Ski / Snowboard trip to Borovets, Bulgaria

Deanne and I joined Laz's 2007 snow adventure to Borovets, Bulgaria, for some snow-fun. What we weren't banking on was the unusually warm weather the planet was experiencing, so the temperature was actually warm... but still we had snow (even if it was spring-snow)!



See my photos here and Deanne's photos here

The possie was 10-strong, with Laz, DK, Jason, Jimmy, Neil & Tamren, and Laz's two varsity friends (forgot their names now but will edit in when I get a new brain).

We headed out from Gatwick on Thrusday morning, arrived in Sofia (Bulgaria) and were wisked away to the mountains. As an aside... the taxi driver must have taken us through some of the worst areas that Sofia has to offer!!! The hotel Samakov is a great big (quite nice) hotel slap bang in the middle of the resort... less than 100m from the main gondela - so perfect (and it had an indoor pool!!).

Friday, we got suited and booted (and Skiie'd up) in the moring and then decided against going with the hotel ski-instructors and hired a guy called "Orgy"... The day was spent with a 3-hour lesson in the morning and then some lazy sitting around having a couple beers at the pub at the bottom of the main slope. I on the otherhand (because we didn't buy ski-passes), spent the rest of the afternoon walking up the main training slope and than skiing down, then uncliping, walking up, and skiing down, then unclipping, walking up....etc, etc, etc... Eventually after I was knackered the boys came back and I managed to drag Neil, DK and Jimmy up the slope to "practice". Neil had zero control (but a lot of balance!!) and instead of turning managed to point himself down the slope and rocket down... pretty impressive - if it was done on purpose! The rest manged to do some turns and everone had a couple of spills - some of which I caught on camera! Jason, Laz and the others were all on snowboards and carving up the top of the mountain.

The first days skiing over, it was time for beers, food and partying... I being completely "soft" called it a night fairly early but I am told that the others "hit-it-hard"... apparently although Bulgaria is cheap... it is still not cheap enough to be able to by every fine looking female in the bar a drink [or worse :) ]!

The next day, we binned Orgy and went for a ski-instructor from the hotel... far better! His name was "Constantine" and he "...normally teaches the Russians skiing...". He took us up the slopes to a trinaing slope at the top and after a couple training runs we were on the button-lifts and dominating the green-slope! The training was over just after lunch and Constantine had proven himself a winner! So Neil, DK and I joined with the other boys and hit a couple more serious slopes... we were masters! Well... besides Neil (at one point not being able to turn right on one of the slopes and almost skiing horizontally across 3 slopes :) (one had to be there.... Laz said he laughed so hard some pee came out!!). Then we hit the longest, fastest button lift I have EVER gone on... Neil managed to fall off somewhere luckily not to far from the top, so we spent a good 15 minutes just parking cheesy... waiting for the Pencils to walk up a mountain, in knee-deep snow in ski-boots... the boy wasn't happy when he finally managed to get to us and then fall over!

so ended another days skiing and it was back to the hotel, for food, drinks and a hard nights partying (with me pulling "soft" AGAIN!!!). The only thing I did do was go and buy a cool North Face soft-shell jacket.... wicked.... for like £27 (it's like over £150-or so in the UK) - turned out to be officially FAKE but made of the same materials etc... so a complete WIN!

The next day I binned the Ski's, kissed Deanne a goodbye-for the day and headed out with my baby (my snowboard) and went and carved up the slopes with Laz, Jason, DK, etc... It was good to be on my board again and I can now officially say that I prefer snowboarding!!! Although I would like to get better at Skiing...

A couple big stacks later, and after meeting up with Deanne, Neil and Tamren for late lunch, we headed down the slopes... the end of a far to short snow adventure for 2007 :( Next time a week is going to be a must and if I do go for a long weekend again... I will have to do another trip with a whole week as well...like during 2006!

So the day over, we decided to bin the hotel food and went out for some local dishes... Somehow we got dragged into a steak resturant, where we all had the most expensive steaks on the menu... even though there were some rumours of missing horses in the area... Not the best place to eat in hindsight... The night was young and the lads went out... We managed a fair showing before calling it at about 12 and heading off to club-duvet.

A 4am wake up and a 5pm taxi to the airport for a flight out was all it took to deposit us back onto the "Island". What hit us when we arrived was a very cold UK... probibly colder than it was in Bulgaria and me preparing to go and surf the Severn Bore...

REALLY NOT THAT KEEN, with temperatures around freezing, but more of that adventure that I couldn't pull "soft" on!!!