Bulgarian Beauty

As funny as it sounds, we actually quite enjoyed our 18 hour train ride from Budapest (Hungary) to Sofia (Bulgaria). We'd decided to invest in a sleeper carriage (and a bottle of Vodka using the last of our Zoomas!), and despite several late night/early morning border crossings and passport checks we really enjoyed the simplicity and security of it all.

Honestly we had no idea what to expect rolling through Serbia and into Bulgaria. All I've ever heard about Serbia has been related to war, and/or to Kosovo. Although the towns looked a bit run down in parts, the reality is that there is a lot of very beautiful country, including green hills which almost broke into the European equivalent of rainforest in parts.

Although I knew that to shake your head in Bulgaria means yes, and to nod means no, the first question I was asked ("Do you want a taxi?") resulted in me saying "Ne" (No - although it means yes in Greek!) while rotating my head in a circle. It sounds so simple but nodding and shaking your head are so ingrained that you can't reverse the meanings without your full concentration!

Forunately for us, my friend Marty who is Bulgarian was our host, and although I and many others give him stick in Australia about his driving, he was conservative on the roads compared to his fellow countrymen...I see why he always says he gets bored on the roads around the Gold Coast. The traffic and roads in Bulgaria were....well let's say more interesting! We were very happy to have Marty and his wife Didi looking after u us, as having locals with us, we managed to go places, see things and eat things we otherwise would have struggled to do. Their hospitality was exceptional.

Bulgaria turned out to be a surprise packet! The country is full of mountains that are densely covered in pine forests not dissimilar to Nybro in Sweden. Marty told us that in winter most of the country is covered in snow and people can ski nearly anywhere. Also, as Bulgaria hasn't yet got the Euro (they still have the Lev) it is pretty cheap.

One of our outings took us to the Rila Monastery in the Rila mountains. I was curious why we were going to a monastery but when we got there I understood....it was an an extremely beautiful place, full of artwork on walls, beautifully decorated buildings, built amongst some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe.

We also spent a weekend in Bansko, one of many ski towns (although it is Summer here). You can actualy catch a ski lift from Bansko itself up the mountains that tower over it to go skiing in the season...i.e. you don't have to drive up the mountain. Bansko is full of really big alpine hotels that look really nice (and are actualy pretty cheap!), and I can only imagine that it would go crazy in the winter time. There are also countless restaraunts serving traditional Bulgarian dishes, and although we decided against ordering the calf's head in tripe soup, with Marty at the helm we managed to squeeze in just about everything you can think of. The food was fantastic, and didn't leave you feeling like you just swam in a deepfryer which was a welcome change from Greece! We also managed to visit the local swimming pool which is actually a thermal mineral spring that has been turned into 2 pools...and although it is the peak of Summer right now, it is a bit cool in the mountains....so a dip in 37 degree pool was pretty nice!



On the way back we stopped in at the high altitude sports training centre. This centre was jointly funded by the Germans and the Bulgarians back in 1968 up in one of the mountains. The interesting thing, and this will come as no surprise to any AIS people who have dealt with many German's in sport and know how protective they can be, the place was kept a secret for 20 years until after the 1988 Seoul Olympics! Only Germans and Bulgarians were allowed to train there, so even if others found out about it they couldn't go there. The place is decked out to accomodate pretty much any sport you can think of and pretty much all of Bulgarias and man of Germany's top athletes have done a stint here at some stage.

Had La Tomatina not been on in Spain, I think we would have spent a bit longer in Bulgaria. While a bit sad to leave it, we are happy in the knowledge that we will definitely be returning there in the years to come, probably to go skiing. Bulgaria was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far...

Sziget, the music and smoking festival

Firstly, for anyone who hasn't heard of the Sziget festival (like us prior to this trip), it's one of the biggest music festivals in Europe - like the equivalent of Woodstock, only it's held in Hungary. The festival is held on an island in Budapest and goes for a week - you can either camp some or all of the time, or get day passes. We'd booked our week camping tickets way back in the start of the year after hearing about it from some friends and couchsurfers, and because of this, didn't bother checking out the lineup prior to actually getting to the festival.

We rolled into the festival on day one, only to join up with a massive crowd of fellow festival-goers and spent several hours waiting in the sun, then slowly inching forward towards the half-hearted security checks at the entrance. By the time we'd gotten in, the campsites were already chockers - anywhere that looked half decent was taken, with more tents crammed in next to those. Eventually we found a shady spot which at first didn't seem that great, but as days went past and we saw the spots people resorted to (like on the side of the road next to the toilets), it seemed like paradise.


