stunning statues resembling ancient Greek motives.

The great Hall, photo by Restaurants of Manchester

Going in, you see the fascinating entrance called The Great Hall, where a fabulous and largest chandelier  in the world is guarding an elegant staircase made of Chinese marble. After that comes the food hall – The Orient, which is mainly themed as a ship but also features elements from China, Egypt, America, Morocco.  And finally…the shopping: There are Peel Avenue, where you can find high-street shops; Regent Crescent with fashion and lifestyle retailers and Barton Square for high-quality homewares. This is really the shopping paradise!

2.       Watch a football game

I’ve heard this joke once: God asked an Englishman what we loves the most – his wife or his mistress. The answer was – the football team! So, It doesn’t matter if you are United or a City fan, it doesn’t even matter if you like football or not, you just simply have to go to a football game. Everyone takes football seriously in the UK and there are few other places like Manchester, where this sport is more of a religion. I am a United fan since I was a child and now even more after Berbatov started playing for them (yes, because he is Bulgarian). So, watching Manchester United playing at their home stadium and Berbatov scoring against Blackburn just 100m away from where I was standing, is one of the best memories I have. To be honest, it is really hard to get a ticket for any game, esp. if it is a good one, but at the end the effort truly pays off. The atmosphere is just breath-taking, the stadium is fantastic and the audience is always singing and cheering their team!

3.       Eat chicken pie at the pub “Old Wellington”

The chicken pie is my most favorite English dish and I honestly could eat it every day (I nearly did it during my time in Manchester). Old Wellington is a charming little pub on the Shambles Square, right next to the “Eye of Manchester”, the Manchester cathedral and the Arndale centre. This public building built in 1552, it’s the oldest of its kind and has a very interesting history  including being a draper’s shop where the writer John Byrom was born in, being destroyed in 1996’s Manchester bombing and being restored and moved 300m from where it used to be.

The menu

But enough with the history. From outside the Inn/pub reminds us a bit of an old German house and it has an extremely cozy atmosphere inside. The is the place to eat pies, believe me. They have few different types in their menu, but my all time favorite is the chicken one. It looks like this and it tastes like heaven:

Yummy!

4.       Go to the Northern Quarter:

The is the artistic, funky, cool, bohemian, hip part of the city centre. It has some crazy shops for vintage, party or just alternative outfits among which the old department store turns into multi-storey bazaa – Affleck’s Palace is probably the most famous one.   But what the Northern Quarter is mostly famous with, are the awesome bars and cool clubs, where you will definitely have one hell of a night. The list is endless and features places like music venues, Dry Bars, night clubs and pubs. It is also the place to be if you are interested in music and DJ-ing as there are places like Vox Pop Records,Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange etc. Believe me, The Northern Quarter is not just another area in the city, it’s an unique experience.

5.       Have a cocktail in the Cloud 23 bar at Hilton

There is one building in Manchester which you can spot from almost every place in the city – the Beetham Tower , where within the first 23 of the 47 stores  the Hilton hotel at Deansgate is located. This very  tall, glass building  houses one of the best and most interesting bars in Manchester – Cloud 23! As the name reveals the bar is located on the 23th floor of the building and because of the full-length windows, it offers a unique view over the city.

Cloud 23, photo by company.co.uk

It’s a very elegant place, where you can enjoy the sunset over Manchester with a cool cocktail in the hand.

Even though my blog is primarily about travelling and about giving tips for travelers, I will allow myself to tell you about an interesting tradition we have in Bulgaria. At the end, travelling is not just about moving from A to B, but also about getting to know new cultures and their weird traditions.

We, Bulgarians, are famous for our love for celebrations. We have this maxim: “ Even if we lose, even if we win, we will get drunk” and it says it all- we will celebrate no matter what happens.
Everyone has a birthday, but it is just once every year (if you’re not borne on the29 of February). So, we in Bulgaria are celebrating our Name’s day as well. What is that?
Most of the people are named after a saint like for example I’m named after saint Stephan and on the day of that saint (which is 27th of December )I celebrate as if I have a birthday again. All my friends know this and are calling me to wish me Happy name’s day.
Still there is a small difference between the birthday and name’s day celebrations. On you Name’s Day you don’t invite people because everyone should feel invited and everyone could come to your place …to celebrate with you. But don’t worry, if someone decides to come they will probably call you or warn you, so there won’t be 20 people unexpectedly arriving at your house at 9 am.

Right, I’m off to celebrate. Happy Name’s day to me?

Cheers