Thrace
After a wiz tour of Macedonia, we took a narrow-guage train through the moutains to Thrace. We were eager to move on from Macedonia after a disappointing trip to Bansko. Bansko is a small town surrounded by huge mountains, very similar to Aspen or Vail really. It is supposedly the hot weekend getaway for uppity Sofia-ites. We arrived friday night–perfect we thought–and picked a hotel that came with a travel-book warning of loud roucous parties in the courtyards below. Imagine our dissapointment as the afternoon wore on and the plazas remained abandoned and the restaurants empty or worse, closed. The whole town was eerily desolate. Though the incredible views made the stop well worth it, we were itching for a little more life and happily caught the first morning train out.
The train ride to Thrace was one of the highlights so far. It was five hours of unbelievable views as we slowly chugged through one moutain range and into another. Now were are in Plovdiv trying to figure out how to get across the border–neither our Bulgaria or Turkey travel books give advice on getting to/from the other unfortunately. Let me tell you, as great as Bulgarian food is, I am ready to replace the dry white bread of Eastern Europe with the soft pita of the Middle East. Hummus here I come!