Music wise there was a lot going on, so here's a bit of a summary of some of our highlights and disappointments:

Highlights

• Calexico - bit like a mariachi rock band. We heard them during sound check, were suitably impressed so we went back to watch the real thing.
• Miss Platinum - Romanian ex-pat based in Berlin, with a massive voice, solid band and very entertaining back-up singers with moves. With an opening song "Give me the food" and a cover of Justin Timberlake, she could do no wrong by us!
• Pendulum - a little taste from Oz (even if the Brit in the band wouldn't shut up), massive sound, perfect for the main stage and as a lead up to Prodigy (who weren't as good)
• Gitans - a gypsy band that was impossible not to dance to, and who produced the first genuine (ie. unplanned) encore we've seen in year. In fact, a lot of the music from the Roma (gypsy) tent was awesome - not something we've ever listened to before, but the bands had some amazingly talented musicians, and the music was catchy and intoxicating

Disappointments

• Lily Allen - the diva from the UK could barely muster an ounce of enthusiasm throughout her performance - except for in between songs when she dragged on a ciggie like her life depended on it
• Prodigy - after Pendulum? boring...
  
• Al Di Meola - without doubt an incredibly talented musician.. but the concert was all for his benefit, not the crowds. It was a case of 'now I'm going to play a song, and you're going to listen and enjoy it'. Biggest princess getting around, he stopped several times - in the middle of songs - to yell at the sound technician to 'Kill the subs' and adjust other things. What a princess!

Aside from the music, there was the food. Boy, was there the food! My god, so much food.... well maybe we just paid a lot of attention to it, but the food was good. Goulash soup and stews, langos (fried bread-like things with garlic and sour cream), hot dogs, cakes, chicken and mushroom stew, fresh watermelon, noodles (so spicy we nearly died).... we ate it all and then some... except for the rooster testicles stew.

Unfortunately, despite all the fantastic things about the festival, one thing that ruined it for us was the smoking. It seems that the youth of Europe is intent on killing itself with cigarettes, and along the way, kill plenty of people through passive smoking too. It was unescapable - we found 2 non-smoking areas; one was the internet room (where non-smoking was actually enforced), the other a tiny pergola that fit about 30 people - and people were smoking in the middle of it. Our tent was filled with smoke from the camps around us, and everywhere you walked smelt like a filthy ashtray. We had to leave the festival grounds to actually get some fresh air, and after suffering through it all it became unbearable, so we ended up leaving a day early.


Apart from the Sziget festival, we did very little - except visiting the public thermal baths for a long soak to get all that festival filth out of our pores, and checking out the Terror House museum (very graphic museum documenting the time of the Hungarian Arrow Cross party (Nazis) and later, the AVO an AVH) and Memento Park (politically themed sculptures from the Communist dictatorship era, including the boots from the toppled Stalin statue).

Next, we're off to Bulgaria for a short visit, complete with our very own Bulgarian guide, Marty.

Goodbye Greece

Following our departure from Rhodes we heading to the mainland, and went south to the area known as Peleponesos. We first visited Nafplia, which I read was the first capital of Greece. There was this massive castle on the hill overlooking the town and the coastline which was well worth the steep walk up the side of the mountain. We ended up staying in Nafplia for 4 nights, as we loved being able to cook for ourselves for the frst time in ages. It was a beautiful town, and definitely had a venetian feel to it.


After Nafplia we made a pilgrimage to Ancient Olympia to visit the site of the original Olympic Games. Although it was actually a really small town, there was a ridiculous amount of accommodation which was pretty cheap compared to other places we have been and is surrounded by beautiful hills with trees, something that can't be said for some of the islands (particularly those in the Cyclades group). The site of the Olympics was fantastic and we managed to find the exact place where the flame is lit each Olympiad. We also managed to have a run on the old dirt stadium. Olympia itself was pretty cheap and we tracked down some really good homestyle food, which was a welcome change from everything being fried in olive oil.


I can definitely recommend a visit to both of these towns (and the Peleponesos), and it was so nice to see trees again.

Although the mention of Greece conjures images of white deserted beaches, beautiful views over the oceans, fantastic food and welcoming hospitality, unfortunately this is not reality, well at least not from our experiences anyway. Don't get me wrong, at certain times you may and probably will find any or each of these things, however these times are not as frequent as you might expect.

We saw some absolutely beautiful places such as parts of Naxos, the cliffs of Santorini, the Dodecanese islands of Kos and Rhodes, the Peleponesos and parts of northern Greece and met some really nice genuine people who were interesting and welcoming. Unfortunately the more attention I paid to things and the more Greek I learnt the more I came to realise that we were being conned, scammed or ripped off under the guise of good hospitality most of the time. While Greece once had a reputation for being reasonably cheap, that is all but a memory. They are very generous in rounding up (one restaurant owner did me a 'favour' by rounding EU$17.80 up to an even EU$20), and demanding tips for appalling 'service' (the waiters with cigarettes). Occasionally something was well priced, but that was an oddity...I even noticed a big difference from when I was here 2 years ago.

While we've seen some nice places and met some people, I think I've had about enough of the Greeks for the moment.