Part 20: Borovets

A few weeks ago, six of us made the short drive into the mountains to the ski resort town of Borovets.  Driving on the scary road with crazy drivers was all worth it when the road turned into a forest that was straight out of a Disney movie.  There were tall pine trees covered with snow.  They were so beautiful and put those short trees covering most Colorado slopes to shame. 

A. and I were staying at the big hotel in the center of “town.”  Borovets really isn’t a “town” in the traditional sense.  It has hotels, restaurants, and ski rental places.   However, it was really nice.  We rented skis and poles for 18 lev a piece.  That would be about $13.  They weren’t the best skis I’ve ever worn, but they got me down the mountain.  We then boarded the gondola and headed up the mountain.  The trees were still Disney-like and the red gondolas were really pretty against the snow. 

The ride was probably close to 30 minutes up to the top of the mountain, where it was windy and cold, but it was really nice.  The slopes that I went down were pretty good and not too crowded.  There was sort of poor signage, which led me astray as I was looking for a new run.  It said (or rather, pictorially indicated) that a chair lift was à.  It did not say how far à was.  It also did not tell me that it was flat as a pancake.  I figured that one out after I was too far to turn back.  It was awful.  Poling my way to the distant lift.  Then, after finally reaching the lift, I realized I was on the wrong side of the ski resort, so I had to figure out how to get back over.  The only option consisted of 2 extremes.  One black run and then some more pancake.  I made it down and over and headed back up for a few more runs before the lifts closed. 

That night, we ate at a Mexican restaurant.  It was a pretty good approximation of Mexican food.  Certainly the best I had in a long time.  We then went to a bar down the street that was smoke-free J  Finally, I could go out carcinogen free.  The DJ was good there as well.  We tried a couple of other places, but they were smoky and I was tired, so I went to the hotel and fell asleep.  The next day was foggy and gross, so I didn’t ski.  However, the hotel breakfast was huge and pretty good.  Since so many people from the UK go to Borovets to ski, we had a full English breakfast, complete with beans (which I didn’t actually eat since I think of beans as a lunch/dinner food). 

We then headed back to Sofia.  My shoulders hurt a lot from my cross-country experience, but other than that, it was a great weekend trip.