Escape from boredom

Was watching Discovery Channel last night. After midnight they had kind a adult science, among other a program about sexual fetishes. I did not know, but theres a whole world out there having fetish for balloons. And in fact there are two schools, thoose who don’t want to hurt the balloon and thoose who find sexual excitement in watching the balloon blow. Haven’t seen the webpage, since I am at an Internet Cafe, but my guess is that it’s not safe for work 🙂 http://www.balloonfetish.com

Started out from Plovdiv today and headed for Sofia by train. Took two and a half hour, not the most comfortable ride we have done, but we wanted to have tried that as well. Back in Sofia as experienced travellers, riding off any taxi driver trying to charge us extra. Are now arranged in a classy hotel, having our own suite, with separate rooms, and two tv’s. Have been out shopping, found some gifts and I just had to buy a suit. When you get the whole costume with shoes as well costing aprox 3000 NOK, then it’s worth it! Now we will only get the hours to go by, tomorrow head for Stenata, by a beeper, then home on sunday! Maybe go for the swimming pool tomorrow, who knows, it might be something good to watch on Discovery!

Found it, read it, liked it http://videos.antville.org/

Day two of Plovdiv. Have been to the hairdresser, coloured our hair, at the best hairdresser in Plovdiv. The price…20 leva, or 80 NOK, that’s quite alright! Later today I will go to get a pedicure as well, same price. It’s good for my feets, especially since I maybe will run the marathon next saturday.

Yesterday we met two girls from Denmark, which we invited out for dinner. I had to, since eating out with Espen for over two whole weeks is starting to get…boring? 🙂 We ended up at a mix slash gay bar, and had a lot of fun. Pictures will be available soon 🙂

Tried to play Quake 3 Arena at the Internet Cafe in Plovdiv, just to realize that Kjell Magne has lost his power, to many years since the last time I played, but to my defence…I did not have sound while playing, that sucks…

Stenata in Sofia, best gear for hiking, skiing and so on http://www.stenata.com. Planning on going to Bulgaria, and want locals to arrange it for you, let Zig Zag do it http://www.zigzag.dir.bg

We have now reached Plovdiv on our journey http://www.bulgariatravel.org/etis/bycity.php?cityID=73&regionID=7.Came here this morning, travelled by bus from Devin where we have spent the past two days. Devin is one of several spa-towns in Bulgaria, and is also the place where the water comes from, or to be correct, most of the botteled water here in Bulgaria. Yesterday we rented bicycles and went to Devils Throat, 23 km from Devin http://get.info.bg/visit/Dir.asp?d=0-4-Nature-Caves-Devils_throat_cave. When finally back in Devin it was really nice to order full body massage, 50 minutes costing only 25 levas, or times four to get that in Norwegian kroner.

To get from Bansko to Devin we went with bus from Bansko to Goce Delcev. Then we took another bus to Dospat, a really old one with no working suspension at all. When in Dospat there was still 40km left to Devin, the time was 14.00 and the last bus for Devin left at 11.00. Two french guys where facing the same problem, and we where wondering what to do. But, when we realized that sharing a cab would only cost us 20 NOK each, there was no problem anymore. So we got to drive a cab as fast as no one of us ever had done before on narrow roads in Bulgaria. Our guess was that he must have had PS2 and WRC back home.

Now in Plovdiv we will just hang around for two days we think, then head off to Sofia on friday.

We are now in Bansko. It’s been a while since we have been able to surf the Internet. Tried one place in Nikiti, but the connection was so slow that even Espen had trouble reading his mail by using his geek tool. We traveled from Nikiti on Thursday by bus. Had luck and caught a bus heading for Sofia, just had to wait an hour. Travelled to Sandaski and stayed there over the night. Started walking from a small town called Popina (?). Since we are such fast walkers we reached the mountain hut by Mt Vihren after only 6 hours. We stayed there over the night, met a Norwegian couple as well, or more correct – the girl was Norwegian, he born in Bulgaria, but now lived in Norway.

The next day we walked up to Mt Vihren – stipulated to take 3 hours, we did it in 1 and 1/2 hour. Some pictures are available here http://www.globaltravelwriters.com/BulgariaTemplate.html.
Then we got a lift down to Bansko where we now are staying. Had to change hotel, since the first one we tried did not have warm water by the time we wanted a shower. After finally having been able to take a shower, we went out to see Bansko by night. In fact, there was a festival yesterday, with plenty of foreign artists playing. But on the downside, they all played only covers…like being on “Danskebaaten”.

What else, went to the railway station today to see the train passing by, and we waited and waited, no train. So we asked, because everyone started to move towards the bus station. “No train today, don’t know why, this is Bulgaria :-)”

Other things, the Bulgarians have very sexy music videos, PimpDiddy and all you others, just eat your heart out…

Yesteday we travelled to Melnik, officialy the smallest town in Bulgaria with a population of only 240. We tasted the local wines in wine cellars, and walked around, visitied another monistary and just chilled. We met the first person speaking fluent english, a girl, just 12 years old. She hijacked us at the bus stop, and offered us a nice room with breakfast included for only 15 leva, times four and you have that in Norwegian. Read more about Melnik here http://www.motoroads.com/city-bulgaria-melnik.html

This morning we left Melnik, heading for Sandanski and then bus to Thessaloniki. On the bus station in Sandanski we ran in to Carlos from Spain. He has now showed us the way to a cheap hostel, to cheap in fact, we want better quality 🙂

Tomorrow we will head for the beach, we need desperatly to get some tan!!!

At first, theres a hell of a lot mosquitos here in Bulgaria. Both me and Espen have got at least 40 bites. I hate mosquitos!!!

Another difficulty with travelling here in Bulgaria is that when a Bulgarian confirmes something, instead of nodding (?) his head like we Norwegians would do, he will shake it to confirm, and the opposite if saying no. So when I asked the bus driver yesterday if the bus went to Dupnitsa we almost missed it, since he shaked his head. Luckily he said “da, da” as well.

Now we are in a town called Blagovegrad. Not much to see here, but by far the most western stylish city so far. A lot of cafes, walking streets, and quite nice as well. But why the University is called the American University beats us, because not many speaks english…but we manage!